The top 10 books New Yorkers borrowed from NYPL in 2019
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
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.
“The top checkouts at The New York Public Library may seem like a simple opportunity to identify what New Yorkers enjoyed reading in 2019, but at the Library we see the diversity these titles represent,” Lynn Lobash, assistant director of reader services at NYPL, said in a statement.
Out of the top 10 system-wide checkouts of 2019, nine of the books were written by women. By borough, both the Bronx and Manhattan readers borrowed Becoming the most, with Staten Islanders preferring Jodi Picoult’s A Spark of Light.
See more of the top checkouts below:
Top 10 system-wide checkouts of 2019:
1. Becoming by Michelle Obama
2. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
3. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
4. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
5. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
6. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
7. Circe by Madeline Miller
8. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
9. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
10. Milkman by Anna Burns
Top 10 books in the Bronx
1. Becoming by Michelle Obama
2. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
3. Ambush by James Patterson and James O. Born
4. The Chef by James Patterson
5. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
6. Liar Liar by James Patterson and Candice Fox
7. The 18th Abduction by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
8. Long Road to Mercy by David Baldacci
9. Target: Alex Cross by James Patterson
10. The House Next Door by James Patterson, Tim Arnold, Max DiLallo, and Susan DiLallo
Top 10 books in Manhattan
1. Becoming by Michelle Obama
2. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
3. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
4. Circe by Madeline Miller
5. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
6. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
7. Milkman by Anna Burns
8. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
9. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
10. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Top 10 books in Staten Island
1. Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
2. Ambush by James Patterson and James O. Born
3. The Reckoning by John Grisham
4. Target: Alex Cross by James Patterson
5. Liar Liar by James Patterson and Candice Fox
6. The Chef by James Patterson
7. Turning Point by Danielle Steel
8. The House Next Door by James Patterson, Tim Arnold, Max DiLallo, and Susan DiLallo
9. Unsolved, Book 2 by James Patterson and David Ellis
10. Juror No. 3 by James Patterson and Nancy Allen
The library also released the most checked-out titles for these genres:
Classics: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Comics and Graphic Novels: Saga by Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan
Fantasy: Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
Horror: The Shining by Stephen King
Mystery and Detective: The Chef by James Patterson
Romance: Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks
Science Fiction: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
In Queens and Brooklyn, boroughs with a separate public library, readers had similar tastes to their fellow New Yorkers this year. Gothamist reported that Becoming was the most checked-out book across Brooklyn, with Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers taking the title in Queens.
And stay tuned for more checkout news in January. The NYPL said it will announce next month its top checkouts of all time as part of a celebration for the system’s 125th anniversary in 2020.
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