Books

Photo credit: Jonathan Blanc / NYPL

December 19, 2022

Here are the library books New Yorkers borrowed the most in 2022

New York City's three public library systems released their annual lists for their most checked-out titles of 2022. At the New York Public Library, the most borrowed book of the year was Matt Haig's The Midnight Library: A Novel. In Brooklyn, the top checkout was Laura Dave's The Last Thing He Told Me: A Novel, and in Queens, The Paris Apartment: A Novel by Lucy Foley.
See the list

City Living

These are the best books of 2022, according to the NYPL

Photo © 6sqft

November 28, 2022

These are the best books of 2022, according to the NYPL

By Aaron Ginsburg

The New York Public Library last week released its annual list of the best books of the year. The recommendations were selected by expert librarians and staff who reviewed nearly 3,000 books and ultimately selected 260 of the best titles for kids, teens, and adults in 2022. Whether you want to buy a book as a gift for the holidays or are just interested in reading one yourself, NYPL's Best Books of 2022 list has something for every type of reader.
See the list

City Living

28 ‘Little Free Libraries’ pop up at community gardens across NYC

All images courtesy of the New York Restoration Project

August 12, 2022

28 ‘Little Free Libraries’ pop up at community gardens across NYC

By Aaron Ginsburg

The New York Restoration Project this week installed 28 new book-sharing boxes throughout the five boroughs. Created by Little Free Library (LFL), the boxes can be found at the city's community gardens, 25 of which are NYRP gardens and three of which are partnered with Gardens for the City.
Find out more

City Living

A ‘bookstore crawl’ returns to Brooklyn this month

Photo by Renee Fisher on Unsplash

April 7, 2022

A ‘bookstore crawl’ returns to Brooklyn this month

By Aaron Ginsburg

For the first time since 2019, Brooklyn's bookstores are inviting readers back for a borough-wide book crawl. Starting on April 23 and leading up to Independent Bookstore Day on April 30, those interested can pick up a "Bookstore Crawl Passport" at any of the 21 participating locations and fill out it with stamps and signatures from each bookstore visited for the chance to win a prize.
Get the details

Events & Things To Do

Here are the best books of 2021, according to the NYPL

Photo credit: Jonathan Blanc / NYPL

November 23, 2021

Here are the best books of 2021, according to the NYPL

By Devin Gannon

The New York Public Library on Tuesday released its annual list of the best books of the year, a tradition that started nearly 100 years ago. This year, committees of expert librarians selected nearly 300 titles across categories for kids, teens, and adults. From fiction to fantasy to graphic novels and poetry, the Best Books of 2021 list has something for every reader in your life.
Find out more

City Living

Looking for your next great read? Here are 125 books NYPL hopes you’ll love

Photo: Jonathan Blanc/NYPL

February 14, 2020

Looking for your next great read? Here are 125 books NYPL hopes you’ll love

By Devin Gannon

Forget the roses and chocolate, spend this Valentine's Day enjoying a new book. As part of its 125th-anniversary celebration, the New York Public Library on Friday released an expertly-curated list of 125 books that inspire a love of reading. A team of librarians spent a year debating and choosing its 125 Books We Love list, which includes fiction and non-fiction titles published after May 23, 1895, the year the library was incorporated.
The full list, here

NYPL reveals its 10 most borrowed books of all time

Photo credit: Jonathan Blanc/NYPL

January 13, 2020

NYPL reveals its 10 most borrowed books of all time

By Devin Gannon

Brooklyn-born author Ezra Jack Keats' beloved children's story The Snowy Day is the most checked out book of all time at the New York Public Library. In celebration of its 125th anniversary, the library on Monday released a list of the 10 most borrowed books at its 92 branches since its founding in 1895. A team of experts at NYPL put together the list by looking at checkout and circulation data, overall trends, current events, popularity, and length of time in print, and presence in the catalog.
Which books made the list

City Living

The top 10 books New Yorkers borrowed from NYPL in 2019

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

December 18, 2019

The top 10 books New Yorkers borrowed from NYPL in 2019

By Devin Gannon

Library patrons in New York City checked out former first lady Michelle Obama's autobiography Becoming the most out of any book this year. The New York Public Library shared on Wednesday its annual top checkouts list from its branches in the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island, as well as its e-book catalog. Becoming, ranked as one of the best-selling memoirs of all time, follows the story of Obama's life, from growing up on the South Side of Chicago to becoming the first African American to serve as First Lady of the United States.
See the full list

City Living

February 11, 2019

NYPL maps your favorite New York City love stories

By Michelle Cohen

New York City is the endlessly romantic backdrop for more literary love stories than we could possibly count. In honor of Valentine’s Day, the NYPL asked their book experts for their favorite tales of love and the city; then they put them on a map for our exploration–and reading–pleasure.
Amore, this way

Events & Things To Do

The New York Public Library reveals list of the most-checked-out books of 2018

Image via publicdomainpictures.net

December 17, 2018

The New York Public Library reveals list of the most-checked-out books of 2018

By Michelle Cohen

The New York Public Library has announced its annual top checkouts list for the year; The most sought-after title in the three public library systems–including books and e-books from the New York Public Library (covering the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island), Brooklyn Public Library, and Queens Library–was Jennifer Egan's "Manhattan Beach." Egan won a Pulitzer Prize for "A Visit From the Goon Squad" in 2011; her newest novel is, as the New York Times puts it in a review, "principally a novel of New York" that "pays tribute to the city’s iconography."
More of the top checkouts, this way

City Living

The arty maps of ‘Nonstop Metropolis’ show NYC the way locals experience it

By Michelle Cohen

When writers and artists–particularly ones who have a keen understanding of cities–venture into the world of maps, you can bet the results will be fascinating and illuminating. "Nonstop Metropolis," a new atlas by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro (6sqft recently discovered the “City of Women” subway map from the book) offers 26 New York City maps that “cue us into understanding who is here” according to Solnit. As Wired puts it in their review, the result is “a diverse array of deeply particular maps” that combine imaginative and fanciful imagery with the colorful cultural history beneath the city’s diverse neighborhoods and landmarks and the people who live among them.
Check out some fabulous maps

Events & Things To Do

August 19, 2015

The NYPL Is Mapping Books About NYC Neighborhoods—Add Your Favorites!

By Michelle Cohen

The New York Public Library is currently putting together a map of New York City neighborhoods represented in the pages of our favorite books. Novels set in the five boroughs are added to the map as readers suggest them, along with nearby landmarks and attractions so you can get your literary bearings. Currently most of the listed titles in are in Manhattan ("American Psycho" in the Financial District, "Catcher in the Rye" in Central Park, to name just a few); Team Brooklyn is looking sparse (Hello? Paul Auster?), and The Bronx, Queens and Staten Island need you!
Suggest your favorite neighborhood novels...

Uncategorized

May 14, 2014

The Local Yokel Trap of New York City

By Andrew Cotto

As a Brooklynite surrounded by progressives, I'm well aware of the need to "think globally and act locally" on a whole lot of matters. This persistent mantra seems particularly true when it comes to commerce, prompting those of us who heed such calls to shop (and generally pay more) at farmer's markets and mom & pop retailers, especially those in our very own neighborhood. This is how vital local businesses can be sustained in an environment rife with soulless, big chain predators. OK. Fine. So I do my part by forking over ten bucks to a farmer for a bunch of kale and a handful of carrots, though I can't understand why it costs more to buy the stuff direct from the guy who grew it himself. And then there was the time a Hudson Valley hipster tried to sell me a three pound chicken for $27. “What was it,” I asked. “Raised on truffles?”
Read more of Andrew's story here

City Living

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