These Were the Top Checkouts at Seward Park and Chatham Square Libraries in 2016

This image has been archived or removed.

Using the library is an unspoken form of dedication, whether it be electronically or in the flesh. It’s a commitment that says that you really want to read a given book, to the point where you’re willing to race against the two-week timeframe (plus a renewal here or there) to read it. It’s a patience that shows you’re willing to add yourself to a hold list, and wait – sometimes for months – before your number is called to pick up the latest Stephen King thriller.  It’s a humbleness that only a circulation desk attendant can initiate, when you’re suddenly made aware that you owe four dollars and thirty-five cents on some YA vampire romance puff piece. Oops.

Now you can see what other likeminded library users throughout the city have been reading. The New York Public Library just released their lists for the Top Check Outs of 2016. It comes as no surprise that Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air cracked the top five, systemwide, and it’s pretty cool to see Harper Lee on the list twice.

“Our top check outs certainly reflect the varied tastes and interests of New Yorkers – a richness and diversity that makes New York City unique, and its communities special,” said Christopher Platt, NYPL’s Chief Branch Library Officer. “As an institution that promotes learning, discussion, debate, education, creative expression, and thought, we are so proud to see such a wide variety of titles being borrowed, and look forward to a new year full of reading.”

Here’s what the Lower East Siders have been reading. Lots of SAT prep…

What was your favorite read of 2016?

Seward Park

1. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nahesi Coates
2. Scribblenauts Unmasked: a DC Comics Adventure by Joshua Elder
3. Princeton Review 500+ Practice Questions for the New SAT Created for the Redesigned 2016 Exam
4. T SAT Subject Test Math Level 2 by Richard Ku
5. NYPD Red 4 by James Patterson
6. Tiny Titans: Return to the Treehouse by Franco Aureliani and Art Baltazar
7. Naruto. Vol. 71 by Masashi Kishimoto
8. AP Calculus AB 2014-2015 by William Ma
9. Gray-man by Katsura D. Hoshino
10. Let’s review: The Physical Setting Physics by Miriam A Lazar

Chatham Square

1. Princeton Review 500+ Practice Questions for the New SAT Created for the Redesigned 2016 Exam
2. Scribblenauts Unmasked: a DC Comics Adventure by Joshua Elder
3. Cracking the New SAT by John Katzman and Adam Robinson
4. Let’s review: The Physical Setting Physics by Miriam A Lazar
5. Blue Exorcist by Kazue Kato and John Werry,
6. AP Calculus AB 2014-2015 by William Ma
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. Cracking the GRE by Douglas Pierce
9. T SAT Subject Test Math Level 2 by Richard Ku
10. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

NYPL’s Top 10 Books Systemwide

1. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
2. Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates
3. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
4. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
5. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
6. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
9. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
10. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah