From Jack Reacher to the Gruffalo - and with a thirst for crime - the most popular authors and books borrowed from Lincolnshire’s libraries revealed
Loans from Lincolnshire’s libraries were at a five-year high in 2024… with Yellowbellies proving they have a thirst for crime.
From fantastic fiction to reliable recipes, almost 2,000,000 books were borrowed across the county last year.
Hopefully for escapism purposes only, crime proved to be the most popular genre, while thriller writer James Patterson — whose work includes Along Came A Spider and Kiss The Girls — was the most popular author.
Jack Reacher writer Lee Child and Richard Osman — the TV-presenter-turned novelist behind the Thursday Murder Club series — penned the books which created the biggest buzz across the county thanks to their 2023 releases.
And proving that the youngsters still enjoy a good book, children’s authors Julia Donaldson, Dav Pilkey and Daisy Meadows also saw tens of thousands of their stories taken home.
The amount of books borrowed from Lincolnshire’s libraries continues to rise year-on-year since the Covid pandemic, information provided following a freedom of information request has revealed.
Last year a total of 1,903,167 titles were loaned out from the county’s libraries, a rise on the 1,838,092 taken out in 2023.
In 2022 the number stood at 1,661,315 while numbers were much lower during Covid restrictions, with 1,153,945 borrowed in 2021 and 810,756 in 2020.
The most borrowed book in 2024 was The Secret by Lee Child with 1,389 loans, with The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman number two in the list.
The top 10 most borrowed books were: 1 The Secret by Lee Child (1,389 loans); 2 The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman (1,291); 3 The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves (1,142); 4 ?The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (1,071); 5 Stop Them Dead by Peter James (986); 6 The Last Dance by Mark Billingham (903); 7 Cat Kid Comic Club by Dav Pilkey (897); 8 The Great Deceiver by Elly Griffiths 883; 9 The Last Word by Elly Griffiths (880); 10 None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell (874)
The Secret by Lee Child was also the most borrowed fiction book, while Richard Osman’s The Last Devil To Die was 2024’s most requested book.
The most borrowed non-fiction book was Bored of Lunch, Nathan Anthony’s collection of air fryer and slow cooker recipes proving Lincolnshire folk were looking for something different on their plate this year. It was loaned out 632 times.
The most borrowed children's book was Cat Kid Comic Club by popular American author and illustrator Dav Pikey, the man behind the Captain Underpants and Dog Man titles, loaned out 897 times.
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman was borrowed 802 times, making it the most popular book from the teen/young adult genre.
Man of the moment Richard Osman topped The most borrowed audiobook list with The Man Who Died Twice loaned out 64 times
In this age of online streaming, the most popular DVD was multi-Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, which was borrowed just 37 times.
By overall number of books borrowed, James Patterson came out on top with a total of 22,190 - an impressive 1% of all books borrowed across the county.
In second was Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson (18,076) with Daisy Meadows, writer of the kids’ Rainbow Magic series, third with 12,675.
Completing the top five were Lauren Holowaty - who has brought many famous kids’ TV favourites such as Peppa Pig, Bing!, Bluey and Hey Duggee to print - (9,498) and British crime, mystery and thriller author Elly Griffiths (9,485).
The most popular book by each of the top five most borrowed authors were: 1 Obsessed by James Patterson & James O. Born (634); 2 Have you seen the Gruffalo? by Julia Donaldson (376); 3 Festive Fairies Collection: Six Stories In One by Daisy Meadows (147); 4 Dream big, Peppa! Peppa's Great Dinosaur Hunt: A Lift-The-Flap Book by Lauren Holowaty (253); 5 The Great Deceiver by Elly Griffiths (901).
Proving that consistency is key, the this top five was in exactly the same order as in 2023, with very slight changes to borrowing numbers.
In 2023 James Patterson saw 22,369 books borrowed, Julia Donaldson 17,743, Daisy Meadows 13,422, Lauren Holowaty 10,000 and Elly Griffiths 9,953.
All data provided relates to hard copy items across the core, mobile and hub sites that make up Lincolnshire Libraries and doesn’t include books and audiobooks accessed via the Libby app.
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