Mysteries the top adult fiction category at Burlington Public Library in 2022
Published December 19, 2022 at 12:28 pm
With 2022 coming to an end, the Burlington Public Library has released a deep dive on how local residents accessed them as well as what was popular during the past year.
The BPL celebrated its 150th anniversary with special events, the return of in-person programming, and, of course, a lot of reading, to the tune of more than 1.1 million books borrowed.
The year-end numbers show Burlington is a city that loves books as circulation numbers continue to rise year-over-year. If Burlington was a person, they’d be an armchair detective, with mysteries topping the adult fiction charts. Diary of a Wimpy Kid reigned supreme for kids, and Burlington teens reached for fantasy novels most often.
Borrowing By The Numbers
- Total books borrowed: 1,186,796
- Most popular authors, adult: James Patterson, David Baldacci, John Grisham
- Most popular authors, teen: Sarah J. Maas, Leigh Bardugo, Suzanne Collins
- Most popular authors, children: Geronimo Stilton, Jeff Kinney, Dav Pilkey
- Top adult fiction: The Maid by Nita Prose, The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly, Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
- Top non-fiction: The Palace Papers by Tina Brown, Freezing Order by Bill Browder, Vanderbilt by Anderson Cooper
- Top kids books: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down by Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway by Jeff Kinney
- Top book formats: 77 per cent physical books, 15 per cent ebooks, eight per cent audio books
- Most borrowed non-reading items: DVDs, CDs, video games
- Top DVDs: No Time to Die, Belfast, Dune
- Most borrowed other items: Chromebooks, Launchpads, script music
- Most used digital resources: OverDrive, PressReader, Hoopla
- New OverDrive users: 3,317
- Top digital magazines: Us Weekly, The Economist, HELLO. magazine
In-person programming was popular again in 2022 after a two year hiatus. The second Annual Burlington Literature Festival was fully hybrid, with a mix of in-person and virtual events.
- Top virtual events: Reconciliation Talk with David A. Robertson, Meet the Author: Linwood Barclay, Meet the Author: Lawrence Hill
- Top In-Person events: Stories & Songs with Susan Aglukark, Canadian War History with Tim Cook, In Conversation with Elamin Abdelmahmoud
- Top kids events (not including Storytime.): Sciensational Sssnakes, Hip Hop Dance Workshop, Green Thumbs
- Total hours of storytime: 620