Kobo report shows we’re reading even more ebooks with Prince Harry topping the bestseller list

Kobo has released its annual book report which shows Australians are reading even more ebooks – cumulatively in 2023 the reading time equated to 1430 years – that’s up by 119 years from 2022, with Prince Harry’s autobiography Spare among the most popular titles we read and listened to.

And it wasn’t just reading we loved – we also loved listening to books – we spent a total time of 66.8 years doing that.

That’s a 27 per cent increase thanks to the Kobo Plus subscription services including audiobooks.

The Kobo Book Report outlines Australian reading habits including the most popular books, audiobooks, genres, times we like to read and the most popular reading month.

The most popular genre was romance followed by biography/autobiography, mystery and business and economics.

And would you believe we’re a nation of night owl readers with 11pm being the most popular reading time.

In NSW and Victoria the magic hour is 9pm, 10pm in SA and Queensland with Western Australia up the latest at 11pm engrossed in their books.

And it was celebrities and royalty that got us turning pages and listening including Prince Harry’s Spare, Matthew McConaughy’s Greenlights and Britney Spears’ tell-all The Woman In Me.

“In troubled times, when people are feeling uncertain, they turn enthusiastically to reading. We’ve seen groundbreaking new releases and outstanding page-to-screen adaptations take the world by storm,” said Michael Tamblyn, CEO, Rakuten Kobo.

“We are delighted to note that our Australian readers are reading more and more often – everything from travel, self-help to mystery.”

The two big films of 2023 – Barbie and Oppenheimer – also motivated readers to explore the characters and subjects even more.

Books about Barbie increased 13 per cent while ebook purchases about Robert Oppenheimer or the atomic bomb increasing by a staggering 638 per cent.

TikTok proved to be a huge influence on Australian reading choices with authors Sarah J Maas, Jennifer L Armentrout and Coleen Hoover among the main authors readers were bingeing.

The Kobo Plus all-you-can-read eBook subscription for $13.99 a month has been available since 2021 and the service was expanded to include audiobooks so you can read and listen for $16.99 per month.

“With Australians out of the house and on the move, we’re excited to expand the Kobo Plus subscription offering to include audiobooks so Kobo users can fit reading into more places and more moments throughout their day,” said Bart Robers, Director, Audiobook and Subscription, Rakuten Kobo.

“We know life is busy, but there is always time for reading. Whether you’re cleaning the house, catching the bus to the or even curled up at home on your back deck over the summer,” says Michael Tamblyn, CEO of Rakuten Kobo.

Australia’s bestselling books of 2023:

Top 10 ebooks:

1. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
2. Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, Lucinda Riley
3. Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros
4. Spare, Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex
5. Yellowface, Rebecca F Kuang
6. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
7. It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover
8. The Bookbinder of Jericho, Pip Williams
9. Verity, Colleen Hoover
10. The Last Devil To Die, Richard Osman

Top 10 audiobooks:

1. Spare, Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex
2. Atomic Habits, James Clear
3. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
4. Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey
5. Did I Ever Tell You This? Sam Neill
6. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
7. The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk
8. The Bookbinder of Jericho, Pip Williams
9. The Last Devil To Die, Richard Osman
10. Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry