Reacher thrillers top library checkouts
Reader services librarian Lucy Mitchell with the most issued library book in Nelson over the past year. Photo: Supplied.
Nelson bookworms can’t get enough of thriller author Lee Child, according to our library checkout receipts.
The four most popular books at Nelson Public Libraries in the past year were written by the popular author, with ‘Better Off Dead’ (co-authored with Andrew Child) being issued 438 times with an additional 30 renewals.
“This book features the always popular fictional character Jack Reacher, and we hold copies of it in regular print, large print, as a talking book and an eBook, meaning Nelson readers can enjoy Jack in all forms,” says Nelson City Council’s group manager community services, Andrew White.
“With the second, third, and fourth most popular books from the past year also written by Lee Child, it should come as no surprise that the author has taken out the top spot for quite a few years.”
His newest Jack Reacher novel, ‘The Secret’, will be hitting library shelves this October, but fans can start placing holds now through the library website or app.
In the children’s section, Andrew says Geronimo Stilton books fly off the shelves every school holidays.
“In non-fiction, it was Prince Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’ which claimed the most popular title and had one of the longest waiting lists we’ve encountered.”
Despite the partial closure of the Elma Turner Library in July 2021, Andrew says their collections have continued to be well-used and memberships continue to increase.
“With the pandemic and partial closure of the library, there has been a fluctuation in membership numbers, but we have continued to see new registrations.”
A total of 1,784 members joined the library in the past year while 557,866 items were issued, including 105,216 digital items and 452,650 physical items.
“While these numbers are down on pre-pandemic levels, we expect that now we have returned to 70 per cent of the total library space available to the public, those numbers will continue to grow.”
For those who cannot make it to the library to borrow a book, Elma Turner Library has 23,574 eBooks available across two platforms - Libby and Borrow Box.
“As there is more space available within the library, we’ve also been able to increase our virtual reality offering,” adds Andrew.
“Customers can book a virtual reality headset for use within the library, which are being made available more frequently.”