Booksellers around the country have reported a big jump in sales of anti-racist books that began toward the end of last week, as the protests over the murder of George Floyd spread nationwide and readers wanted to learn more about racism, anti-racism and Black Lives Matter. One striking example is Libro.fm's list of bestselling digital audiobooks for last Saturday through Monday: all top 10 bestselling titles on Libro.fm were anti-racist books. (See the list below.) And sales volume has been striking: sales of the top 10 bestselling audiobooks on Monday, June 1, were up more than 500% compared to the top 10 audiobooks on May 1.
In addition, Libro.fm reports that yesterday was the company's biggest sales day in its history, which it attributed to readers turning to digital audiobooks as a way to support Black-owned bookstores since many print books are sold out. As Libro.fm noted, digital audiobooks are always in stock.
Libro.fm's bestselling books Saturday, May 30-Monday, June 1:
1. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (Penguin Random House Audio)
2. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo (Beacon Press)
3. Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad (Blackstone Audio)
4. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (Blackstone Audio)
5. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi (Hachette Audio)
6. Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (Novel Audio)
7. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Penguin Random House Audio)
8. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (Recorded Books)
9. Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall (Penguin Random House Audio)
10. The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale (Tantor Media)