Sarah Laskow

theconceptlibrarian:

capitalnewyork:

How the New York Public Library keeps track of what New Yorkers want to read (and tries to meet the demand)

In January, four out of the library’s five most circulated works—the closest thing the library has to a best-sellers list—came from well-known authors of genre fiction. Kill Alex Cross follows James Patterson’s detective as he tries to track down the president’s kidnapped children. Janet Evanovich’s Explosive Eighteen has Trenton-based bail-bondswoman Stephanie Plum tangled up in an F.B.I. investigation…. Hotel Vendôme does not feature any recurring characters, but it is by Danielle Steel. In The Drop, journalist-turned-crime writer Michael Connelly unleashes detective Harry Bosch upon a trio of cases that just might be connected.

Same list in StL. Just the same.

In fact, the next one mentioned is The Help, which is just as popular here, and Steve Jobs and The Marriage Plot and The Hunger Games and on and on and on — I don’t mean to be surprised, but yet I’m taken aback by the uniform tastes. It’s like I forgot that popular works are…popular. Weird.