25 bestselling books of the decade

Readers couldn’t get enough of the fearless heroine Katniss Everdeen in Suzanne Collins’ runaway bestseller set in a dystopian future where children have to fight to the death in the yearly “Hunger Games.” All of the novels in the trilogy became huge hits, buoyed by the movie franchise. In 2012, the first book sold “an astounding 27.7 million copies,” according to Publishers Weekly. The Hunger Games is one of 20 highest-rated books on Goodreads – how would you rate it?

Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You and its bestselling sequels have sold over 20 million copies. The first book follows witty, headstrong Louisa as she takes a job as a caregiver for a man confined to a wheelchair after an accident. The love-hate dynamic between the two turns to love in a story that captured the hearts of readers worldwide.

Jeff Kinney’s children’s series is a huge hit with elementary school readers. The format features diary-style text with illustrations, along with relatable humour that kids fall in love with. In fact, kids often reread the series over and over again. To date, the series has sold more than 200 million copies worldwide.

Dan Brown’s five-book Robert Langdon series, which includes the runaway hit The Da Vinci Code, broke sales records. Inferno, the fourth book in the series about a Harvard “symbology” professor who investigates artefacts, was the best-selling book of 2013. The novels spawned a popular film franchise starring Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon.

John Green’s heartfelt romance about two teens who meet in a cancer support group was the top-selling book in print and digital format in 2014. The story captivated readers with its down-to-earth portrayal of Hazel and Augustus, who inspire, delight, and live courageously in the face of overwhelming challenge.

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Veronica Roth’s bestselling young adult sci-fi trilogy started with Divergent. It’s the story of a future dystopian world where teens undergo testing to determine which of five community factions they must join and commit to for the rest of their lives. The story takes off when a girl rebels against the system that seeks to confine her.

You won’t be able to put down Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn’s captivating thriller told from alternating points of view of a husband and wife who narrate the betrayals in a seemingly perfect marriage that has a dark side beneath the facade. In the movie version, Ben Affleck played the hapless philanderer Nick, with Rosamund Pike in an Oscar-nominated role as Amy, the ingenious woman who plots revenge.

Harper Lee’s long-awaited follow-up to her masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird came out over 50 years after her Pulitzer Prize-winning debut. Lee wrote Go Set a Watchman in the 1950s, and it continues the story of Scout, now 26 years old, who returns to Maycomb to visit her father, the iconic lawyer Atticus Finch.

Computer-programmer-turned-fiction-writing-superstar Andy Weir originally self-published his sci-fi story The Martian, releasing one chapter at a time on his website. The book was so successful that he was soon offered huge deals with major publishers, in addition to selling the film rights. The story about an astronaut stranded alone on Mars keeps readers on the edge of their seats with wit, accessible science, and a ton of suspense.

Emily Blunt played the eponymous girl in the movie adaptation of this addictive thriller that kept readers enthralled until its twisty ending. Paula Hawkins’ debut novel sold over 11 million copies worldwide.