The reading habits in 2021

Bookster, the first platform to bring books closer to people, has reached a new milestone in 2021, with 106,000 enrolled users, from 1,012 companies in Romania.

As in 2020, the most sought-after book in 2021 was “The Silent Patient,” a psychological thriller by author Alex Michaelides. This is followed by Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” and “Rich dad, poor dad” by Robert T. Kiyosaki. Among the newly added titles on the platform, the following ones were the most frequently searched for:

• “When the body says no” by Gabor Mate;
• “The maidens” by Alex Michaelides;
• “Magic hour” by Kristin Hannah;
• “The horse dancer ” by Jojo Moyes;
• “The comfort book” by Matt Haig.

Andreea Săvulescu, Gaspar Gyorgy, Irina Binder, Alexandru Mitru, Dr. Mihaela Bilic, and Domnica Petrovai are among the most read Romanian authors on the Bookster website. The following were their most popular titles:

• „Ziua în care m-am iubit cu adevărat”;
• „Mindfulness urban”;
• „Străinul de lângă mine”;
• „Legendele Olimpului”;
• „Copilul invizibil”.

“We are pleased to note that reading continues to be one of our community’s most important habits in 2021. Our goal is to support all those who love books and wish to improve their personal and professional outlook through reading, so we aim to collaborate with even more libraries in Romania in 2022 and to further diversify the titles available for loan through Bookster,” says Teodora Rădulescu, CEO of Bookster.

In the previous year, the most visited categories were those regarding personal development, particularly understanding one’s emotions, as in 2020. The topic of relationships has also replaced parenting books in the top preferences list of the readers. In the fiction category, the most accessed fields remain romance and mystery, along with historical fiction – a new interest among subscribers.

For the little ones, in 2021, parents chose “The Adventures of Dunno and His Friends” by Nikolai Nosov and the “Warrior Cats” series by Erin Hunter. The most popular author in this category is still the Swede Sven Nordqvist, author and illustrator of children’s books and creator of the characters Findus and Pettson.

When it came to short readings and articles, the two most popular categories were biographies and travel, with a focus on hiking.

Looking at reading habits overall in 2021, they have become more uniform: whereas in previous years there were differences between favourite subjects depending on the industry in which the readers were active, this suffered a change. One notable exception was the increased interest in professional development among those in the tourism industry and hospitality.