Book Trends

 Romantasy
   I don't have much to say about this, but it does indicate that people are reading books. It is also the case that you are likely to appreciate any diversion from the "breaking news."  

   Among my emails this morning was one from The Guardian which contained this news and that picture:
  "Who would have thought that of all the fiction genres available to readers, it would be “dragon smut” that could fly off shelves like nothing else? Last week, Rebecca Yarros’s novel Onyx Storm, the third instalment in her series about horny dragon riders, broke her own record for the fastest-selling science fiction and fantasy title in the UK since records began 25 years ago. 155,141 hardback copies – and thousands more ebooks – were sold in its first week on sale."    

  After reading that email and probably because of it, I then noticed this article, which, coming from a paper on this side of the pond, means that this is probably not fake news. Here it is: "Rebecca Yarros’s ‘Onyx Storm’ Is the Fastest-Selling Adult Novel in 20 Years: The book, the third in a series, has sold 2.7 million copies in its first week, and provided yet another example of the romantasy genre’s staying power," Alexandra Alter, The New York Times, Jan. 30, 2025. Apparently, "Print sales alone well exceeded a million copies in the novel’s first week, making “Onyx Storm” the fastest-selling adult title since BookScan began tracking print sales around 20 years ago."
   Not only that, Ms. Yarrow was able to attract a crowd of around 1,700 to come and see her on a January night in St. Paul, Minnesota. I suppose this is sort-of breaking news which is also amazing news.

Here is a bit more to indicate that all of this is rather amazing, if not quite as amazing as Harry Potter:

   "Yarros currently holds the first three spots on The New York Times’s hardcover best-seller list, a rare feat for an adult fiction series. On Thursday, the series also occupied the first three spots on Amazon’s “most sold” fiction list.

   The success of “Onyx Storm” also shows that romantasy, which blends spicy sex scenes and romance tropes with supernatural elements, is not a fleeting trend. Last year, the genre accounted for some 30 million print sales, a rise of 50 percent over the previous year, according to Circana." (from the NYT article.)

The Bonus: 
   The London Public Library System has 23 copies, but there are 172 people waiting to get one.