Good food, good habits, and great fiction—bestsellers for January
The official bestseller charts are out, with figures from Nielsen BookData
It looks like it’s going to be a year of good food, good habits, and great fiction, if the best-seller charts are anything to go by.
Colleen Hoover still reigns supreme as Booktok Queen with four books in the top ten, despite (or perhaps because of) her recent controversy. The ill-received proposal for a colouring book based on a story about domestic abuse led to backlash earlier this year and yet the two top spots remain hers for the explosive It Ends With Us and the more recently released It Starts With Us.
As is to be expected, sales generally have decreased from December, with the lowest sales in the top ten fiction chart in December coming in at 4,959, vs the lowest in January charts being 1,612. But the substantial sales of Joseph O’Connor and Sam Blake in the top ten fiction and top ten overall shows that we still love our home-grown Irish writers and stories.
Predictably with all her Oscars buzz, we see Claire Keegan taking two top spots, with Foster and Small Things Like These. Meanwhile, Graham Norton’s hugely popular Forever Home dropped from the the number one spot to number 10 between December and January.
The nonfiction chart is dominated by Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, his jaw-dropping volume hitting 29,614 in Ireland alone in the month of January, streets ahead of the other nonfiction titles.
For context, the bestselling Christmas nonfiction title was the Guinness World Record book, selling a comparative 16,124. However, nonfiction in general had a good month, with easy, but healthy cookbooks like Gill Books and Nathan Anthony’s Bored of Lunch rocketing up the charts as we all attempt to get our diets back on track after the December indulgences.
Mental health is on our minds too, with many of us searching for ways to be kinder to ourselves, improve our lives and looking to cultivate a future self that is more aligned with our goals. Atomic habits, Manifest and Good Vibes, Good Life: How Self-Love Is the Key to Unlocking Your Great are getting the nation reading up on living their best lives in December 2023.
There wasn’t huge movement in children’s reads between January and December, with the usual suspects, Bunny vs Monkey, Cat Kid Comics and Diary of a Wimpy Kid making the top 3 spots. Booktok’s Holly Jackson makes an appearance with A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder which has been a steady presence for several months now. Myles Dungans’ stunningly illustrated The Great Irish History Book holds its place in the top ten from December, one of the few Irish books present in the chart.
Overall, it’s a healthy start to 2023 for the book market, with Irish writing getting its moment in the spotlight both in Hollywood and on Irish bookshelves around the country.
