IN BRIEF Top 10 South Africa


The Rainbow Nation’s bestseller lists are a change of pace, with dictionaries and driving manuals mixed in with political exposés


Text Kiera O’Brien 3


Bestseller Lists South Africa Top 10


1


Hitting top gear


of the charts


The South African book chart is consist- ently topped by either learner driver manuals or schoolbooks, and 2019 to date has proved no different—The Official Bestselling K53 Learner’s and Driver’s Manual easily swiped the number one, with 35,308 copies sold to October. It crushed rival The Official K53 Learner’s and Driver’s Made Easy, which charted 16th.


Myburgh’s Ace exposé subject of book burnings


political exposé


South Africa’s chaotic political climate offers the investigative journalist community (almost) more material than the US White House—with Pieter- Louis Myburgh’s Gangster State, outlining politician Ace Magashule’s ties to the powerful Gupta family, proving so controversial that it was destroyed in mass book-burning events by Magashule’s fans. This intense response didn’t dampen its sales, however, with 33,463 copies sold to claim third place. A similar effect saw Jacques Pauw’s The President’s Keepers, which revealed the extent of Jacob Zuma’s corruption, sell out at bookshops after the govern- ment attempted to ban it. Zuma resigned months later.


5


The Oxford Tweetalige Skoolwoordeboek


was the second-highest Children’s Dictionaries title to chart in the top 10, with 28,342 copies sold. Titles in the category registered 184,890 unit sales in the territory in 2018.


8


Stalwart Handbook and Study Guide hits top 10


Beryl Lutrin’s The English Handbook and Study Guide charted eighth, with 13,986 copies sold, while the author’s The Afrikaans Handbook and Study Guide landed just outside the top 10, settling for 12th place. South Africa has 11 official languages, with English only the fourth most commonly used—but it is considered the official language of commerce and government.


6 Michelle memoir endures


A key chapter of Michelle Obama’s memoir reflects on her meeting with Nelson Mandela, and the Rainbow Nation has returned the favour by buying Becoming in droves.


9


Wilbur the King once again with new hardback


Veteran novelist Wilbur Smith is already the king of kings in his native South Africa, with more than 400,000 books sold on his home turf, but it’s also the title of his new Cairo-set bestseller. The sequel to The Triumph of the Sun sold 13,784 books to chart in ninth place. Smith still packs a punch in the UK—he’s shifted more than five million books since 1998—with King of Kings a bestseller in hardback format, hitting the Original Fiction number one spot in the spring.


16 17th October 2019 year’s This


Top


2


The Oxford South African School


Dictionary is a perennial bestseller in South Africa, and the title charted in second place for the year to date—it is one of three schoolbooks to feature in the top 10.


4 Subtle yet powerful


Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’s to-the-point style has attracted readers across the globe. It’s also been a audio download chart stalwart in the UK.


7


Five alive: Sharma’s early riser climbs the charts


Life coach Robin Sharma’s The 5AM Club does what it says on the tin. It’s a self-help-slash- business guide to the magic a person unlocks when they get up at 5 a.m. every day—precisely the kind of thinking that pervades the Frankfurt Book Fair. In the more slothish UK, book buyers were more likely to opt for Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep, but South Africans embraced the pre- sunrise alarm, with 20,172 copies sold good enough for it to claim seventh overall.


10


Word play for valuable dictionary editions


The Oxford Mini School Dictionary scored 10th place, selling 12,795 copies. The Children’s Dictionaries sub-category has contributed 35% of the Children’s Non-Fiction category’s sales so far this year in the Rainbow Nation. The kids’ non-fiction category alone makes up nearly 7% of the entire territory’s volume for the year to date, with School Textbooks & Study Guides accounting for a further 9.3%.


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