'The Casual Vacancy' sales surpassed by cook book by Jamie Oliver

It appears that The Casual Vacancy has competition as the highest selling book of the year. The chef and author, Jamie Oliver has surpassed Rowling's sales with his book, 15 Minute Meals. Both books were released on the same date with The Casual Vacancy initially leading in sales with 124,603 copies compared to Oliver's 20,682 copies. Last week, Oliver sold 69,111 copies and The Casual Vacancy sold 13,504. In 2010, Oliver's 30-Minute Meals was the best selling book, and last year he was also on top.

What does this mean in terms of The Casual Vacancy's success? As far as sales go, it's not exactly up to par with the Potter series, but perhaps nothing ever will be. Jo's adult novel has still done very well despite the mixed reactions from fans and it's less broad reading audience.

Also relating to Jo's adult novel, according to Daily Freeman, The Casual Vacancy was the 5th most requested fiction novel in regional libraries during the week of November 25th. Other novels on the list include Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and NYPD Red by James Patterson. The entire list can be seen right here.

Let us know your thoughts regarding The Casual Vacancy's success. Is it selling how you expected?