The pie charts compare the proportions of purchases of five book genres: adult fiction, children’s fiction, travel, biography, and others, by a bookseller from 1972 to 2012.
Overall, the sales of adult and children’s fiction showed a steady increase, while other figures had an opposite trend during the period shown. Noticeably, the most significant change can be seen in adult fiction, which became the most popular genre by the end of the period.
In 1972, adult fiction and children’s fiction each occupied one-fifth of the total sales. In the next 20 years, the figure for adult fiction slightly increased to 25%, before undergoing a twofold increase and claiming the first rank in terms of sales contribution in 2002. Similarly, children’s fiction purchases grew marginally, reaching 25% after 40 years.
Regarding biography books, their sales declined noticeably from 20% to 8% during the period. A similar trend can be witnessed in the “others” category, of which the figure started at 25% before falling by half in 2012. Additionally, the forty-year period exhibiting an increase from 15% to 18% in the first 20 years, before witnessing a fall by 8% by the end of the span.