Here are the books New Yorkers are borrowing from the library while sheltering in place.
The New York Public Library’s list of what books New Yorkers are reading as they social distance shows a taste for dystopia, other people’s problems, and Michelle Obama—so, you know, the usual.
As library locations remain closed, the NYPL has been offering e-books to New Yorkers, and released a list yesterday of the most-checked-out books in the last month during closures. At the top of the list are Becoming and Educated, which continue to enjoy their perch at the top after leading the list for the system’s most-borrowed books in 2019.
Other favorites appear there, too: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone previously made the list of the library’s most borrowed books in history, while the lasting popularity of The Handmaid’s Tale reveals that even living in a dystopia cannot dampen New Yorkers’ hunger for more dystopia.
Here’s the full list:
1. Becoming by Michelle Obama
2. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
3. The Dutch House: A Novel by Ann Patchett
4. Deacon King Kong: A Novel by James McBride
5. The Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
6. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
7. Normal People: A Novel by Sally Rooney
8. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
9. The Water Dancer: A Novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates
10. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
