When a book goes viral it's everwhere on the tube. Last summer there was a point when I couldn't move my face from one persons armpit to another without seeing the bright orange cover of One Day. But on a day to day basis, how close can the reading habits of a concentrated batch of people reflect the bestseller list? Tube Tracker is my social experiment to find out.
[The criteria i'm using is anything I recognise as a frontlist title or something that might be responding to media attention creating a new surge in sales.]
September Update
As another month goes by you can probably guess what series of books are continuing to dominate the charts. Fifty Shades. Back in the April Tracker, when the books were first published, I commented that perhaps these books were not the sort of thing we British would read behind closed doors. How wrong could I be. It in fact appears that we were gagging for a bit of erotica to read on the morning commute.
So for the last five months Fifty Shades seemed to be everywhere I looked, and I've kind of lost track of how many I've seen. But I think it's in the region of:
Ok, so that's an exaggeration but I definitely feel like that's how many I've seen. The combined sales of all three books is now well over 12 million and still continues to claim the top three spots. For now there seems to be no end to slightly self-conscious women glancing about the carriage before taking a copy out of their bag. It's a sight I think everyone is growing a little tired of, however I would be very interested in seeing a man reading it.
Therefore,
Fireplace Book Competition!
If anyone sends a genuine picture of a guy reading Fifty Shades by E L James to me on twitter (@neensaunders) then I will send them a free book from my Fireplace:
We like to take advantage of all available book storage space in our household... Anyway, I'd love to get some pictures, or even a confession of a guy reading Fifty Shades, if not It'll just underline why erotica is now being labelled 'Female Fiction' by some.
Come on people, who doesn't love a free book?
April Update
Latest update on Tube Tracker is, of course, completely monopolised by the Hunger Games Series. With the major publicity surrounding the film it really is no surprise to see it in the hands of many a commuter. What is surprising however, is the lack of visibility of readers of the Fifty Shades series. Considering its absolutely epic sales recently I have seen just one loan lady reading the first book. Given its content is this just another case of 'no sex please we're British'? Maybe it's just not something to be read behind closed tube doors.
 |
May Update
A good mix of titles spotted this month, with Before I Go To Sleep continuing to do well. Game of Thrones makes a returning hello in light of the upcoming second TV series and Hunger Games continues to creep up the charts - it will be interesting to see where it ends up by next month.
