Who is popular today?

If you’re wondering what that gift-wrapped but book-shaped present under the Christmas tree might be – spoiler alert! Ireland’s bestselling book this Christmas is Guinness World Records 2022, with 5,516 sales last week, pipping Claire Keegan’s acclaimed novella, Small Things Like These by just over 100 copies, with Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958 fewer than 50 sales behind in third place.
Aisling and the City by Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen also sold more than 5,000 copies last week, with Irish rugby international Keith Earls’ autobiography, Fight or Flight: My Life, just behind in fifth place.
The bestselling book of 2021, however, for the second year in a row, by a margin of more than 10,000 sales, is The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy, which sold 52,699 copies in 2021 up to last Saturday, according to Nielsen BookScan, which compiles the publishing industry’s official charts. The beautifully illustrated book of uplifting life lessons imparted via Charlie’s conversations with his animal friends has proven a worldwide hit. Last year the title, first published in October 20019, sold 67,926 copies here.
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney, probably the most anticipated book the year after the huge success of her previous novel, Normal People, and its TV adaptation, came second with 39,837 sales, ahead of the Aisling and the City, the latest in the phenomenally successful series.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig came next, just ahead of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, another title from 2019 whose popularity shows no signs of abating. That hardy perennial, Guinness World Records, was sixth, followed by Big Shot by Jeff Kinney, the 16th and latest in his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series for children. The bestselling Irish nonfiction title came next, Your One Wild and Precious Life: An Inspiring Guide to Becoming Your Best Self At Any Age by Maureen Gaffney, achieving a remarkable 24,962 sales, pipping Richard Osman’s two cosy crime thrillers, The Thursday Murder Club and its successor The Man Who Died Twice.
There was a definite trend for titles promoting self-improvement or survival mechanisms in the second half of the Top 20, led by Mind Full: Unwreck your head, De-stress your life by Dermot Whelan (13th); Good Vibes, Good Life: How Self-Love Is the Key to Unlocking Your Greatness (16th); Awaken Your Power Within:Let Go of Fear. Discover Your Infinite Potential by Gerry Hussey (17th); and Atomic Habits by James Clear (18th).
Other notable successes include A Hug for You by David King (14th) and Old Ireland in Colour 2 by John Breslin and Sarah-Anne Buckley (15th). Last year’s besrtseller Old Ireland in Colour was 40th, the two titles between them racking up 33,000 sales.
Memoirs are an ever popular genre. Keith Earls dominated the scrum with 18,000 sales (21st); followed by Fintan O’Toole (25th); Ray Goggins’ Ranger 22:Lessons From the Front (32nd); Billy Connolly’s Windswept & Interesting (34th); Seamas O’Reilly’s Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? (36th); Beyond the Tape by Marie Cassidy (41st); Sinead O’Connors Rememberings (44th); while Gary Murphy’s Haughey (63rd) has sold over 10,000 copies in its first month on sale.
56 Days, Catherine Ryan Howard’s lockdown thriller, was the bestselling Irish crime title (29th), followed by Jo Spain for The Perfect Lie (47th). Other bestselling Irish fiction writers were Paul Howard with Normal Sheeple, the latest Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (24th); Claire Keegan (26th); Marian Keyes for Grown Ups (27th); Sheila O’Flanagan for Three Weddings and a Proposal (38th); Cathy Kelly for Other Women (42nd); Newcomer of the Year Louise Nealon for Snowflake (45th); Cecelia Ahern for Freckles (46th); and Maggie O’Farrell for Hamnet (49th). Donal Skehan’s Everydayh Cook (48th) was the most popular cookery book.
Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape (53rd) and Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers and Other Irish Words for Nature (72nd), both by Manchán Magan, sold over 20,000 copies between them.
Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club is Britain’s bestselling book of 2021, ahead of Charlie Mackesy and Matt Haig, with The Man Who Died Twice fift behind the cookbook Pinch of Nom.
Maggie O’Farrell’s Hanet was 10th, one plac e ahead of Marian Keyes’ Grown Ups. Sally Rooney’s third noves was 32nd,