BPL Reveals Most-Borrowed Books of 2015

When The Girl on the Train debuted in January, many critics hailed it as the new Gone Girl. It comes as no surprise, then, that the new Paula Hawkins thriller has dethroned the 2012 Gillian Flynn novel, which was adapted into a film starring Ben Affleck last year, as the Boston Public Library’s most-borrowed title of the year.

Gone Girl, however, remains on the list of top reads—in the physical book format—coming in at number four this year. Other popular titles include Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, this year’s winner of both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and The Boston Girl, a historical fiction novel by a local author about a young Jewish woman growing up in the North End in the early 20th century.

Amy Poehler’s memoir Yes Please, coming in at number five on the list of top titles, leads this year’s most-borrowed adult nonfiction reads. The list of most-borrowed adult fiction, meanwhile, includes the return of 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, likely spurred by the highly publicized—and controversial—release of its sequel, Go Set a Watchman, earlier this year.

Here’s the full list:

Top 10 Most-Borrowed Titles of 2015

1. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
2. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
3. The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
4. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
5. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
6. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
8. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
9. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
10. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The BPL’s list of most-borrowed juvenile books, meanwhile, is, well, heartwarming. The first book in Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, originally published in 2007, leads the group, which also features classics like Harry Potter and quite a few titles by Dr. Seuss.

Top 10 Most-Borrowed Juvenile Books of 2015

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
2. Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
4. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
5. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
6. My Friend Is Sad by Mo Willems
7. Wonder by R. J. Palacio
8. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
9. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
10. Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss

You can browse all of the BPL’s 2015 most-borrowed lists—including one for teens (they can’t get enough of The Fault in Our Stars) and one for e-books (featuring Fifty Shades of Grey, perhaps because the format lends itself to more discreet reading)—at bpl.bibliocommons.com.