TIL that fewer people have read any single book than I assumed

Came across a stat on a library forum that most fiction titles sell under 500 copies in their first year, which made me rethink how popular 'popular' really is. I dug through the Bowker data link someone posted and it tracks with what I see at the sale table, same 50 books recycle through every season. Anyone else ever stumble on a number that changed how you pick your next read?

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spencer_bell22d ago

Sales numbers only tell you what people buy, not what they read. Plenty of folks check out the same library book ten times and never crack it open, and the guy who buys one used paperback at a yard sale might read it five times. Those Bowker numbers count copies sold, not lives changed.

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