World Book Day is upon us and will hopefully inspire a new generation of young people to start reading. The event was created as a worldwide celebration of books and reading and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. Although World Book Day focuses on kids, that shouldn't stop older readers from picking up a book or two for themselves. Marie Moser, of Edinburgh Books, has suggested these novels that should be top of everyone's shopping list. It includes <em>Shuggie Bain </em>by the Douglas Stuart. In addition to being her store's best seller it was also the 2020 Booker Prize winner. Also on the list is <em>Luckenbooth</em> by another Scottish novelist Jenni Fagan, while <em>Snow and the Works on the Northern Line</em> by Ruth Thomas makes up the top three. For kids, she has selected <em>Arlo the Lion Who Couldn't Sleep </em>by Catherine Rayner, <em>The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh </em>by Helen Rutter and the <em>Concrete Rose</em> by Angie Thomas. An estimated 200 million print books were sold in the UK last year, according to book sales monitor Nielsen BookScan, <a href="http://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/world-book-day-bookshops-weather-covid-storm-due-to-lockdown-reading-boom-1.1177134">the highest number since 2012</a>. Many in the industry agree 2020 has offered a very strong range of titles from authors such as Richard Osman, Hilary Mantel and Barack Obama. The UK's top selling book last year was Charlie Macksey's illustrated book <em>The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse</em>, underlining how important children's titles remain to booksellers.
