NYPL’s Top Checkouts of 2024

So, what did New Yorkers read this year? Some books from last year's list continued to be popular in 2024, including Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin—a 2022 novel about friendship and love in the world of video games—and James McBride's 2023 historical murder mystery The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Notable, too, is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, recently adapted into a Golden Globe–nominated miniseries, which made it into the top 10 for the third year running.

As usual, most of the top checkouts were novels, including family sagas, romances, and mysteries. Popular nonfiction titles included Erik Larson's account of the buildup to the American Civil War, and David Grann's 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon, a history of murder in the Osage Nation in the 1920s and the oldest title on this year's list, which may have received a boost from Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated movie adaptation.

More from the Library

Of course, Top Checkouts don't tell the whole story. They represent just a tiny fraction of the enormous range of books and other materials checked out by New Yorkers in 2024. Whatever you're interested in reading or finding out, you can find millions of books, e-books, and audiobooks in NYPL’s collections, titles in a wide array of world languages, and a large number of books in accessible formats, including large print, talking books (DB), braille (BR), and through Bookshare (BK). There are lots of ways to discover new reads for the new year at NYPL! Check out our Best Books of 2024, download our free e-reader app, or simply search the catalog to get started.