The official top 50 book chart for the festive season is always interesting to look at, mostly because it’s one of the few weeks that the chart isn’t decided by readers. All year the chart reflects the books that readers are buying, and therefore some of the best recommendations, but over the festive period the chart tends to number the books bought for readers as Christmas gifts.
Buying books for someone else is always notoriously difficult, and over the years celebrity biographies have always topped the charts. However, all that has changed with a new trend as for the last two years we’ve seen parody books at the top of the Christmas chart.
Gone are the biographies of the rich and famous, the ghost written novels by celebrities and even the cookbooks, as since Ladybird launched their version of parody books, topping the chart last year, the market is dominated!
This year three Parody books made it into the top ten, just one cookery book, and the only ‘celebrity’ book is astronaut Tim Peake’s Hello, Is This Planet Earth. Here’s the top ten official UK charts as we tip into 2017!
Five on a Brexit Island – Bruno Vincent
Making the second year a parody book is top of the charts is Five on a Brexit Island, one of a series of Famous Five Parody Books released this year. Another in the series also made the top 10.
Guinness World Records
The Midnight Gang – David Walliams
The GCHQ Puzzle Book
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them – J. K Rowling
Hell, Is This Planet Earth – Tim Peake
How it Works: The Grandparent – Jason Hazeley
Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook
Five Give up the Booze – Bruno Vincent
Lean in 15 – Joe Wicks
Did you get any of these Christmas? I found Fantastic Beasts under the tree, and my daughters bought the How it Works: The Dad book for their father.
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