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PLR shows focus on crime and kids

03.02.12 | Benedicte Page

Crime and thriller authors, almost all American, make up every one of the top 10 most borrowed titles from UK libraries between July 2010 and June 2011, according to the annual statistics released by the Public Lending Right today (3rd February).

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol (Transworld) is the single most borrowed book with 78,342 loans, while thriller writing phenomenon James Patterson has five novels to his name in the top 10, and is—for a fifth year—the single most borrowed author in the UK library service.

The Lost Symbol’s total number of loans is down from that of last year’s most-borrowed book, James Patterson’s Swimsuit (Century), which racked up 86,342 loans in 2009–10, reflecting the decline in adult borrowing figures already revealed by Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy annual library figures.

For a second year, Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo (Macmillan Children’s Books) was the most borrowed children’s title, racking up 48,228 loans in total.

Following another trend familiar from CIPFA statistics—which have showed continued growth in children’s borrowing from UK libraries—there is a strong presence of children’s writers among the most borrowed authors. Daisy Meadows, the brand behind the Rainbow Magic series, follows Patterson in second place, with Jacqueline Wilson in fourth, Francesca Simon in fifth, children’s laureate Julia Donaldson in seventh and Mick Inkpen ninth.

The most borrowed non-fiction title, Bill Bryson’s At Home, racked up a total of 35,748 loans.

Jacqueline Wilson is the most borrowed author of the past 10 years, with over 16.5 million loans. “The PLR data clearly shows that many children still love borrowing books,” Wilson commented.

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