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2018 Rakuten Kobo Book Report: The Stories that Kept Canadians Turning Pages

December 12, 2018

TORONTO, Dec. 12th – With the last chapter of the year upon us, the annual Rakuten Kobo Book Report once again reveals insightful eReading trends from the past year and which stories enthralled booklovers most.

2018 stats about readers

  • Canadians read on the road, with the busiest reading time being during the morning and evening commute, as well into the evening hour.
  • Sunday is the day where most of the reading (magic) happens. Our theory: it’s the best way to beat the Sunday blues, by relaxing and enjoying your favourite book.
  • Globally, Canadians are our most active readers, having read on average 73 hours this year, with some of our top customers reading eight hours a day - it’s a full time job!

Canada’s top ten bestselling titles this year

2018 was a particularly rich year for book to film adaptations. Crazy Rich Asians raked in $139.8 million at the box office, making it the biggest-romantic comedy since The Proposal back in 2009. A.J. Finn tops the list with The Woman in the Window as the best seller of 2018, and is another example of how books and film intersect to bring great stories to life; this novel, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, is being adapted for the big screen, with a theatrical release on October 4, 2019.

In addition, seven out of Rakuten Kobo’s 10 best selling eBooks this year are rumoured to be adapted for the big screen.

Listen up! 10 best selling audiobooks for 2018

What we know about audiobooks is that people often read different genres than they listen to, and that usually ends up being non-fiction, which makes self-help and motivational audiobooks among our top sellers. As you can see, Canadians are interested in learning how to loosen up, or as Mark Manson would say, learning to not give a F*ck.

Top 10 most read books – that is, the books that actually were finished

As every booklover knows, buying is one thing, but actually finishing the books you buy is a whole other story. We may have towers of books on our bedside table, or, in our world, lists of books in our Kobo libraries, but here are the books Canadians actually read. This list is based on the most completed books from the top 100 bestselling Canadian titles.

You know how it is when you fall in love with a great story – you just can’t put the book down!

2018 was a great year for books, we highly recommend you check out some of these out at www.kobo.com.

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About Rakuten Kobo Inc.

Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo Inc. is one of the world’s most innovative eReading services offering more than 6 million eBooks and audiobooks to millions of customers in 190 countries. Believing that consumers should have the freedom to read any book on any device, Kobo provides people with a choice when reading. Kobo offers an eReader for everyone with a wide variety of E Ink eReaders to suit any Reader’s style including the Kobo Clara HD, Kobo Aura, Kobo Aura H2O, Kobo Aura ONE and Kobo Forma; along with the company’s free top-ranking eReading and audiobook listening app for iOS® and Android®. Kobo’s award-winning eReaders can be found in major retail chains around the world. For more information, visit www.kobo.com.

Media Contact
Sinead McElhinney
Rakuten Kobo Inc.
Manager, Public Relations
416 977 8737 ext.3382
[email protected]


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