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Sat 11 Nov 2009Irish readers choose miserable current affairs over 'misery lit'
CULTURE SHOCK:ON RTÉ RADIO One’s Saturday Viewlast week, the chief book buyer for Eason pointed to a rather startling fact. Of the top 20 bestselling books in the UK that week, just one – The Guinness Book of Records– was non-fiction, writes FINTAN O’TOOLE
Meanwhile, of the top 20 bestselling books in Ireland, 10 were non-fiction. This suggests two interesting things. One is that the Irish book market is becoming increasingly distinct from the British market. The other is that the most striking feature of the division is that serious books about politics and economics have an audience here.
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