In total, £28m was spent on physical books during the seven days to 30th July, down 2.7% (£0.8m) week-on-week, and down 11.7% (£3.7m) year-on-year. Seven paperback non-fiction books, led by Pierre Dukan’s The Dukan Diet and Bill Bryson’s At Home, sold more than 10,000 copies at UK booksellers last week, a feat achieved by just three books, led by Frankie Boyle’s My Shit Life so Far, in the same week last year.

Part of the reason for the decline is the fact Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol (Corgi) sold in high numbers in the comparative week last year (141,000 copies), but even stripping out this unique high-seller would see sales of paperback novels down 20% year-on-year last week.Ĭomparatively, sales of non-fiction and children's books through the Top 5,000 chart were slightly ahead of 2010. Overall sales of paperback novels, however, fell sharply in comparison to last year, with sales through Nielsen BookScan's Top 5,000 bestseller list down 25%. Official UK Top 50 débuts are also scored by Nicholas Evans' The Brave (Sphere), a member of W H Smith's '£2.99 if you buy the Times' link-save promotion Paige Toon's Baby Be Mine (Simon & Schuster), which benefitted from a spot in a half-price 'great read guaranteed' promotion at the same retailer and Elizabeth Speller's The Return of Captain John Emmett (Virago)-the latest Richard and Judy Book Club 'Review Title'. Paul Christopher's The Templar Cross (Penguin), the second book in his Templar series, débuts as the highest new entry in 23rd place.

Last week's number one, Dawn French's A Tiny Bit Marvellous (Penguin) falls one place to second spot, while Kathy Reichs' Spider Bones (Arrow) holds firm in third position. Only Penguin has scored more, notching up nine so far this year. The mass-market novel sold 37,523 copies in its first full week in bookshops and earns publisher Transworld its eighth Official UK Top 50 number one of the year. Sophie Kinsella’s sixth Shopaholic instalment, Mini Shopaholic (Black Swan), was comfortably the bestselling book in the UK last week, earning the novelist her ninth Official UK Top 50 number one.

Little shopaholic