Rakuten Kobo is the global number two player in the e-reader space, next to the Amazon Kindle. Millions of people buy e-books on their Kobo and read them daily. Do you ever wonder what the vast majority of Canadians are reading on their Kobo? The company has just issued its annual 2024 Book Report.
Family Day (February 19) was Canada’s most-read day this year. This high point led to a surprising spring slump for our e-book enthusiasts as Canadians took advantage of the end of winter. However, our audiobook aficionados stayed consistent throughout the year, listening to the equivalent of over 8,732 years in 2024.
Leaning into Learning
Canadians turned to digital reading this year to educate themselves on timely topics, resulting in a six percent increase in non-fiction reading compared to 2023. While celebrity memoirs took centre stage last year, this year, Canadians looked to the past and the future with history and self-help books like The Art Thief by Michael Finkel and Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy.
Novel Inspirations
As with last year, page-to-screen adaptations continued to attract new readers, with some of the year’s biggest on-screen hits drawing inspiration from the page. After Shōgun dominated the awards circuit, the hit show’s fans couldn’t get enough – leading the 1975 novel by A.L. Sadler that it was based on to see a 1281 percent increase in readership. The Idea of You by Robinne Lee and Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty also saw readers flock to their source material in droves this year with increases of 892 per cent and 497 per cent respectively, while Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us stayed steady as the most read page-to-screen adaptation.
#BookTok and the Maas Effect
Thanks to a boost from #BookTok, Romantasy reigned supreme in 2024 – with Sarah J. Maas holding court with six titles on the top 20 bestselling eBooks of the year and four of the year’s top 10 bestselling fiction books. Whether you’re team Rhysand or Tamlin, we can all agree that that’s an achievement worthy of Feyre’s heart!
Canada’s top 10 bestselling eBooks of 2024
- The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
- The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore
- Babel by R.F. Kuang
- House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
- Traitors Gate by Jeffrey Archer
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
- Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
- A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
Canada’s top 10 bestselling audiobooks of 2024
- The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
- The Women by Kristin Hannah
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
- The Highland Girls at War by Helen Yendall
- The Manor House by Gilly Macmillan
- Her Secret War by Pam Lecky
- The Yacht by Sarah Goodwin
- The Traitors by C. A. Lynch
- The Complete Poppy War Trilogy by R.F. Kuang
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
