From opening up a whole world of knowledge to reducing our levels of stress, the benefits of reading are virtually endless. While we have known this for a long time, it seems the pandemic has truly re-opened our eyes to the magic of reading as book sales skyrocketed in 2020.
In fact, more than 200 million print books were sold in the UK last year — the first time since 2012 that number has been exceeded, according to official book sales monitor Nielsen BookScan.
Despite bookshops being closed for a good part of the year as a result of the pandemic, Nielsen has estimated that the volume of print books sold grew by 5.2 percent compared with 2019, with more than 202 million books being sold in the UK last year.
According to the Bookseller’s magazine, the year’s bestselling title was Charlie Mackesy’s uplifting The Boy, the Molde, the Fox and the Horse, with Richard Osman’s cozy crime thriller The Thursday Murder Club coming in second place, and the cookbook Pinch of Nom – Everyday Light in third.
Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker winner, Girl, Woman, Other, Barack Obama’s memoir A Promised Land, and Delia Owens’ novel Where the Crawdads Sing also made the Top 10, with Guinness World Records in 10th place.
“So many people have turned to books for sustenance, information, and joy through this difficult year – our Top 10 for the year reflects this,” said Kate Skipper from Waterstones, a British book retailer. “Our shops were obviously mandated to shut for significant chunks of the year, but when we were able to safely open readers were eager to browse again and discover new books,” she added.
