San Diego Public Library's most read books of 2024
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The San Diego Public Library offered a glimpse into the city's reading habits with a list of the most-borrowed books of 2024.
Why it matters: The roundup provides some inspiration for that New Year's resolution to read more.
The big picture: San Diego readers were big fans of fiction this year, with novels topping the charts for checkouts of physical books.
- Yes, but: Locals also leaned into non-fiction with audiobooks and electronic books.
The top 10 books checked out:
- "Lessons in Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus (1,146 checkouts)
- "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" by James McBride (1,113)
- "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver (968)
- "Tom Lake" by Ann Patchett (956)
- "The Exchange" by John Grisham (906)
- "The Covenant of Water" by Abraham Verghese (888)
- "The Women" by Kristin Hannah (833)
- "Fourth Wing" by Rebecca Yarros (829)
- "Resurrection Walk" by Michael Connelly (814)
- "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin (813)
The intrigue: Britney Spears' memoir "The Woman in Me" was the most popular audiobook and a top five e-book.
- Another memoir, "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" by therapist Lori Gottlieb, was the top e-book.
Audiobook listeners also loved Kristin Hannah's "The Women" and "The Four Winds," plus "Apples Never Fall" by Liane Moriarty.
For young adults, "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas was the top book, but Suzanne Collins was the most popular author with four books in "The Hunger Games" series in the top 10.
Kids couldn't get enough of Dav Pilkey's "Dog Man" series, which accounted for eight of the top 10 books in the juvenile section with thousands of checkouts.
- Jeff Kinney's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series and "Guts" by Raina Telgemeier were also popular choices.
Our picks: Kate's favorite book this year was "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave, and she's eager for the sequel to come out next year.
- Andy was a year late getting to "North Woods" by Daniel Mason, but it was every bit as good as everyone said last year. He's also wondering what took him so long to read "Austerlitz," by W.G. Sebald.