10 Book Facts That Every Book Lover Should Be Aware Of

Here’s a round-up of book surveys that every book lover should sneak a peek into-

1) Men & women readers stick to authors of their own sex.

Sex and Reading: A Look at Who’s Reading Whom, a survey by Amazon owned Goodreads brought forth some interesting stats –

  • 90% of the 50 most-read books by men were written by men.
  • Only 5 of the 50 most-read titles by women were written by men.
  • Women read 2x as many books published in 2014 as men.

Reading & Sex

2) Self publishing is booming.

And women writers are leading the pack. In a survey by FicShelf which analyzed 227 bestselling self-published titles( a mix of fiction and non-fiction) across the top self-publishing platforms Blurb, Wattpad, CreateSpace and Smashwords, found that 67% of top-ranking titles were written by women.

FicShelf also found that

men are more likely to receive recognition for their work … with preconceived notions of a ‘literary canon’ and curated lists of top titles still dominated by male writers”. Male authors account for 80% of titles in the Telegraph’s “100 Novels Everyone Should Read”, 85% of the Guardian’s “100 Greatest Novels of all Time”, and 70% of the Telegraph’s “The Best Books of 2014.

 

Don’t miss this one:

Jodi Picoult recently complained that her works are relegated to “chick-lit” even if they have depth, while male romance novelists like Nicholas Sparks get Hollywood deals for works that would be considered “airport fiction” if written by a woman. Source

3) Length of the novel matters?

The Goldfinch that won Donna Tart the Pulitzer has kind of scared the British readers. The 800 pages long bildungsroman was the 37th bestselling ebook of the year for Kobo. However, it was completed by just 44.4% of Kobo’s British readers. The e-book retailer speculated that it “likely proved daunting for some due to the length of the novel”.
The book survey also found a huge divide between bestsellers and the books readers actually complete.

You’ll be surprised to know that according to the survey, the most completed book of 2014 in the UK was Casey Kelleher’s self-published thriller Rotten to the Core, which by the way doesn’t feature anywhere on the bestseller list.

Kobo’s UK Bestseller list 2014 

  1. One Cold Night – Katia Lief
  2. Gone Again – Doug Johnstone
  3. Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
  4. The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
  5. My Sister’s Keeper – Bill Benners
  6. The Husband’s Secret – Liane Moriarty
  7. The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith
  8. Her Last Letter – Nancy C. Johnson
  9. Twelve Years a Slave – Solomon Northup
  10. Bloody Valentine – James Patterson

Kobo’s most completed books of 2014

  1. Rotten to the Core – Casey Kelleher
  2. The Tycoon’s Vacation – Melody Anne
  3. The Traitor – Kimberley Chambers
  4. Concealed in Death – JD Robb
  5. Wrongful Death – Lynda La Plante
  6. All Revved Up – Sylvia Day
  7. Present Danger – Stella Rimington
  8. The Empty Cradle – Rosie Goodwin
  9. The Witness – Nora Roberts
  10. The Promise (Fallen Star Series, Book 4) – Jessica Sorensen

4) 50 books every child should read by 16.

A survey of 2,000 readers by Sainsbury’s to celebrate World Book Day finds that Roald Dahl is still the king of children literature. Also, 6 in 10 parents read those stories to their kids that they heard from their parents while growing up. 

Charlie and the chocolate factory Here’re the 50 books that every child should read by 16:

  1. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
    2. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
    3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
    4. Winnie The Pooh – AA Milne
    5. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
    6. James and The Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
    7. The BFG – Roald Dahl
    8. A Bear Called Paddington – Michael Bond
    9. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
    10. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain. Read the full list here

5) Bible – the world’s most influential book.

The YouGov poll asked people to rank books according to their significance in today’s world. They were given a list of 30 books prepared by the Folio Society. The 10 books voted most valuable to humanity-

  1. The Bible (37%)
  2. The Origin of Species (35%)
  3. A Brief History of Time (17%)
  4. Relativity (15%)
  5. Nineteen-Eighty-Four (14%)
  6. Principia Mathematica (12%)
  7.  To Kill a Mockingbird (10%)
  8. The Qur’an (9%)
  9. The Wealth of Nations (7%)
  10. The Double Helix (6%)

6) Millenials read more books than older generation.

88% of Americans under 30 read a book in 2013, compared with 79% of those age 30 and older – according to Pew Research’s survey of more than 6,000 Americans of 16 and over. Another interesting fact that the study found out was –

Millennials’ lives are full of technology, but they are more likely than their elders to say that important information is not available on the internet.

Read the full details of the survey here.

 7) 16 to 24-year-olds prefer traditional books over ebooks.

According to a study by Voxburner in the later half of 2013 which questioned 16-24 year olds, 62% prefer print books to ebooks. Some of the comments about preferring physical books included “I collect”, “I like the smell”, and “I want full bookshelves”.

8) Who’s reading—and how: A demographic portrait.

reading and demographics

This data was published in 2013 ( a bit old but gives the readers a deep insight into the reading habits of America).

9) 63% of men barely read.

In a survey conducted by OnePoll which questioned 2,000 British men and women, found that 63% of men admit they don’t read as much as they should be. 1 in 5 men admitted that they have pretended to have read a particular title in order to look more intelligent. And what’s more? Almost 30% of men admit that they haven’t really picked up a book since they left school.

10) Most popular genre of digital books in 2014 was romance.

The most opened e-books in 2014 were romance titles, followed by mind, body, and spirit, and business, according to the data by Scribd. Romance leads the pack when it comes to the list for the most completed books, followed by fictions and kids and YA.

book survey

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