The pie graphs illustrate the proportion of different genres of books which a bookseller sold from 1972 to 2012, at twenty-year intervals. Overall, the percentages of adult fiction and children’s fiction witnessed an upward trend over the period, while the opposite was true for biography, travel, and others. Additionally, the adult fiction genre experienced the most significant growth throughout.
Regarding increasing categories, fiction books for adults occupied 20% at the beginning of the surveyed time, and then moderately increased in the following twenty years to 25% before surging to nearly a half by the end to become the most popular genre sold by the bookseller. Furthermore, the figure for children’s fiction also rose but to a lesser extent, starting at the same proportion of 20%, followed by 22% in 1992 and ending with 25% in 2012.
Concerning the remaining kinds of books, travel books were sold the least in 1972 at 15%, however, there was a slight increase of 3% creating its peak of 18% in 1992 before dropping to 10% at the end of the period. Although biography books accounted for one-fifth in 1972, the figure for this genre recorded a plunge over the years, making it to be the lowest in 2012 at 8%. Finally, unspecified books contributed the largest share of 25% in the first year, and then gradually declined to 20% and 12% in 1992 and 2012, respectively.