Sally Rooney among decade's best selling Irish authors

BOOK retailer Eason has revealed that fiction is the nation’s favourite genre of the last decade as reading continues to thrive despite the dominance of social media.

Over 700 recently polled customers voted ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue as their choice for Irish Fiction Book of the Decade, reinforcing the female-led suspense story as a favourite trend of the last 10 years.

Although the last decade began with uncertainty over the viability of printed books and high-street book stores, Eason data shows that book lovers continue to enjoy physical books as a form of entertainment.

Irish writers in both fiction and non-fiction categories continue to dominate sales, with the ‘Oh My God What a Complete Aisling’ series by Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen, ‘Normal People’ by Mayo author Sally Rooney, ‘Children of the Rising’ by Joe Duffy and ‘The Batttle’ by Paul O’ Connell’ amongst some of the best-selling books of the decade at Eason.

Erotic fiction made a surprise appearance as a mainstream trend in the last decade, with the 50 Shades trilogy by EL James topping best-seller lists with Eason and globally.

The emergence of book club culutre has also contributed to the growing popularity of books in culture, a trend that looks set to continue into 2020 and beyond.

Commenting on the trends, Eason Group Head of Marketing Brendan Corbett said: “Reading trends and preferences are constantly evolving and 2020 looks to see growing trends in uplifting fiction, and health and wellness non-fiction reads. We are looking forward to seeing new trends emerge in the next 10 years.”