You Are What You Read

The Telegraph today reveals what British Library users are reading, and it seems crime novels and thrillers are more popular than ever:

The fiction titles list is also a microcosm of changing appetites, as the “Aga sagas” of 10 years ago give way to gruesome crime novels and global thrillers. The Dan Brown phenomenon drove The Da Vinci Code to No. 1 on the 2006 list, followed by an oasis in the form of Maeve Binchy’s Nights of Rain and Stars.

Brown makes a second appearance at No. 3, with Digital Fortress, followed by a Cornwell, two Pattersons and a Grisham.

When it comes to non-fiction, the paper reports that

Britain has become a nation of self-obsessed, yo-yo dieters who dream of transforming their lives in only seven days with the help of a hypnotist, according to a survey of the reading public. Public library statistics show that it has taken only 10 years for improving titles such as Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time to be overtaken by television spin-offs and diet compendiums.

Books such as You Are What You Eat, by Gillian McKeith, the strident TV nutritionist, and the hypnotist Paul McKenna’s Change Your Life in Seven Days, now top the non-fiction list.”

You can read the full Telegraph piece here.