Have you noticed that almost every year, there are new trends among the bestselling book tiles. Some of the most recent book themes with which the world was obsessed included vampires, self-help and self-improvement guides and young adult dystopian novels. This year will probably go in history with a very specific book trend. 2016 is the year of the adult coloring books.
If you browse through Amazon.com’s best sellers list in category “Books,” you will quickly notice that it is dominated by colouring books. Every fifth title in the retailers 50 top-selling books at the moment falls into this category. Although they can be coloured by children as well, these products are described as adult coloring books. Also, the majority of them focus on one main thing – stress relieving.
The highest ranked of them goes by the dreamy title “Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book.” Despite its wordless and colourless content, this book is also topping Amazon’s Most Wished For list, followed by eight more adult-focused books for colouring.
Behind the Trend
The best selling coloring book was first published two years ago. Similar is the case with the other similar titles. So why did adults suddenly develop an interest in colouring. When asked, most publishers specializing in coloring books are quick to link the trend to technology and, more specifically, with people’s growing need to unplug. While teens do not seem particularly worried with the amount of time they spend online and in front of the screen, adults crave for some quiet offline time. Coloring books are engaging and time-consuming enough to give them that.
Scientists and phychologists have also proved that coloring activities can have a stress-relieving effect on people’s minds. In the early 1920s, for instance, renowned psychologist Carl G. Jung was among the first to use colouring as a relaxation therapy for his patients.
Various studies have shown that colouring can activate more than one area in our cerebral hemispheres. That is because the activity involves both creativity and logic. Also, when colouring, we use our fine motor skills, as well as our vision. The combination of all that reduces the activity of the amygdala. That is part of the brain that is responsible for emotions and stress. As a result, our brain feels more relaxed a refreshed during and after some colouring.
So, if you are looking for new hobby or fresh gift ideas, you can start from Amazon’s best sellers list. Here are some of the best-selling adult coloring books titles you will find there:
- Balance (Angie’s Extreme Stress Menders Volume 1) – Angie Grace
- Enchanted Forest: An Inky Quest 7 Coloring Book – Johanna Basford
- Detailed Designs and Beautiful Patterns (Sacred Mandala Designs and Patterns Coloring Books for Adults (Volume 28)
- Adult Coloring Book: Stress Relieving Patterns
