The Most Borrowed Books in New York City Libraries in 2024
It is one of the greater strangeness of New York City that it’s libraries are more a confederation that an an integrated system, but one interesting effect is that because of this, data is collected by borough, which shows how the different parts of the city do seem to read differently:
Chief Librarian Brian Bannon said he noticed a number of differences in genre preference by borough while scanning NYPL’s list.
“The Bronx is more like thriller, memoir, historical fiction. Manhattan — literary fiction, social contemporary, relationship driven. Queens, I saw fantasy, thriller, diverse voices, and then Staten Island — thriller, family drama, comfort reads.”
The top book overall was Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, though in Queens it was The Women and in The Bronx it was The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.