These were the top checkouts at NYC’s public libraries in 2023

You can tell a lot about what has been on New Yorkers’ minds this year by the books we’ve been reading.

As they do every year, New York City’s public libraries have once again released the top 10 checkouts—the most popular book titles—of 2023 and there are some trends worth noting.

RECOMMENDED: Most NYC libraries will now be closed on Sundays

Across the boroughs, many New Yorkers were interested in the lives of celebrities and public figures. Prince Harry’s Spare and Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died were in the top 10 checkouts this year.

Novelists Emily Henry, Colleen Hoover and Bonnie Garmus were particularly popular this year across the city, too. But Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin was either the second or third-most popular in each system.

Some of the books were titles on NYPL’s and WNYC’s “Get Lit!” virtual book club, like Yellowface by R. F. Kuang and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.

These were the top checkouts at NYC’s public libraries in 2023:

Top 10 adult titles

Brooklyn Public Library

1. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

2. Spare by Prince Harry

3. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

4. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

5. Book Lovers by Emily Henry

6. Happy Place by Emily Henry

7. The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

8. Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

9. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

10. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

New York Public Library (Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island)

Systemwide:

1. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

2. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

3. Spare by Prince Harry

4. Book Lovers by Emily Henry

5. Verity by Colleen Hoover

6. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

7. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

8. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

9. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

10. Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Queens Public Library 

1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

2. Spare by Prince Harry

3. Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

4. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

5. It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover

6. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

7. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

8. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

9. Verity by Colleen Hoover

10. 101 Essays that Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest

The top children’s books checkouts included Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, Dog Man by Dav Pilkey, and still Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling. Young adults enjoyed series such as A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy by Jenny Han, and Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games.

You can check out the full lists of 2023’s top checkouts at nypl.org, bklynlib.org and connect.queenslibrary.org.