Polish authors dominate Poland’s most-read list: Who do people read the most?

Polish authors accounted for 59% of the 27 most-read writers in Poland in 2025, the highest share recorded between 2018 and 2025, according to a study by the National Library of Poland.

Of the 27 authors whose books were most widely read in Poland in 2025, 16 were Polish and 11 were foreign. In 2024, the proportions were nearly reversed, with 11 Polish and 16 foreign writers.

Crime, detective, and thriller writer Remigiusz Mróz ranked first for the seventh consecutive year and has topped the list every year since 2019. Stephen King ranked second in 2025, followed by Henryk Sienkiewicz, J.K. Rowling, and Andrzej Sapkowski.

Among contemporary Polish writers, Jakub Żulczyk and Szczepan Twardoch were once again among the country’s most widely read authors, as they had been during the previous two years.

The findings come from the National Library of Poland’s annual study “Stan czytelnictwa książek w Polsce w 2025 roku” (The State of Book Reading in Poland in 2025). The study was conducted on a nationally representative sample of 2,005 people aged 15 and older. Respondents who had read at least one book during the previous 12 months were asked to name up to five books they had read and their authors.

The share of Polish writers among the 27 most-read authors rose from 41% in 2024 to 59% in 2025. This was the highest proportion recorded in the National Library’s comparison covering 2018–2025.

Polish authors had previously held a majority in 2019, when the list included 15 Polish and 12 foreign writers, and in 2020, when the figures stood at 14 and 13, respectively. From 2021 through 2023, the list included 13 Polish and 14 foreign writers each year, before the gap widened in favor of foreign authors in 2024.

The shift toward Polish authors comes as literary publishing continues to expand in the country. As reported earlier, the National Library registered 31,595 book titles across all categories in 2025, nearly 1,000 more than in 2024. Literary books accounted for 38% of all titles registered, while the number of literary titles reached 12,133.

Popular fiction was among the categories driving this growth. The National Library registered 1,020 crime and thriller titles in 2025, nearly 100 more than in 2024, and Polish authors wrote 63% of them. Fantasy publishing also reached a record 873 titles.

Poland is also one of Europe’s largest publishing markets by title output. According to the Federation of European Publishers, the country ranked sixth in Europe for the number of new titles published in 2024, behind the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France.

Overall book readership in Poland remained stable in 2025. Forty-one percent of people aged 15 and older said they had read at least one book during the preceding 12 months, unchanged from 2024, while 7% said they had read seven or more books.

Main image: wyborcza.pl