Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin J. DiAngelo
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel by Celeste Ng
American Dirt: A Novel by Jeanine Cummins
The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir by John R. Bolton
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
The Most Read Books of 2020
Seven of the top ten most read books of 2020 were from a certain wizarding series, so those were removed from this data, compiled by looking at Kindle and Audible data. It’s especially interesting how many of these are not 2020 releases (and likewise, Michelle Obama’s memoir makes this list but Barack’s does not!).
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Becoming by Michelle Obama
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by Gregg Olsen
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neal
The Top Anti-Racism Books in 2020
Though none of these titles made the “most read” list, these were the most purchased anti-racism books in 2020. It’s unsurprising to see the anti-racism book by a white woman top the list.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin J. DiAngelo
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Here’s an awesome statistic: almost 65% of the top audiobooks category — which means readers listened to the audiobook more than they read the Kindle edition — were fantasy books. Omitting that one series again, here are the top audiobooks purchased and listened to this year. You will no doubt notice how white and male it is.
Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive, Book 3) by Brandon Sanderson
The Stand by Stephen King
The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, Book 1) by Brandon Sanderson
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, Book 2) by Brandon Sanderson
Dune by Frank Herbert
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) by George R. R Martin
The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection by C.S. Lewis
The Most Sold Celebrity/Public Figure Memoirs of 2020
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir by John R. Bolton
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Disloyal: A Memoir by Michael Cohen
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Open Book by Jessica Simpson
A mix of frontlist reads and backlist reads across all of these categories showcase that not all readers are only reading the latest and greatest.
