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It was all change in the Weekly E-Book Ranking, with five new titles entering the chart and a further five returning to the top 20. Yuval Noah Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century was the highest new entry, in the same week that it débuted in the print charts, shifting just over 8,300 hardbacks. In charting sixth, 21 Lessons... claims the second-best first-week position for a non-fiction title since the Weekly E-Book Ranking began two and a half years ago. The best début week for a non-fiction book? That would be the fifth place that Amanda Hamilton and Hannah Ebelthite’s The G Plan Diet (Octopus) bagged in October 2017.
Harari becomes the only author to appear in the ranking with three separate non-fiction titles. Joe Wicks has had two (Lean in 15 and Lean in 15: The Shape Plan); no other author has more than one. Where Harari differs from the bulk of non-fiction authors in “e” is longevity. Most non-fiction titles last a week or two in the ranking. Wicks’ pair spent three weeks in the top 20. But Harari’s trio of titles have notched up 19 weeks.
Adam Kay (pictured) shares Harari’s durability. The junior doctor-turned-comedian and author returns to the top of the ranking in the same seven-day period in which he earned his first overall print number one. It has been a remarkable run for This is Going to Hurt: this is its 34th consecutive week in the ranking, its 19th on the trot in the top 10, and its fourth pole position in the past five weeks.
Two literary titles make their bows: Pat Barker’s neglected-by-the-Booker The Silence of the Girls and Khaled Hosseini’s Sea Prayer, a short novella with illustrations by Dan Williams. Hosseini is one of three Bloomsbury titles in the ranking, which equals the publisher’s record for the number of titles in the top 20 in a single week (it has had three on two previous occasions). Hosseini joins two returnees: Kamila Shamsie’s Women’s Prize-winner Home Fire and Mary Ann Shaffer and Anne Burrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. The latter enjoyed a boost in the week that its film adaptation was made available on streaming services and was issued on DVD.
Pos | Move | Title | Author | Imprint | ISBN | List price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | U | This is Going to Hurt | Adam Kay | Picador | 9781509858644 | £3.59 |
2 | U | Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine | Gail Honeyman | HarperCollins | 9780008172138 | £3.99 |
3 | U | The Tattooist of Auschwitz | Heather Morris | Zaffre | 9781785763663 | £4.99 |
4 | U | Little Fires Everywhere | Celeste Ng | Little, Brown | 9781408709702 | £3.99 |
5 | U | Origin | Dan Brown | Transworld | 9781473543348 | £4.99 |
6 | N | 21 Lessons for the 21st Century | Yuval Noah Harari | Vintage | 9781473554719 | £9.99 |
7 | N | Sea Prayer | Khaled Hosseini | Bloomsbury | 9781526602701 | £10.90 |
8 | U | The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows | Bloomsbury | 9781408803318 | £7.67 |
9 | N | The Silence of the Girls | Pat Barker | Hamish Hamilton | 9780241983218 | £9.99 |
10 | U | Pieces of Her | Slaughter, Karin | HarperCollins | 9780008150846 | £9.99 |
11 | S | Friend Request | Laura Marshall | Sphere | 9780751568349 | £2.99 |
12 | N | Walking Shadows | Kellerman, Faye | HarperCollins | 9780008148904 | £3.99 |
13 | U | Snap | Belinda Bauer | Transworld | 9781473526075 | £4.99 |
14 | U | Home Fire | Kamila Shamsie | Bloomsbury | 9781408886755 | £8.63 |
15 | U | The Midnight Line | Lee Child | Transworld | 9781473542297 | £4.99 |
16 | U | The Keeper of Lost Things | Ruth Hogan | Two Roads | 9781473635494 | £4.99 |
17 | U | Sapiens | Yuval Noah Harari | Vintage | 9781448190690 | £5.99 |
18 | D | The Break | Marian Keyes | Michael Joseph | 9781405918770 | £4.99 |
19 | D | This Could Change Everything: The uplifting romantic comedy of the summer | Jill Mansell | Headline | 9781472208965 | £3.99 |
20 | N | The Governess Game | Tessa Dare | Mills & Boon | 9780008268251 | £3.99 |
Week ending 1st September 2018. Key: N = New U = Up S = Same D = Down. Titles with a selling price below £2 are excluded, as are titles priced £4.50 or below with any print versions priced above £17.99. Participating publishers: PRH UK, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Bloomsbury, Simon & Schuster, Bonnier Zaffre & Canongate.