Most YA Books Bought By Adults

It turns out you're not the only grown-up devouring the Hunger Games. A new study from Bowker Market Research found that 55% of the people buying young adult novels are actually regular adults, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Oh sure, some say they're buying them for younger relatives, but 78% cop to buying them for themselves.

Hunger Games' popularity is skewing the curve a bit, one researcher said, but "our data shows it's a much larger phenomenon than readership of this single series." It seems that adults simply dig the simpler reading experience teen lit can provide, which is why they're gulping down stuff like Twilight or Harry Potter. "Teen books are shorter, faster-paced, and designed to appeal to discriminating readers," one librarian says. "They are a quick literary fix without the padding." (More young adult novel stories.)