2023 books of the year by Amazon

12 Dec 2023

Amazon today reveals the bestselling and most read books of the year. Prince Harry’s autobiography, Spare, released to the world in January, has taken the top spot in Amazon’s ‘Most Sold’ list. Harry’s autobiography isn’t the only big name making the best-sellers list this year, with The Woman in Me by Britney Spears making the top ten, and Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry sitting just outside the top twenty.

Conscious Eating

The nation’s obsession with cooking and food trends continues apace with Nathan Anthony boasting two books in the top five with Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Slow Cooker Book and Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Air Fryer Book. The kitchen gadget of choice in 2023 has clearly influenced cook books this year, with a further four air fryer related titles amongst this year’s best-selling. Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken, The Glucose Goddess Method by Jessie Inchauspé and the latest books in the Pinch of Nom series by Kate Allinson make the top twenty best-selling books of the year.

Lessons in Chemistry pips Cosy Crime

Bonnie Garmus’s much-loved debut Lessons in Chemistry has taken the top spot for best-selling fiction just beating perennial best-sellers from Richard Osman and Colleen Hoover, who have two books apiece in the top twenty, with Osman’s The Last Devil To Die and The Bullet That Missed and Hoover’s It Ends With Us and Verity. Amazon’s Best Book of the Year, Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang also makes the top 50 best-sellers of 2023.

The Harrys have it

The two most famous Harrys in the world dominate Amazon’s Most Read list, with Prince Harry’s Spare and the Harry Potter series claiming the top ten spots. J.K. Rowling also features with two novels from her Cormoran Strike crime fiction series making the top twenty, under her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith.

Lessons in Chemistry follows the perennially popular Harry Potter series, appearing at number nine on the Most Read list. With four books in our top twenty, Richard Osman also dominates the list, with the first book in his cosy crime series The Thursday Murder Club in tenth spot. Barbara Kingsolver’s modern reimagining of Dickens’ David Copperfield, Demon Copperhead, makes the top twenty for the second year in a row, along with a return from J R R Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.

The bestselling books are always an interesting reflection of the year, and 2023 has given us an extremely eclectic mix. Whether people are looking for escapism through cosy crime, or rejoicing in how a remarkable woman takes on the world of science, or continuing to engage in conscious eating trends, our bestseller charts this year have it all. And that range was also reflected in our ‘Best Books of the Year’ list where, for the first time, we chose an overall winner in the shape of the sublimely talented Rebecca F. Kuang for Yellowface.
– Lisa de Meyer, UK Books Country Manager, Amazon UK

Amazon has also revealed its own ‘Best Books of the Year’ shortlist curated by its editorial team, headed by Rebecca F. Kuang’s Yellowface and also featuring The List by Yomi Adegoke, Weyward by Emilia Hart and The Fraud by Zadie Smith..

This Year in Books by Amazon

The Amazon Books ‘Most Sold’ list ranks books according to the number of copies sold and pre-ordered (in print and ebook), while Amazon’s ‘Most Read’ list ranks titles by the average number of daily Kindle readers and Audible listeners.