James Landreth

By Neda UlabyFriday, December 29, 2023 • 12:35 PM ESTHeard on All Things ConsideredAt the end of every year, public libraries around the country assemble lists of the books most borrowed by readers. From Charleston, S.C. to Cincinnati, Ohio, from New Orleans, La. to Minnetonka, Minn., readers favored buzzy memoirs and novels adapted into TV miniseries.”We had Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus as our number one checkout,” says Emily Pullen. She manages reader services at the New York Public Library, the country’s largest public library system, at least in terms of holdings, visitors and circulation.You can see its most borrowed list here, which includes multiple titles by Colleen Hoover and Emily Henry.Lessons in Chemistry, a bestseller last year, is set in the early 1960s. It’s about a chemist dismissed because of her gender, who ends up hosting a popular cooking show. The novel was adapted this year into a series on Apple TV+.Screen adaptations often drive popular novels; Lessons in Chemistry was also the most borrowed book at public libraries in Seattle, Wash., Boston, Mass., and Cleveland, Ohio.

Public libraries reveal their most borrowed books of 2023

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