Special offer helps Waterstone's to take bulk of Big Read book sales

Bookseller Waterstone's has taken the lion's share of sales of the top 100 books in the BBC's Big Read.

The Big Read, launched in May, lists the 100 favourite books in the UK, as voted by 140,000 people.

A spokeswoman for Waterstone's said it had sold 750,000 books from the list out of a total of 1.5 million that Nielsen BookScan reports have been sold by specialists, including Ottakar's and WHSmith, since mid-May.

Waterstone's said the sales were helped by a three-for-two offer for books on the list and the fact that its shoppers were more likely to buy on the back of recommendations.