Victorians are big readers and big library users. Greater Victoria Public Library members borrowed the highest number of items, per capita, in the country as measured by the Canadian Urban Libraries Council.
To cap off the year, GVPL has compiled a list of the top ten most borrowed books in 2017 from all 11 library branches.
Two Canadians made the top ten. Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award, claimed the top spot, and mystery writer Louise Penny, closed off the list at number 10 with A Great Reckoning, the latest book in the Armand Gamache mystery series.
Paula Hawkins’s Into the Water came in at number two, the spot she held on GVPL’s 2016 list with her book The Girl on the Train.
“Hawkins was able to capitalize on the fame of her first novel and get another book out when readers were hungry for more,” says Rina Hadziev, GVPL’s coordinator of collections and technical services.
Hadziev notes there are other familiar names on the 2017 list. “John Grisham and Michael Connelly appear twice. They both published books in the late fall of 2016 and in mid-2017, so seeing both books appear isn’t surprising. They are popular authors, and they are prolific.”
Mysteries and thrillers dominate the list. Says Hadziev: “Our community loves a good mystery.”Titles for your 2018 reading list
Are you adventurous, creative, curious or an epicurean? GVPL produced personalized reading lists for all interests. Take the library’s quiz at gvpl.ca/yourbrain, then enjoy recommendations to read, watch, listen and learn.
Greater Victoria Public Library’s Most Borrowed Books of 2017
• Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
• Into the Water by Paula Hawkins (Girl on Train was #2 checked out in 2016)
• The Whistler by John Grisham
• Camino Island by John Grisham
• Night School by Lee Child
• The Late Show by Michael Connelly
• The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly
• The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
• The Fix by David Baldacci
• A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
– Jessica Woollard is a communications officer with the Greater Victoria Public Library