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Library index: popularity of Aus books grows, ‘huge spike’ in ebook, audiobook borrowing

Monday, 25 May 2020   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

Books by Australian authors make up 12 of the top 20 most borrowed books according to the 2020 Civica Libraries Index, produced by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) in partnership with Civica. This is up from eight Australian-authored books in the 2019 list.

The index, which analyses more than 38 million loans across 90 Australian and New Zealand libraries between April 2019 and March 2020, also illustrates the ‘huge spike in the number of e-resources including audio and e-books borrowed by citizens across all age groups’ since the closure of libraries due to the Covid-19 pandemic, says ALIA CEO Sue McKerracher.

According to ALIA’s report, several library services experienced increased ebook and audio book borrowing of around 50%, while Trevor MacKay of Bayside Libraries in Victoria says the service saw ‘notable increases in e-loans across all ages, including a 200% increase of e-book loans by children and a 94% increase in adult e-book reserves’.

The most borrowed books overall, and in the audiobook and ebook categories are:

Most borrowed: Top 20

  1. Nine Perfect Strangers (Liane Moriarty, Pan)
  2. Becoming (Michelle Obama, Viking)
  3. Past Tense (Lee Child, Bantam)
  4. The Lost Man (Jane Harper, Pan)
  5. The Barefoot Investor: The Only Money Guide You’ll Ever Need (Scott Pape, Wiley)
  6. Any Ordinary Day (Leigh Sales, Hamish Hamilton)
  7. Killer Instinct (James Patterson, Century)
  8. Boy Swallows Universe (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate)
  9. Bridge of Clay (Markus Zusak, Picador)
  10. The Barefoot Investor for Families: The Only Kids’ Money Guide You’ll Ever Need (Scott Pape, Wiley)
  11. The Other Wife (Michael Robotham, Hachette)
  12. The Fast 800: How to Combine Rapid Weight Loss and Intermittent Fasting for Long-Term Health (Michael Mosley, S&S)
  13. Educated (Tara Westover, Windmill)
  14. The 91-storey Treehouse (Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton, Pan)
  15. The Midnight Line (Lee Child, Bantam)
  16. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a ****: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (Mark Manson, Macmillan)
  17. No Friend but The Mountains: Writing from Manus prison (Behrouz Boochani, Picador)
  18. Good Girl Bad Girl (Michael Robotham, Hachette)
  19. The 104-storey Treehouse (Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton, Pan)
  20. Force of Nature (Jane Harper, Pan)

Most borrowed audiobooks: Top 10

  1. Becoming (Michelle Obama, Hamish Hamilton)
  2. The Barefoot Investor: The Only Money Guide You’ll Ever Need (Scott Pape, Wiley)
  3. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a ****: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (Mark Manson, Macmillan)
  4. Nine Perfect Strangers (Liane Moriarty, Pan)
  5. The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Heather Morris, Echo)
  6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J K Rowling, Bloomsbury)
  7. Persuader (Lee Child, Bantam)
  8. Boy Swallows Universe (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate)
  9. The Weekend (Charlotte Wood, A&U)
  10. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval N Harari, Jonathan Cape)

Most borrowed ebooks: Top 10

  1. The Lost Man (Jane Harper, Pan)
  2. Becoming (Michelle Obama, Hamish Hamilton)
  3. Nine Perfect Strangers (Liane Moriarty, Pan)
  4. Boy Swallows Universe (Trent Dalton, Fourht Estate)
  5. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Gail Honeyman, HarperCollins)
  6. The Mother-in-Law (Sally Hepworth, Macmillan)
  7. The Barefoot Investor: The Only Money Guide You’ll Ever Need (Scott Pape, Wiley)
  8. The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Heather Morris, Echo)
  9. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a ****: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (Mark Manson, Macmillan)
  10. The Rosie Result (Graeme Simsion, Text).

To see the top 10 most borrowed books in picture book, children’s, YA, fiction, nonfiction, biography and Australian categories, see the Civica website.

 

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