24 Jan, 2022
2022-1-24 11:16:11 AM UTC
Book sales continued to climb last year despite lockdowns, with more than 212m print books sold in 2021 – the highest figure of the last decade.
Driven by booming appetites for crime novels, sci-fi, fantasy, romance and personal development titles, sales last year showed an increase of 5% on 2020. The sales were worth £1.82bn – a 3% increase on 2020, and the first year on record that sales have topped £1.8bn. The figures were released on Tuesday by Nielsen BookScan, which was forced to fill in lockdown data gaps with estimates based on its monthly consumer surveys, which collect data from around 3,000 book buyers each month. Bookshops across the UK were shut for over three months at the start of 2021.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022 ... -2021-highest-in-a-decade
24 Jan, 2022
2022-1-24 11:33:58 AM UTC
That is excellent news. Great to see. I use Twitter for book info from other readers and obviously to keep upto date with some Tolkien academics and like minded people and I've noticed more and more people coming to talk about books. And also an increase in debut authors, especially ones who have been trying to break through for many years. I hope it continues to grow. There are lots of gifted writers who are almost unknown to the general public yet are offering some exceptional titles.
24 Jan, 2022
2022-1-24 3:01:16 PM UTC
Driven mostly by sales of
The Nature of Middle-earth, I bet!
24 Jan, 2022
2022-1-24 6:40:10 PM UTC
"Book sales continued to climb last year despite lockdowns, with more than 212m print books sold in 2021 – the highest figure of the last decade."
I'm sure lockdowns are a major reason (if not the only reason) for the increase. Much time, nothing to do, plus getting a delivery from on an online seller is a treat when you are stuck at home. A physical book would be a nice change from looking at a screen for entertainment.
24 Jan, 2022
2022-1-24 6:53:31 PM UTC
Stu wrote:
"Book sales continued to climb last year despite lockdowns, with more than 212m print books sold in 2021 – the highest figure of the last decade."
I'm sure lockdowns are a major reason (if not the only reason) for the increase. Much time, nothing to do, plus getting a delivery from on an online seller is a treat when you are stuck at home. A physical book would be a nice change from looking at a screen for entertainment.
It will defitinitely be the biggest factor. Hopefully those people have found something they can continue with. Even if its just a few books a year that people read at bedtime, that is much better for them than staring at a phone screen.
25 Jan, 2022
2022-1-25 3:30:03 AM UTC
onthetrail wrote:
Stu wrote:
"Book sales continued to climb last year despite lockdowns, with more than 212m print books sold in 2021 – the highest figure of the last decade."
I'm sure lockdowns are a major reason (if not the only reason) for the increase. Much time, nothing to do, plus getting a delivery from on an online seller is a treat when you are stuck at home. A physical book would be a nice change from looking at a screen for entertainment.
It will defitinitely be the biggest factor. Hopefully those people have found something they can continue with. Even if its just a few books a year that people read at bedtime, that is much better for them than staring at a phone screen.
That is an interesting word choice on the part of the Guardian. Perhaps they are coming from the standpoint of loss of income for many people due to lockdowns didn't lead to lower print book sales. Which is of course a weak argument for the reasons y'all stated above.
25 Jan, 2022
2022-1-25 5:59:46 AM UTC
I read the operative phrase there as "continued to climb" with the mention of lockdowns alluding to the inability of shoppers to buy their books in shops. That is, one should have expected a slight dip, with in-person shopping impossible. It would seem online purchases simply increased.
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