Top Circulating Books

“Knowledge is like money: To be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.”
― Louis L'Amour, Education of a Wandering Man  

In the library, "circulation" means a lot of things.  What's sometimes called the "library card desk" is also known as "circulation".  When we look at a book's record, we count how many times it has checked out as its "circs". The library's collection floats (items checked out at one branch and returned at another stay at the branch at which they are returned), but its items circulate.

Are you ever curious about which titles get checked out the most in the library system? We've generated a couple of lists of the top circulating titles from the last three months.  We start with fiction:

	Top Circulating Fiction Titles
	December 2013	January 2014	February 2014
1	Never Go Back by Lee Child	Doing Hard Time by Stuart Woods	Never Go Back by Lee Child
2	W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton	Never Go Back by Lee Child	Inferno by Dan Brown
3	Inferno by Dan Brown	Inferno by Dan Brown	W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton
4	Doing Hard Time by Stuart Woods	W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton	Sycamore Row by John Grisham
5	The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg	Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich	Doing Hard Time by Stuart Woods
6	The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith	Sycamore Row by John Grisham	The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly
7	Sycamore Row by John Grisham	Spider Woman’s Daughter by Anne Hillerman	The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
8	Storm Front by John Sandford	And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini	Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich
9	12th of Never by James Patterson	The Cuckoo’s Calling by John Galbraith	King and Maxwell by David Baldacci
10	Spider Woman’s Daughter by Anne Hillerman	The English Girl by Daniel Silva	Second Watch by J.A. Jance

 

Here's non-fiction:

	Top Circulating Non-Fiction Titles
	December 2013	January 2014	February 2014
1	Fables by Bill Willingham*	Fables by Bill Willingham*	Fables by Bill Willingham*
2	Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore*	Killing Jesus by Bill O’Reilly	Killing Jesus by Bill O’Reilly
3	Y by Brian K. Vaughan*	Y by Brian K. Vaughan*	Wild by Cheryl Strayed
4	Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand	Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore*	Y by Brian K. Vaughan*
5	The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg	Wild by Cheryl Strayed	Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore*
6	Blink by Malcolm Gladwell	The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg	Zealot by Reza Aslan
7	Invincible by Robert Kirkman*	David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell	Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
8	Wild by Cheryl Strayed	Invincible by Robert Kirkman*	Jack of Fables by Bill Willingham*
9	Killing Jesus by Bill O’Reilly	Still Foolin’ ‘Em by Billy Crystal	The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond
10	House of Mystery by Matthew Sturges*	Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand	David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

Are you surprised by any of the titles? Have you read any of them? Would you consider reading them based on their popularity?


*graphic novel series

Revealed: The Folio Prize Shortlist

On February 10, the literary world was abuzz over the release of the contenders for the newest literary fiction award on the block, the Folio Prize. Sponsored by the Folio Society (known as a UK publisher of beautiful books), the award is billed as the first major English language award open to writers of all nationalities. According to the Folio Prize's website: "Its aim is simple: to celebrate the best fiction of our time, regardless of form or genre, and to bring it to the attention of as many readers as possible."

Here at abcreads, we anticipate the annual release of the Man Booker Prize shortlist (which administrators recently announced will now include English language writers from around the globe beginning this year), and we are interested to see how the these changes will affect the literary award landscape. 

Here you can find selected list books from the Folio Prize shortlist!

Red Doc by Anne Carson

Schroder by Amity Gaige

Benediction by Kent Haruf (ebook)

A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava

Tenth of December by George Saunders (ebook)


Related Links

"American, women authors dominate shortlist of new Folio Prize"

"Folio Prize announces inaugural shortlist of eight books"

Lyrical Lit: Songs with Literary References

Have you ever been excited to hear a reference to a book you love in a song?  Do you ever wonder if some songs have drawn inspiration from works of literature?  We're hear to tell you that there are plenty of artists out there combining love of reading with a talent for songwriting. Bruce Springsteen, Rosanne Cash, Panic! at the Disco, Radiohead, The Cure, David Bowie...at some point in their careers, all these artists have made their love of literature known.  We've taken it upon ourselves to put together a list of some songs with literary references which can be found in the library catalog, and thrown in some books with song references for good measure.

Some of the literary references are easily found in the lyrics:

The Lord of the Rings

 T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her, her, her....yeah. 
~Led Zeppelin, "Ramble On"

Listen to the music! Read the book!

Middlemarch

I am the son
and the heir
of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and the heir
of nothing in particular
~The Smiths, "How Soon Is Now?"

Listen to music!  Read the book!
*The novel describes one of the minor characters as “the son of a Middlemarch manufacturer, and inevitable heir to nothing in particular.” [Shmoop]

Wuthering Heights

Bad dreams in the night.
They told me I was going to lose the fight,
Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff, it's me--Cathy.
Come home. I'm so cold!
Let me in at your window.
~Kate Bush, "Wuthering Heights"

Listen to the music!  Read the book!

Songs of Experience

Take a journey to the bright midnight
End of the night, end of the night
Realms of bliss, realms of light
Some are born to sweet delight
Some are born to sweet delight
Some are born to the endless night 
~The Doors, "End of the Night"

Listen to the music!  Read the book!

Some of the references are not as easily found.  According to Mental Floss,  Devo's "Whip It" is "an imitation of Thomas Pynchon's parodies in his book Gravity's Rainbow" and Rolling Stone's "Sympathy for the Devil" drew inspiration from both Bulgakov's The Master and the Margarita and the works of Charles Baudelaire.

And the references work both ways!  Douglas Coupland has books called Girlfriend in a Coma [The Smiths] and Eleanor Rigby, Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box title is an homage to Nirvana, and Haruki Murakami wrote a book called Norwegian Wood.  Mystery writer Ian Rankin titled two of his Rebus mystery novels with references to the Rolling Stones' oeuvre: Let It Bleed and Black and Blue.

Links

Songs With Literary References

24 Awesome Musical Shout-Outs to Literature

Ten Songs With Literary References

11 Songs Inspired by Literature

Wikipedia's List of songs that retell a work of literature

Cinema by the Book: Recent Movies (and Award Nominees!) Based on Books

There are a lot of movies out there based on books right now, some of them nominated for an Oscar at the 86th Academy Awards show on March 2!  What's your pleasure?  Do you like to read the book first or see the movie first?  Do you think the book is always better than the movie?

The movies based on the books listed below can't be found in the library catalog yet, but keep checking our New on DVD list!  Of course, if you'd prefer to watch Oscar-winning films of the past or read about Academy Awards instead, we can help you with that too.


Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Philomena: A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search by Martin Sixsmith

Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers by Valerie Lawson [one of the sources for Saving Mr. Banks]

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

August: Osage County by Tracy Letts

"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" in Writings and Drawings by James Thurber

The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort

Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh

A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carré

Life Itself by Roger Ebert

The Double ; and, The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky [The Double]

One for Sorrow by Christopher Barzak [Jamie Marks is Dead]

The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin