Crime beats romance in book reading habits

Crime and action seem to have become more popular in Britain than romance — but only when it comes to the country’s book reading habits.

Yes, library lending figures in the UK have revealed that readers have lost their affection for love stories over the decade and now prefer action packed thrillers and gritty crime novels, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The shift in reading tastes has emerged from the latest release of figures from Public Lending Right, the government body that pays royalties to authors, which found that despite the turmoil surrounding the British library system, popularity of crime books remains remarkably robust.

Overall borrowing figures for the year 2010/11 was 300 million loans down from 309 million the year before — and from more than 370 million on the previous decade.
Back in 2000, “The Thursday Friend” by Catherine Cookson was the most popular book in our libraries but by 2010 it was “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown.

In all there were six romance based novels in the chart and just one crime in 2000 but by then end of the decade the chart was dominated by thrillers and crime novels, especially those from America.

With over two million loans, prolific American writer James Patterson is the UK’s Most Borrowed Author for the fifth year running. Crime writer Ian Rankin is the only UK-resident author in the Top 10.

Another feature of the growing trend is that among the top 10 most borrowed authors are now five children’s writers.

Author Dame Jacqueline Wilson said: “I think it is wonderful news that children’s books are so popular. If you encourage children to read when they are little then they will grow up to be avid readers.”