I see that I’m not the only person who gets fascinated by The Guardian’s regular table of bestselling (or fastselling) books across the year. Grumpy Old Bookman has a good analysis to read alongside The Guardian’s own.
What does it tell us about the state of British book publishing in the UK? Well first and foremost, it tells us the power of Richard and Judy with numbers one and two amongst many others featuring in the list. What’s interesting is that people are buying these books without even necessarily watching the Richard and Judy programme on which the titles feature. Of course, I’ve never even seen one of their book programmes, but have bought titles that have featured. The difference is that I’ve not bought them because they featured, but for other reasons. Indeed, as I’ve said before, I find a cover with a Richard and Judy sticker, slightly more embarrassing that reading a porn magazine in a church would be. Nonetheless, there’s evidently a safety net that the Richard and Judy “marque” offers prospective readers.
Casting my eye down the list, I notice that I’ve only read one title (nearly three years ago now), and own a second that I’ve yet to read – The Historian. I quite fancy reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian, but there’s always something else to buy in its place. And I will probably pick up Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? at some point as I own the other three (yes – three) titles in the series.
Otherwise, I can only say that it explains an awful lot about the limited lists of titles commonly available in supermarkets. Although given how much supermarkets are getting in on the bookselling act, I wonder how much they’re actually being shaped by supermarket book buyers.