Pedestrians pass in front of a Barnes and Noble Inc. store in New York.

Barnes & Noble said sales of books related to anxiety are up more than 25 percent through this past June from a year ago because "we may be living in an anxious nation."

Shoppers are increasingly looking at workbooks that help them cope with anxiety, Barnes & Noble senior director of merchandising, Liz Hardwell, said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon. Although times may be tough, wrought with political tension, "the good news is that book buyers across the country are also looking for solutions to their stress," she said.

Top-selling titles, based on the bookseller's sales data, include "The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook" by Edmund Bourne, "The Anxiety Toolkit: Strategies for Fine-Tuning Your Mind and Moving Past Your Stuck Points" by Alice Boyes, and "The Anxiety and Worry Workbook: The Cognitive Behavioral Solution" by David Clark and Aaron Beck.