There’s not many good things about the quarantine, but one of the few upsides is that people now have a chance to catch up on their reading.
New Yorkers are definitely taking advantage of their temporary confinement. The New York Public Library released a list of the most popular e-books that patrons have borrowed while on lockdown.
“Though our doors are closed, the Library still provides access to over 300,000 e-books through our free e-reader app, SimplyE,” the NYPL writes on its website. “Since the Library closed about a month ago, e-book checkouts have increased nearly 10% compared to the same period last year.”
The No. 1 pick for housebound (OK, small-apartment-bound) New Yorkers is Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, the library says, followed by Tara Westover’s Educated.
Two recent works of literary fiction came in at No. 3 and No. 4: Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House and James McBride’s Deacon King Kong, respectively.
Two novels by Margaret Atwood made the list: The Handmaid’s Tale at No. 10 and its sequel, The Testaments, at No. 5. Sally Rooney’s buzzy Normal People came in at No. 7, followed by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer.
In a sign that virtual therapy sessions might not be cutting it for many New Yorkers, Lori Gottlieb’s Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed came in at No. 6.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
