The start of a new year always brings about a time of reflection and optimism. It is usually when people set reading goals but with the stress of the past couple of years, it is no surprise that more and more people are advocating to not set goals at all but rather to enjoy books without guilt. My agreement with this trending regarding our mindset around reading led me to wonder: what other reading trends will we see this year? I took a look at some of last year’s trends to help me answer this curiosity!

One thing that is clear is that social media will continue to affect book sales, or at least book interest. In Scribd’s Year in Review for 2021, they noted that books that were popular on #BookTok (a.k.a TikTok videos about books) were also popular on their platform. This is no surprise to me, as someone who has screamed about books on various social media platforms for years, but I think it is still fascinating to see. I do not think the popularity of BookTok will disappear any time soon, but I hope to see a variety of books getting more popular this year. While I love romance and am excited to see its popularity online, I am hoping that more underrated authors will get their limelight soon as the books that are popular are written by New York Times best-selling authors and while those books are great, I always love to see new authors being discovered. Some of my favourite reads that are also BookTok favourites include The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston.

Audiobooks were also more popular than ever, as the word was searched over 500% more in 2021 than in 2019, and an average Scribd user spent 42 hours listening to them in 2021. It is no surprise that audiobooks continue to be popular, as they are the perfect thing to listen to while multi-tasking (such as while doing housework or commuting). While I myself fall in and out of love with audiobooks often, I know plenty of people who swear by them as a way to get more reading done, especially as it is so easy to borrow audiobooks through library services like OverDrive and Hoopla. When audiobooks are involved, the age-old question of whether they count as real reading always arises which I think is a preposterous way to downplay the real benefits of audiobooks, not to mention the way that the question dismisses the real (and much older!) tradition of oral storytelling. I hope that with the increase of audiobook listeners, we see the decrease of those who try to claim that audiobook listeners are not truly reading.

Looking at the genres that were popular in 2021, I am so hoping that these genres will continue to be popular. According to Penguin Random House, they saw an increase of 54% of romance book sales. In addition, comics and graphic novels had 113% increase and the company also sold over 20 million volumes of manga, which is more than double of any previous year on record. As a long proclaimed geeky bookworm with a love of comics, manga, AND romance, this is again no surprise to me! Finally, we are seeing readers embrace the slightly less conventional and be open about those interests. When we think of reading, or imagine someone who says their hobby is reading, we typically imagine a studious pupil learning about history or great works of art. While that is an impressive and amazing feat, I am really enjoying the fact that people are embracing the more fun side of reading and that reading is becoming something that can be seen as enjoyable, rather than something that is seen as academic or studious.

In terms of other notable trends, Penguin Random House also saw the popularity of works by Black and Asian authors, as readers continued to want to educate themselves and read more about the world around them. This trend shows that while books can be enjoyable and meaningful, they also continue to be a vital source of accessible education. Some popular books that were noticed as a result of this trend include Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (a heart-wrenching memoir that definitely made me think) and Hell of a Book by Jason Mott, the 2021 winner of the National Book Award. This trend is likely to continue as more readers are excited to read from viewpoints similar or different to theirs. Reading has always been linked to empathy and we are likely to see this continue as more people read to understand what is going on in the world.

Looking at these trends is fun, and I think that we will continue to see similar popularity in the year ahead! As these trends align with my usual reading, I thought it would be fun to think of a different reading goal for 2022 or something that may not be as trendy. For me, my main reading goal is to tackle some of my backlist books (i.e. books from the past few years instead of shiny new releases). I have lots of books from the past few years on a mental reading list and I always think “I can’t wait to read that!” … and then I have yet to read them, a problem that I’m sure many of us can relate to. That said, I am hoping to tackle some of these unread books like Swing Time by Zadie Smith and Odd One Out by Nic Stone. If you’re looking for a fun reading challenge, I also recommend you check out VPL’s own Reading Challenge! There’s no mandatory reading list and each month has a different prompt to get you reading! The prompts are all super interesting and you will definitely be able to get some amazing recommendations for all the prompts.

That said, I would love to hear your opinion! Are you surprised by the 2021 reading trends? Do you have a specific goal for your reading in 2022? Let us know in the comments below!