Children's books and tales of political intrigue proved popular in Canberra last year, when a national rise in book sales was recorded.The genre which best combines nostalgic adults and children, comics,also enjoyed a boost in the capital.
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Books for children led the year's national growth, with the 8.1 per cent rise in units sold easily outpacing the 2.3 per cent overall growth in book sales, according to Nielsen Bookscan data.
Dymocks national buying manager Sophie Higgins said the company sold 8 million of the 55.4 million books sold in Australia last year, with Canberrans' interest in politics shining through in top 10 sales.
"There was strong growth particularly in the children's category across the board for Dymocks [last year]," Ms Higgins said.
"The ACT followed this trend but did particularly well, for obvious reasons, with political and related subjects including titles like Best Australian Political Cartoons 2014 and Spy Catchers (The History of ASIO) in the ACT's top 10, but not in the national top 10.
"Similarly, the satirical thriller novel Mandarin Code from political insiders [journalists Steve Lewis and Chris Uhlmann] was in the fiction top 10 for the ACT but not the national fiction top 10."
Canberrans also took a liking to intriguing numbers, with Adam Spencer's Big Book of Numbers - fourth on Dymocks' national non-fiction sales list - topping the list in the ACT.
Parents favoured Fault in Our Stars, the 52-Storey Treehouse and the latest in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Long Haul, for their children. The same three books led Dymocks' national list.
Impact Comics manager Mal Briggs said his Garema Place store increased sales by about 10 per cent last year, its 10th anniversary of operation.
"That increase was across all age groups, but was slightly biased towards the mature content, with The Walking Dead and Saga dominating sales," Mr Briggs said.
Video games and digital releases of comics plus the mass of comic book-sourced Hollywood superhero movies had encouraged new readers, he said.
Nielsen figures showed children's books made up 31 per cent of all sales nationally last year. Non-fiction reads accounted for 44 per cent and fiction 24 per cent.
Correction: an earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed Ms Higgins's comments to a public relations officer.
