Most Borrowed Books

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

The PLR (Public Lending Right) have issued their annual warning:

Online applications must be submitted by midnight on Monday 30 June 2014 to be included in the year end calculations. Postal applications must also be received by no later than 30 June. You can apply to register your published titles online or via an application form. Alternatively you can request a form to be posted to you.

Amongst this year's newsletter links was a very entertaining report by the British Library listing the most borrowed books in libraries throughout 2014.

For the seventh year running, James Patterson retains his crown as the Most Borrowed Author in UK libraries. No fewer than fifteen books by US thriller writer Patterson also appear in the UK’s Top 100 Most Borrowed Titles list, according to data released today by Public Lending Right. 

Erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James shoots straight in at No 3 in the Top 10 Most Borrowed Titles list, along with two Wimpy Kid titles by hugely popular US children’s writer, Jeff Kinney.  

The Most Borrowed Titles list also features two rare Top 10 appearances by literary novels, with Hilary Mantel’s 2012 Man Booker winner, Bring Up the Bodies at No 8, and The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling at No 10.  

Interesting regional variations are also revealed by the PLR data. Whereas Fifty Shades of Grey was the most borrowed book in both Essex and Suffolk libraries, borrowers in London, Northamptonshire and Telford & Wrekin preferred Diary of a Wimpy Kid, whilst those in Yorkshire championed Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.  

No fewer than six children’s writers feature in the Top 10 Most Borrowed Authors list. Big risers on the Top 500 list include children’s author and illustrator, Jeanne Willis (up to 20th from 31st); children’s author and comedian, David Walliams (up to 157th from 430th); and two-time Man Booker winner, Hilary Mantel (up to 177th from 404th).  

It was a less successful year for US romance writer Danielle Steel who drops out of the Top 10 Most Borrowed Adult Fiction Authors list for the first time since comprehensive PLR records began in 1988/89.

If you're wondering what to write that will get library-goers reading, that's your answer.