Reading for pleasure is passe: These days nobody has time to spare for dead-end entertainment. Instead the reader is increasingly looking at material that enriches while it entertains.
Rajan Das, GM Crossword Bookstore, Bangalore, agrees. Non-fiction literature accounts for more than 55 per cent of the book sales here. “Customers come in asking for books concerning psychology, spirituality, management, yoga and science; and this is a trend that has been visible over the last few years.”
“Books like, ‘The Case of the Bonsai Manager’ by Gopalakrishnan, ‘The No Asshole rule’ by Robert I Sutton and ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne are travelling off the shelves quickly,” he adds. “‘Gödel, Escher, Bach’ (commonly known as GEB) which is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter is doing very well,” says Das. “This beautiful little book on philosophy and logic is very popular and is in constant demand.” 
T S Shanbhag, proprietor of Premier Book Shop, Bangalore, says that there is a good market for non-fiction books and adds that, “It has always been this way.”  Reasons for this, according to the veteran book dealer, are that even the general reader will find something of interest in the non-fiction section and that these books deal with relevant topics. “Some non-fiction writers doing well today are — Ramachandra Guha, Mark Tully, Sudhir Kakar, Kishore Biyani and Amartya Sen,” he says.
One of the reasons non-fiction is doing so well is the vast body of subjects that fall under this category. Customers are also on the look out for authenticity in their reading. Christy Bharath, senior executive with Mascon Global, Chennai, does not agree. “All non-fiction literature today is written with an eye on marketing with no importance given to prose or content. The last great work of non-fiction was ‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote,” he says (Incidentally ‘In Cold Blood’ is considered to be the originator of the non-fiction novel).
Others like Dr Rajan Balasubramanyam, feel differently. He has been reading nothing but non-fiction for the past 10 years. According to him, “Fiction has lost its relevance today. In the limited leisure time that one has, one would rather read something useful.” His areas of interest are cosmology and cosmobiology and his favourite non-fiction titles are ‘Code Name God’ by Mani Bhaumik, ‘Ideas and Opinions’ by Albert Einstien and ‘48 Laws of Power’ by Robert Greene.
Aparna Dinesh, an educator, also reads non-fiction in her spare time and says, “When I was younger, things were different, there was time for fiction. Now I would rather read books relevant to my profession.”
“One other thing is non-fiction titles are available in much more simple language today, case in point— ‘Mohandas; A True Story of a Man, his People and an Empire’ by Rajmohan Gandhi. This is a book I would never have bought earlier but the language and the content is so simple and well presented that it makes for great reading,” says Aparna.
Anu Kannan, software engineer, begs to differ. “Non-fiction books might be getting more popular, but by the end of the day, it’s too heavy duty... Books on comedy or a Harry Potter are just perfect after a hard day’s work when one wishes to unwind.
Setting aside Potter mania during the month of July, if book sales are anything to go by— truth is ‘stronger’ than fiction it seems.
This is a belated but welcome trend. Reading non-fiction has always been popular in the West. In the 18th and 19th century Europe, when the society was in tranformation, great works were born. Today India, one of the most interesting and diverse countries, is in transformation. This is a great opportunity for writers, filmmakers and artistes to capture the churning.
Ramchandra  Guha
author of recently-published ‘India After Gandhi’