Do you remember that book you opened at Christmas 20 years ago?Most likely Bryce Courtenay’s Matthew Flinders’ catthe story of an unlikely friendship between a homeless ex-lawyer and a young skateboarder who bond over a story about an explorer and his boat cat.
For the first time, Nielsen BookData has released data on the best-selling Christmas books of the past 20 years. It’s an interesting snapshot of our changing interests and obsessions as a nation of avid readers. Key themes include Indigenous authors, entertaining reads and food. Think Bryce Courtenay and Liane Moriarty, Diary of a Wimpy Kid – six top charts – along with Jamie Oliver and Recipe TinEats recent local bestselling author Nagi Maebashi.
The late Bryce Courtenay dominated Australian book sales for many years.Credit:Sahran Hayes
Courtney dominated five of her first six years on record, with Moriarty No. 1 in 2021 apple never falls. An adaptation of the novel will be released next year, which is the fourth time she has jumped from one page to another. JK Rowling also read: her book The Tale of Beedle the Bard It was number one in 2008. Generally, non-fiction has dominated over fiction in recent years.
Only one political proposal has succeeded in the past 20 years, and it’s not Australian: paradise Barack Obama’s books are 2020’s bestsellers. This week Niki Savva tells the full story of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, bulldozerRanked fourth in the top 10 bestsellers.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of Australian authors in this Christmas’s top 10, half of which include barefoot investor Financial guru Scott Pape, grand slam ace Ashbati, outback film noir expert jane harper And funny man Anh Do.More broadly, this week’s top 50 titles include 25 local authors, including prolific peter fitsimmons and the much-loved blues Franchise.
Topping the list this week — indeed setting a record for a debut writer — is Nagi Maehashi dinnersold 17,870 copies; it has dominated the charts since its October release, spending seven of eight weeks at No. 1 in the nonfiction category.
Nagi Maehashi (aka RecipeTin Eats) with her mother.
In second place is Pape’s new album barefoot child, which sold 14,130 copies during the week of December 4-10. in the first week, barefoot child Over 128,600 copies were sold, making it the best week for an Australian-created print sale since Nielsen BookScan’s Australian record began.
Self-published American author and BookTok phenomenon Colleen Hooper continues her bestseller run at No. 5 on the current Australian bestseller list.she has impressive four titles New York Times fiction bestseller list.
