WASHINGTON — There's nothing like a good book to escape from our everyday realities.
If you've made it a New Year's resolution to read more in 2021, you may want to "check out" some of DC Public Library's most borrowed books, ebooks and audiobooks of the year.
DCPL announced more than 3 million items were borrowed, streamed or downloaded from its libraries and digital platforms over the course of the year.
Here's a breakdown of some of the most popular books based on genre and format.
10 most borrowed fiction books
- “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett (2020)
- “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig (2020)
- “Anxious People: A Novel” by Fredrik Backman (2019)
- “Transcendent Kingdom” by Yaa Gyasi (2020)
- “Such a Fun Age: A Novel” by Kiley Reid (2019)
- “Dog Man. Fetch-22” by Dav Pilkey (2019)
- “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2020)
- “Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague” by Maggie O'Farrell (2020)
- “Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021)
- “Dog Man. Mothering Heights” by Dav Pilkey (2021)
10 most borrowed nonfiction books
- “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson (2020)
- “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama (2020)
- “Untamed” by Glennon Doyle (2020)
- “Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family” by Robert Kolker (2020)
- “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed” by Lori Gottlieb (2019)
- “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz” by Erik Larson (2020)
- “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson (2020)
- “How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy” by Jenny Odell (2019)
- “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe (2018)
- “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover (2018)
10 most borrowed fiction audiobooks
- “The Vanishing Half: A Novel” by Brit Bennett (2020)
- “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” by J. K. Rowling (1998)
- “American Dirt: A Novel” by Jeanine Cummins (2018)
- “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by J. K. Rowling (1999)
- “The Water Dancer: A Novel” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2019)
- “Anxious People: A Novel” by Fredrik Backman (2019)
- “The Four Winds: A Novel” by Kristin Hannah (2021)
- “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig (2020)
- “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” by J. K. Rowling (1997) and “Malibu Rising” by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2021) (tied)
- “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison (1970), “The Dutch House: A Novel” by Ann Patchett (2019) and “The Nickel Boys: A Novel” by Colson Whitehead (2019) (three-way tie)
10 most borrowed nonfiction audiobooks
- "A Promised Land" by Barack Obama (2020)
- "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson (2020)
- "Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah (2016)
- "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration" by Isabel Wilkerson (2010)
- "Becoming" by Michelle Obama (2018)
- "Just as I Am" by Cicely Tyson (2021)
- "Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know" by Malcolm Gladwell (2019)
- "Educated: A Memoir" by Tara Westover (2018)
- "How to be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi (2019)
- "Greenlights" by Matthew McConaughey (2020) and "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval N. Harari (2011) (tied)
DCPL released even more data about its most popular items of the year, including top ebooks and e-audiobooks, as well its most popular magazines, streaming videos and online courses.
It might be time to start putting some of your favorite items on hold before 2022 arrives.