The pie charts illustrate how the proportion of five kinds of books – adult fiction, children’s fiction,biography,travel and others sold by a bookseller changed in the years 1972 and 2012.
Overall, adult and children’s fiction showed the rising trends, with the figure for the former type experiencing a dramatic rise and that for the latter increasing steadily while the percentage of biography, travel and other books decreased over the period shown.
Looking at the categories that increased first, the figure of adult fiction books rose sharply, starting at 20% in 1972, the figure continued to increase to 25% in 1992 and peaked at 45% in the final year. The proportion of children’s fiction increased steadily from 1972 to 2012, reaching from 20% to 25%.
When it comes to biography, travel and other books, their figures decreased over the period. The proportion of travel books saw a decrease from 15% to 10% over four decades despite a slight increase with 18%. According to the biography books, their percentage started at 20% in 1972, a figure that then decreased to 15% in 1992, then it dropped noticeably to 8% in the final year. The proportion of other books didn’t change with 25% in the years 1972 and 1992, but their figure decreased sharply to 12% in the following two decades.