Local library users make Obama book top page-turner

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This article was published 10/01/2020 (2243 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bestseller and autobiographies dominated the checkout lines at Winnipeg’s public libraries this year, with Michelle Obama’s Becoming at the top of the list of popular books of 2019.

There were more than 2.4 million visits to Winnipeg Public Library locations last year.

During those visits (and those during the last two months of 2018) since Becoming was published Nov. 13, 2018, it was signed out 3,492 times in Winnipeg. That includes regular print, large print, audiobook, e-book and e-audiobook copies, of which there are 82.

“I take the bus to work every day, and when I’m on the bus and I’m sitting across from someone who’s reading a library book, it gives me the warm feels,” said collections librarian Barbara Bourrier-LaCroix.

Throughout 2019, she — perhaps, unsurprisingly — spotted riders with Obama’s memoir.

Her hypothesis behind the most popular book amongst local readers in 2019?

Winnipeggers were nostalgic for the two-term U.S. president Barack Obama administration and were curious to learn more about the well-spoken and incredibly intelligent former first lady’s experience in power.

“There was so much buzz about that book before it even came out and then, when it came out, you could see the numbers coming,” she said, adding Obama’s visit to Winnipeg in September 2019 likely brought even more attention to her autobiography.

The memoir was also the book most taken out at the Edmonton Public Library last year.

In Winnipeg, following Becoming, top checked-out titles included Educated (February 2018) by Tara Westover and Where the Crawdads Sing (August 2018) by Delia Owens. Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments (September 2019) also generated interest at local libraries.

The library tracks checkouts, not by year, but by numbers dating to a title’s release, so it’s unclear exactly what books placed in what order in 2019. Although, Becoming’s total checkouts far surpassed the others, which are 2,586, 1,976 and 849, respectively.

At one point in 2019, there were 500 holds for Becoming, prompting the library to order more copies. Still, Bourrier-LaCroix said some readers would have had to wait, on the lower end of the scale, three to four months to obtain a copy for three weeks. The library attempts to have a one-to-five ratio for copies to books.

Demand drives the library’s orders and orders are often determined by staff predictions based on authors’ histories, positive book reviews, celebrity endorsements, movie adaptations and high hold counts once books are on the shelves, among other things. (Bourrier-LaCroix said after the Free Press reviews books in its Saturday edition, librarians witness a rise in demand for the reviewed titles when they come into work the following Monday.)

When it comes to mysteries, which are favourites among Winnipeg’s 329,611 card holders, the library often has to order more copies to meet demand. Bourrier-LaCroix said it was no surprise an October 2019 release, The Guardians by John Grisham was flying off the shelves.

“Winnipeggers love mysteries. They love them — any kind of mystery; it can be a cosy mystery, it can be a procedural, if somebody’s on the hunt for a serial killer,” said Bourrier-LaCroix. “Maybe because we have longer winters and so it’s kind of fun to read in the evening when it’s cold outside and you’re snuggled up and you can see if you can figure out the mystery before it’s laid out in the book.”

The main trend that stood out to the collections librarian in 2019 was an increase in demand for contemporary romances; many library visitors picked up copies of Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. 

There are approximately 1.3 million physical items at the Winnipeg Public Library, including books, audiobooks, magazines, DVDs, Blu-rays, video games and CDs.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie