87,041 items were checked out of the Library in 2013. This number is consistent with previous years, showing that interest in reading and books is alive and well—at least in our little corner of the world. This blog post lists the top 10 most circulated titles in three categories: fiction, mysteries, and nonfiction. There are no big surprises here—these books received prominent, positive reviews and sold well—but perhaps you will see something that you missed.

Separate posts about 2012's top circulating mysteries, fiction, and nonfiction are also available on the Library blog.

— Patrick Rayner & Steven McGuirl, Acquisitions Dept. / Matthew Bright & Brynn White, Systems Dept. 

FICTION

For fans of literary fiction, 2013 proved to be abundant with choices from perennial favorites. Ian McEwan topped our list of most-circulated books of 2013 with Sweet Tooth, his novel of love and espionage set in Cold War era London. Library members Elizabeth Strout and Meg Wolitzer released new novels in 2013, and found great success among our readers. For those who didn’t have a chance to see Wolitzer talk about The Interestings at the Library in May of last year, you can watch it here.

It was also a great year for short stories and practitioners of the form. Tenth of December by George Saunders showed up on countless best-of-the-year lists. If this was your introduction to Saunders, be sure to check out some of his earlier books. Just missing our top 10 (by one measly check-out) was 2013 Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro’s most recent book, Dear Life. Like Saunders, Munro is remarkably consistent and her earlier work is available in the stacks.   

Though none made the top ten, several new novelists emerged last year. A few books worth mentioning include The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra – all popular with NYSL readers. 

1. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
2. The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
3. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
4. All That Is by James Salter
5. Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
6. The Round House by Louise Erdrich
7. Transatlantic by Colum McCann
8. Tenth of December by George Saunders
9. The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
10. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

MYSTERIES

The return of Commissario Guido Brunetti in The Golden Egg topped the list of most popular mysteries. Brunetti was not the only popular character to see action in 2013. Inspector John Rebus came out of retirement in Ian Rankin’s first Rebus novel in 5 years (Standing in Another Man’s Grave). Fans of Harry Bosch didn’t have to wait quite that long, but celebrated nonetheless with Michael Connelly’s The Black Box.

Also worth noting is the continuing popularity of espionage novels. Readers lined up for John Le Carre’s A Delicate Truth, published more than 50 years after his first novel. The English Girl by Daniel Silva was also eagerly anticipated and well-received by our members. 

But if you rely on word of mouth to know what you want to read next, perhaps you should check out Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. For the second year in a row it appears as number 3 on our top ten most circulated mysteries. For a book to remain that popular for that long requires people talking about it with their friends. Read it before the movie arrives in theaters in October.

1. The Golden Egg by Donna Leon
2. A Delicate Truth by John Le Carré
3. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
4. The English Girl by Daniel Silva
5. Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin
6. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
7. The Black Box by Michael Connelly
8. The Racketeer by John Grisham
9. How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny
10. Proof of Guilt by Charles Todd

NONFICTION

Fiction writers were well-represented on 2013's nonfiction list. Edna O’Brien, Richard Russo, and Julian Barnes, all celebrated for acclaimed literary careers, scored big with memoirs. Five of the ten books here are, in fact, memoirs, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s My Beloved World, which was our most-circulated nonfiction title of 2013 (111 checkouts).

Family relationships figure prominently. Andrew Solomon spent ten years researching over 300 families for Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity (you can watch his January 15, 2013, lecture at the Library here), memoirs by Richard Russo and Patricia Volk (view her December 4th NYSL lecture here) focus on strong mothers, and Julian Barnes’s Levels of Life is a meditation upon the death of his wife. Impressively, Barnes's novel Sense of an Ending was our most popular fiction title in 2012. 

Reza Aslan’s Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus was given a boost by a notorious interview with its author on Fox News that went viral. The book went to #2 on the New York Times bestseller list soon after after the broadcast, and requests at the Library quickly multiplied. Finally, there are two National Book Award winners on our list: George Packer’s The Unwinding and Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers. The latter won the NBA in 2012 and appeared on our 2012 nonfiction list in the same position as 2013 (#4). Ms. Boo is the only author to appear on both lists. 

1. My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor 
2. Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon 
3. Country Girl by Edna O’Brien 
4. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo 
5. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by John Meacham 
6. Elsewhere by Richard Russo 
7. Levels of Life by Julian Barnes 
8. Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, and Me by Patricia Volk
9. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan 
10. The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer