Osman, Rowling, Garmus and Goodlad top Shetland Library's most borrowed list
Shetland Library’s most borrowed list for 2024 has been collated. It is no big surprise that our top lending fiction author is Richard Osman again, and J.K. Rowling makes a comeback to take first and second place in junior fiction. There are some surprises though, for example Shetland’s own John Goodlad is top of the eAudio borrowing list with ‘The Salt Roads’, and this means he also tops the Shetland list for the second year running.
Online audiobooks continue to be really popular, both on Borrowbox and Libby. On our Libby app we have many multi-users ones that lend well because there is no waiting list. These include fiction series by Tim Sullivan, Marion Todd, Val McDermid and Freida McFadden. We publish lists of multi-user Libby audiobooks and eBooks on our website because this can be helpful when choosing books for groups. www.shetland.gov.uk/libraries/ebooks/4
To some extent borrowing is influenced by how many copies we buy, and that is a delicate balance between budget and demand. Book group sets feature strongly in our list of physical loans. A surprise at number two is Gabrielle Zevin’s ‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’, which was read by a couple of library groups. Other group sets in the list include ‘The Island of Missing Trees’ by Elif Shafak and ‘What you are looking for is in the library’ by Michiko Aoyama. The extra interest and publicity around group reads might encourage more readers, as well as the extra copies. ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ by Bonnie Garmus, another popular group choice, is second only to Richard Osman for the second year in a row, when you add together their physical and online loans.
The most popular adult non-fiction has a strong North Isles theme. It is topped for the second year running by ‘Finding Hildasay’ by Chris Lewis, followed by Amy Liptrot’s Orkney memoir ‘The Outrun’ and Jen Stout’s new book about the Ukraine War ‘Night Train to Odessa’. Nick Grainger’s epic sailing adventure ‘The Voyage of the Aegre’, which he launched at Shetland Library, remains on the list. Prince Harry’s ‘Spare’ remains popular and a newcomer is Rory Stewart’s ‘Politics on the Edge’. Air fryer books are also lending well.
For junior non-fiction, strong themes rather than particular books are evident – 500 loans for Minecraft books, 377 for Pokemon and 151 for the timelessly popular Titanic disaster. Junior fiction remains dominated by Dav Pilkey, Jeff Kinney and Liz Pichon, though the enduring Harry Potter tops them all. For younger readers, Julia Donaldson still dominates the picture book list, though Peppa Pig is making a strong showing. There is a bit more variety in the Young Adult list. Holly Jackson is very popular, but a seasoned favourite takes top spot – ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins.
The Library’s extensive Shetland collection is still lending well and many of the books never go out of fashion. Top in 2024 for physical loans is Sally Huband’s ‘Sea Bean’ and some books new to the list performing strongly include Catherine Williamson’s ‘Shetland: Around Whalefirth and Herra’, and Jen Hadfield’s ‘Storm Pegs’. ‘Storm Pegs’ was only launched in the summer, so might have topped the list if it had been lending all year. Marsali Taylor’s crime novels remain popular, and several Shetland gardening and wildlife books loaned well.