What do you want to read when you grow up?

Adults are reading "young adult" (aka "teen") literature in droves, as recently reported by the Los Angeles Times. Is it nostalgia for our lost youth? Or maybe it is simply because YA lit today overflows with fresh voices, high-octane action, and fantasy.

On Goodreads the vast popularity of YA books cannot be denied. Whether it's fierce vampire bodyguards in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy, blood-thirsty gladiators in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, or Greek gods wreaking havoc in Los Angeles in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, YA books generate astounding numbers on the site. New books by YA authors are always among the month's most popular. But how old are these readers? We decided to analyze some data to find out. [Click the images to enlarge.]



Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer was the most-read YA book of 2008 on Goodreads. Despite being the fourth installment in the Twilight series, 26.59% of teens on Goodreads have read it. We also found that 14.98% of 20-somethings and 14.32% of 30-somethings on Goodreads have read the book. Certainly teenagers are most likely to have read the saga of Bella and Edward, but there is a secondary peak in popularity at the ripe old age of 32.

Dystopian novel Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins was the most-read YA book of 2009 on Goodreads. Its readership by age shares a similar curve: Wildly popular among teens, it falls around college-age readers (perhaps they are reading their assigned books instead), then peaks again slightly at age 31.

The Graveyard Book, by Goodreads Author Neil Gaiman, is not easily categorized. It has racked up literary awards in the adult, YA, and children's categories, including the Hugo Award for best fantasy novel, the Locus Award for best young adult novel, and the 2009 Newbery Award for children's books. On Goodreads it is commonly shelved as "young-adult" or "YA," but it is more widely read by adults than teens.



At left, we compared the most-read YA book of 2009, Catching Fire, and the most-read contemporary fiction book of 2009, The Help, by Goodreads Author Kathryn Stockett. The curves are quite different. At age 40, Goodreads members become more likely to read "adult" fiction, leaving YA fiction behind.







Finally, we wanted to see if the readership of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book mirrored that of any other book. It nicely parallels Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, a book that was widely read in business circles. Although Gladwell does not have a strong teen readership on Goodreads, when we interviewed him about Outliers, he addressed the need to write for all ages: "If you write in a way that is clear, transparent, and elegant, it will reach everyone. There's no idea that can't be explained to a thoughtful 14-year-old. If the thoughtful 14-year-old doesn't get it, it is your fault, not the 14-year-old's."

After we found popular books for the first and second third of life, we scouted for something for the final third and turned up The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown. Some thank Brown for saving the publishing industry, and it's probably because his books appeal to all ages. Unlike its YA competitors, note that The Lost Symbol stays strong into the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

The "young adult" moniker may be considered a marketing label, but Goodreads data shows that this genre of literature definitively straddles the chasm between teendom and adulthood. We've found that many readers intersperse the likes of Cormac McCarthy or Charlotte Brontë with Stephenie Meyer's alien-invasion adventure, The Host, or Cassandra Clare's demon-hunting fantasy, City of Glass. YA books excel at entertainment.

Or here's another theory. In today's culture, full adulthood is delayed until age 40.