Misty Harris
CanWest News Service
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
In this, the month of resolutions, Canadians wanting to turn a new page might find the best - and most literal - place to start is with a book.
According to a new Ipsos Reid survey, which was commissioned by CanWest News Service and Global Television, nearly a third of adults (31 per cent) across the country didn't read a single book for pleasure in all of 2007. The discouraging figure puts Canadians four points behind the U.S., where an identical poll last August showed 27 per cent of Americans hadn't picked up a book in the previous 12 months.
The good news is that the 69 per cent of Canadians who were reading in 2007 did so voraciously, with the average person in that group having dug into 20 books over the course of the year. The same number was true for Americans who had read at least one title in the previous 12 months.
Though year over year sales can't be calculated until final holiday numbers are released by booksellers, a spokeswoman for industry giant Indigo Books says early indications are nothing to frown about.
"The general sense, in a survey of our buying team, is that readership in the Canadian market is remaining steady," says Janet Eger, who notes that on Dec. 22 - their biggest selling day of the year - the company's collective locations saw an average 570 customers per minute.
Regionally, west coasters were Canada's most avid readers in 2007: among those who had read at least one book, the average B.C. dweller devoured an average 33 titles. Atlantic Canada followed at 22, Ontario at 19, Alberta at 18, Quebec at 16 and Manitoba/Saskatchewan at 15 books.
Far more uniform were the titles that attracted Canadians, with a handful of clear winners topping BookNet Canada's annual industry sales charts.
"(The Year) 2007 combined the perpetual quest for self-improvement with Harry's last hurrah," says BookNet CEO Michael Tamblyn.
"Summer was dominated by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as J.K. Rowling drew the curtain on the world's most famous wizard."
"At the same time, there was the incredible success of books that focused on either spiritual or physical well-being: The Secret (by Rhonda Byrne), You: Staying Young (by Michael F. Roizen), The Best Life Diet (Bob Greene), and Eat, Pray, Love (Elizabeth Gilbert)."
Byrne's The Secret, which was the top-selling book in Canada in 2007 (based on BNC SalesData, which does not include online sales), may have been the year's biggest surprise.
"It seems like every four years or so, a self-help book appears out of nowhere and flies off the shelf," says Tamblyn. "The Secret was this year's Chicken Soup for the Soul or Celestine Prophecy; just as surprising, just as successful."
According to the Ipsos Reid survey, fiction was the most popular genre among Canadians last year, attracting 56 per cent of those who had read at least one book. Mysteries and thrillers followed at 56 per cent, and non-fiction history books at 46 per cent.
The 1,001-person survey, conducted between Dec. 11 and Dec. 13, 2007, is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
