Posted on January 14, 2020 at 7:08 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
The New York Public Library is celebrating its upcoming 125th birthday by calculating which books it has lent out the most often.
Without further ado:
1. The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats: 485,583 checkouts
2. The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss: 469,650 checkouts
3. 1984, by George Orwell: 441,770 checkouts
4. Where The Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak: 436,016 checkouts
5. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee: 422,912 checkouts
6. Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White: 337,948 checkouts
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury: 316,404 checkouts
8. How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: 284,524 checkouts
9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling: 231,022 checkouts
10. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle: 189,550 checkouts
The NYPL gave honorable mention to Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, which was unavailable from its 1947 publication until 1972, simply because the children’s librarian hated the book.
Factors that boost checkouts, according to the NYPL’s news release, include such obvious points as book length, book age, and awards, but also availability in multiple languages, position on school lists or curriculums, and relationship to current events.
Categories: Today in Books