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Among NYC's many landmarks are its libraries, which tend to not only be beautiful, but turn around quite a few books—this year saw 25 million items circulating through the 92-library system. The NYPL just released its list of most popular books of 2016, and, as would be expected, it's quite a mix. Paula Hawkins' thriller The Girl on the Train made the number one spot, followed by Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World And Me. As the film adaptation of The Girl On the Train was perhaps one of the most blandly white movies of all time, it's nice to see a strong counterbalance from the insightful, influential Coates.
Harper Lee dominated the list, with To Kill a Mockingbird and its controversial sequel Go Set a Watchmen making the top ten, along with the essay collections Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling. Even on a break year for Master of None, Ansari still rules when it comes to New Yorkers. The rest of the top ten includes The Goldfinch, All the Light We Cannot See, When Breath Becomes Air and The Nightingale.
On a borough-by-borough basis, some interesting favorites creep in. Readers in the Bronx and Staten Island couldn't get enough of James Patterson's NYPD Red 4, while Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up was in Manhattan's top five (just as High Maintenance envisioned).
As for my personal holds from 2016, I'll say that I couldn't get through Shonda Rhimes Year of Yes or Ronda Rousey's My Fight/Your Fight, but I absolutely adored Samantha Bee's I Know I Am, But What Are You, along with Dan Slott and the Allreds' Silver Surfer trade from Marvel and Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder's Superman: Action Comics collection.
What will be big in 2017? Until Tina Fey announces a follow-up to Bossypants, it's anyone's guess.