The pie charts provide information about the proportion of five kind of books sold from 1972 to 2012. Overall, while the sales adult and children’s fiction books saw an upward trend, the opposite was true for the other remaining categories. Adult fiction exhibited the biggest share among all.
Focusing on increases first, the percentage of sales of adult fictional books rose over a 40-year period. Starting at 20% in 1972, a consumption of fictional stories for adults rose marginally by 5% in 1992, which was followed by a much considerable growth, 45% by 2002. The sales of children’s fiction, whereas, also increased, going up from 20% to 25% between 1972 and 2012.
In contrast, decline in the consumption of biographical books was significant. The sales percentage started at 20% in the 1972, a figure that then fell by 5% in 1992, and decreased further to 8%, sharing the smallest proportion among all categories. Travel books, similarly, underwent a downward trend in sales, falling from 15% to 10% between 1972 and 2012, despite a slight increase by 3% in 1992. The percentage of other types of books sold by a bookseller was the highest in 1972, 25%. However, it experienced a gradual decline to 12% by the final year.