The pie charts illustrate the proportion of five reading materials sold by a bookseller in the 40-year period.
Overall, the figure for those buying adult and children’s fiction increased throughout the period, while there was a gradual decline for biography and other readers. However, the number of people purchase travel books fluctuated over the period.
In 1972, the adult fiction buyers were a fifth of the total selling. This number witnessed a rise by 5% in 1992, and jumped to 45% in 2012, making it the most selling book of the year. This trend was followed by children’s fiction. It began at a fifth then stedily increased to 22%, after this culminating at 25% betweeen 1972 and 2012.
The purchase of biography showed a drammatic decline in the given period. It started at 20% in 1972, which fall to 15% in 1992 before plummeting at 8% in 2012. The similar trend can be seen for other books consumers, with 25% in the beginning and dropped to 12% in the end of the year. The only category which fluctuated across the years was travelling books between 15% and 10%.