If you look at the bestseller lists maintained around the country, you’ll see a lot of familiar and expected stuff: the literary novels and the political manifestos by presidential candidates, the readable histories and the quick and dirty thrillers turned out by writing factories. You may not love all the books listed there, but the world makes sense. The secrets of bestseller calculations are guarded pretty jealously; all we know about what goes into their creation is that a book does have to sell pretty well to get onto a bestseller list.


Sometimes those sales are in line with our understanding of the universe—oh look, another James Patterson thriller!—but sometimes things sell like hotcakes and leave us mystified and confused.

For example: Adult coloring books.

Going Back to Childish Things

So-called “adult coloring books” like Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book by Johanna Basford or the simply titled Adult Coloring Book: Stress Relieving Patterns by Adult Coloring Book Artists have taken the bestseller lists by storm, selling millions of copies. That’s right, coloring books—those fun things we all played with in our younger years—but aimed at adults. These books usually offer very complex line drawings to fill in, and, like all coloring books, leave the choices of colors to the person filling them in.

At first blush, it might seem kind of crazy that grown folks with disposable income, access to adult beverages and unlimited Netflix accounts, and a driver’s license (the holy trifecta of adolescent dreams) would choose to regress back to a childhood activity that at first glance offers so true creativity or intellectual stimulation, but proponents and “colorists” argue that coloring is, in fact, a therapeutic and effective way of relieving stress, meditating, and stimulating creativity.

In fact, the adult coloring book trend is often cited as part of an overall shift in modern culture that’s seeing adults look back towards their childhoods for the simple pleasures it afforded. It’s been noted that the majority of Young Adult novels are actually bought by adults, and there are such things are preschool for adults and is referred to as the Peter Pan market. It’s very real—and kind of disturbing.

Good Clean Fun

On the one hand, there’s nothing wrong with engaging in a beloved childhood activity to relieve stress. The coloring books aimed at adults often produce some pretty beautiful examples, and it’s easy to see how sitting quietly and coloring in a beautiful line drawing could be therapeutic. Coloring is a creative act that requires little actual creativity, as all you’re doing is choosing colors. This limited creativity makes it an ideal stress relieving activity because you have some control over your creation (the choice of colors), but you don’t have to make any serious of complex decisions, because all the drawing has been done for you. And it’s difficult to argue that adult coloring books are the same as the much more simplistic books kids play with; one glance at the pages in Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book will demonstrate that.

On the other hand, the trend towards a “second childhood” seems to be infecting all realms of culture. Comic book movies dominate the box office, adults obsess over video games, and there are even adult summer camps. Whereas we were once frustrated teenagers who couldn’t wait to be adults and get our freedom, now the main thing we want to do with that freedom is go back to being kids.

Which makes sense, if you think about it: The problem with being a kid isn’t the activities we engaged in, it was the lack of self-determination, resources, and agency. Going back to summer camp as an adult, for example, means you can enjoy camping out, sitting by the fire, and swimming in the lake, but you don’t have to hide your alcohol, because there are no counselors. Similarly, coloring books for adults mean your creations don’t get stuck on the fridge door and forgotten—you can post them for the world to see.