The pie charts illustrate five kinds of books sold by one bookseller over the four decades between 1972 and 2012.
In general, it is clear that the shares of adult fiction book sales became dominant from the beginning of the period to the end. Interestingly, the proportion of children’s fiction sales fluctuated slightly but remained relatively stable.
Upon a detailed look, in 1972, adult fiction sales increased by 5% by 1992, while sales in the ‘others’ category decreased by the same amount, and biography book sales also decreased by 5 percent from 1972 to 1992. However, the bookseller sold 3% more travel books compared to the initial (18%), and the share of children’s fiction sales differed just 2% between the two years.
Coming to the year of 2012, adult fiction became the dominant category, accounting for 45% of the bookseller’s total sales, and children’s fiction books were also the second most purchased type following the dominant category. The rest of the book sales percentages varied by two percent: 12% for others, 10% for travel and eight percent for biography; however, biography books were rarely bought during this period.