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The Most Read Books on Goodreads This Week

Community Apr 26, 2024

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Every week, Book Riot puts together the bestselling books of the week. We take a look at the five biggest bestseller lists — all of which disagree with each other — and note the overlap to see the overall bestsellers of the moment. But even by combining these lists, we’re still not getting all the information. The data on book sales is incomplete, which is partly why these lists vary so much: they’re using different sources. Also, book sales don’t tell the whole story. After all, many of us are borrowing books from the library or friends, or buying them secondhand.

So, here’s another angle to find the buzziest books of the moment: which books are being read right now? After all, it’s easy to buy a book and never actually finish it, and we don’t all buy every book we read. It’s impossible to know what everyone in the world is reading at any given time, but here’s the closest thing we have: the most read books on Goodreads this week. Not everyone uses Goodreads, but it is the most widely used reading tracker. (You can find a similar, but not identical, feature with Storygraph with their “Popular This Week” page.)

These are the top five most-read books on Goodreads right now — that means books that users marked as finished this week.

#5:

Book cover of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J. Maas

Sarah J. Maas may no longer be the reigning queen of Romantasy, but don’t count her out yet. She’s slipped down the bestseller list recently, but clearly, there are still a ton of people just discovering her books — and once they finish this one, there are many more thousands of pages to go in Maas’s fantasy series. This book currently has 2.5 million ratings on Goodreads, with a 4.2 average rating.

(Technically, this is in the #6 spot, but I’ve lumped #4 and #5 together for obvious reasons.)

#4:

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros Book Cover

Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) and Iron Flame (The Empyrean #2) by Rebeca Yarros

Speaking of romantasy, Rebecca Yarros has taken spot #5 with Iron Flame and #4 with Fourth Wing. Like Maas, Yarros is no longer at the very top of the bestseller lists, but her series continues to find new readers. The Empyrean series is still ongoing: Onyx Storm is slated to come out in 2025, and Yarros has said it will be five books in total. Book one has 1.5 million ratings, with a 4.6 average.

#3:

Wild Love (Rose Hill #1) by Elsie Silver

This is much newer than the previous two books mentioned: it came out April 9th, and it only has 41,000 ratings, with a 4.2 average. It also hit the bestseller list this week. Wild Love is the start of a new series from a romance author known for her small-town romance series. This one is a spin-off of her cowboy series, this time with a billionaire romance at its heart.

#2:

Just for the Summer (Part of Your World #3) by Abby Jimenez

Here’s another new romance, and it was on all the bestseller lists this week. Like Wild Love, it hasn’t amassed a huge readership yet, at least compared to Yarros and Maas: is has 62,000 ratings, with a 4.5 average. It’s the newest from the author of Part of Your World and Yours Truly, which were the first two books in this popular series. Fun fact: Jimenez is also a Food Network winner and has her own bakery.

#1:

The Women by Kristin Hannah

Did you guess the #1 most read book on Goodreads this week? If you’ve been following the bestseller lists, this won’t be a surprise. The Women is the newest historical fiction title from the author of The Nightingale. Kristin Hannah is a book club darling author, and since The Women came out in February, it’s already gotten over 272,000 ratings, with a 4.7 average.

More of the Most-Read Books on Goodreads This Week

You might have noticed that the top five most-read books on Goodreads this week aren’t exactly diverse…in any sense of the word. Romance and romantasy dominate, and most of the authors are white women. (Interestingly, at a glance, I only spot one book by a male author in the top 50 most-read books this week: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, from 2018.)

So, here a couple more of the most-read books on Goodreads this week that aren’t in the top five.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Yellowface, a satirical look at the publishing industry and racefaking, has been a steady seller since it came out last year. It was also a Reese’s Book Club Pick. It has 444,000 ratings, with a 3.8 average. It also feels timely this week. Just google “Freydis Moon” if you haven’t heard of the latest example of how authors racefaking is far from fictional.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

This story about video games, friendship, and so much more was the it book of 2022, but there are still plenty of readers discovering it today. It won the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction the year it came out, as well as being named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, TIME, Oprah Daily, and more. It has 860,000 ratings and a 4.2 average.

If you’re looking for more buzzy books, check out The Bestselling Books of the Week, According to All the Lists.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.