Per capita, it seems. But that probably includes the bible and lots of self-help garbage.
Per capita, according to these:
It looks like the 12 vs 17 might have gotten flipped around in a few publications that cite that study, but that still puts the US very high on the list of avg # books read annually (per capita).
Mystery/thriller/crime is by far the most common type of book read in the US. Followed by History. Religion/spirituality/self help is down in the middle of the pack (20%)
I don’t have a bookstore here any longer. I have had to order from bookshop.org for any paper books I want to get.
I have now typed the word “book” too many times and it looks weird.
To my read … that’s a pretty expansive take on victimhood.
To each his own.
Thanks for all the cites.
Of course what matters for book sales isn’t book reading, but book buying. And book sales are what matter for book stores. Well, that and margins.
Yes, our town lost its Barnes and Noble many years ago (it’s now a Korean supermarket). But a new, much smaller, bookstore recently opened not far away.
A new small indie bookstore opened recently in my town. There’s used book store a few miles south of me, and another bookstore in the next town over. On the other hand, a used book outlet I used to patronize closed a couple of years ago.
I still buy on Amazon, almost all Kindle books, occasionally use the library, happily visit the new bookstore (got to pick up my latest order today), and check Better World Books online for used books. My TBR pile looks like taking another 20 years to get through (if I don’t buy any more), but oh, well.
I think there’s a huge difference between chains, large chains, and large oligopolistic chains. The grocery business has any number of national and local chains, even though Walmart is by far the leader. But it only has 21%, so there is no oligopoly in that sector.
Borders and Barnes & Noble, the smaller Books-a-Million, and Walden Books in every mall, had larger selections and more favorable locations with easy access free parking. They functioned as an oligopoly until Amazon came along. Another huge problem was that 50% of the market for books goes to bestsellers. Walmart skimmed off that market with huge unmatchable discounts, even before Amazon got involved. The triple tap killed the co-operative culture of independent bookstores. Some survived, although not one in my county. Some new ones took their places, by none of the new ones around here are full-spectrum in the old sense. They specialize in niches: children’s, black, gay, feminist, romance, protest, or new+used. Children’s bookstores keep popping up: a good sign for the future. But the individual knowledge of local stores has been superseded by gigantic social media cultures, like BookTok. People embrace enthusiastic and superknowledgeable fans rather than outsiders who can’t specialize in everything.
No idea what the equivalence is in Germany. Cultures are local.
I buy very few books.
Almost all of my reading material I get from the local library.
I did buy two books from bookstores this year - one in Seattle and one in Winchester, Virginia.
Did you buy many books from them yourself, or just use the place as a “hangout pass time” for browsing.
Some numbers:
Since 2012 the number of bookstores in the US has been decreasing from 16,819 stores to 10,800 as of 2020. …
In 2021, the bookstore industry sat at $9.5 billion, an amount that had been decreasing at a 5.7% rate every year, on average, since 2016. …
There were 59,547 people employed in bookstores as of 2020 in the US. Between the years 2018 and 2020 the number of people employed in bookstores decreased on average by 11.4%. …
Independent bookstores had 2023 locations in the US as of 2022. This number peaked in 2019 with independent bookstores having 1,887 bookstores and 2,524 locations. This number decreased again in 2020 to 1,700 stores and 2,100 locations, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Independent bookstores had 1,401 bookstores in 1,651 locations in 2009. …
[> source - slightly format edited, and not reflecting the past 4 years. It copies from uncited sources so mentions charts that are not present]
There’s other sources on bookshops and public libraries per capita showing the US well down the global list. However, the data are very inconsistent with adjacent European, South American and Asian countries all scoring high, but their immediate neighbours don’t necessarily come close. To me that reflects both social reading culture and governmental policy in favour of the arts, education and social service.
I just now tried to look up any statistics on the number of bookstores in the U.S. over the past several decades. It appears that around 1990 the number started to drop. However, around 2000 the number began increasing again. Interestingly, the new ones established since 2000 tend to be independent bookstores, not chain bookstores.
It wasnt Amazon. First, online shopping has indeed killed some marginal businesses. But Americans are reading less- (well books anyway)
Yep. In the San Jose area, Recycle bookstore is doing well and even opened a branch store. Out here, B&N is doing great, and we went into Marshalls and they had a whole rack of really nice books for gift giving, including classics and best sellers. Thrift stores always have lots of books.
Right.
The whole first floor is mostly filled with Harvard U. merch… tee shirts, sweatshirts, etc. Hardly a book in sight.
There’s an excellent used bookstore in Brattleboro. A bit of a hike, but it makes a nice day trip. There’s also a good used record store and a couple of consignment shops worth visiting.
In San Jose, I’ve been going to Recycle Books since the late 70s. I would head over on my lunch hour once a week or so to pick up a sci-fi paperback or two. The main store has moved but it’s still an easy walk and I go over every so often to check the shelves for history/music/travel books before I resort to buying online. My coolest “find” has been a copy of “Names On The Land” with this inscription: “To Dad - from Katie and Ed Dec 25, 1946”.
This is not supported by facts.
First, Amazon controls the market for books.
Global Amazon Book Sales Statistics
1*. 50% of all print books** sold in the US are from Amazon. (source)
71% of readers bought a book from Amazon last year. (source)
Amazon holds a 60-70% dominant market share in book sales, with 1.4 million self-published titles in 2018. (source)
Amazon Kindle has a 72% share of the e-reader market, with 33.7% of users spending 60-90 minutes daily reading on a Kindle and 5.3% spending less than 10 minutes. (source)
Amazon controls up to 80% of book distribution in the US. (source)
Second, it’s true that fewer Americans are reading. But that’s not the same thing as saying that fewer books are sold. Apparently, those who do read are buying more books, at least enough to cancel most of that decline. Statista is behind a paywall but I found another source for the image.
Anecdotally, one encouraging trend I’ve noted is that when I’ve flown recently, there are a fair number of younger passengers (as an old fogy, anyone under 40 is “young”) that are reading a physical book and their number seems to be trending upward.