Trends in Adult Winter Reading
by Beth Cronk, Meeker County Librarian
Every year it’s fun to see what Litchfield folks read for the annual adult winter reading program at the library. This year, 121 people participated in the program. They turned in reading logs for 514 different books, which they read and rated since the program began in January.
Participants choose what they want to read, which leads to so much variety. This year no books were read by more than two of the people who turned in reviews.
The most-read author in this year’s winter reading program was Agatha Christie. She has been popular in previous years, too. Not bad for an author who died 48 years ago! This year’s winter readers turned in twelve reviews of nine of her books, which included The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Murder on the Links.
Coming in second was William Kent Krueger, the tremendously popular Minnesota author. Our readers turned in nine reviews of nine different books by him, which included Fox Creek and Sulfur Springs.
Tying for third place were Nora Roberts and James Patterson, with eight reviews each. For Roberts, these were eight different titles, and for Patterson they were seven unique titles and a repeat. Other popular authors included Lisa Jackson, Tamera Alexander, Linda Lael Miller, John Sandford, and Sara Shepard.
The most popular genres were romance and mystery. The participants read very few science fiction, fantasy, or horror novels.
Classics were well-represented among this year’s books, including Jane Eyre, A Study in Scarlet, Dracula, and multiple works by Plato. Recent bestsellers were also in the mix, including Fourth Wing, Lessons in Chemistry, House of Flame and Shadow, and The Inmate.
In addition to novels for adults, participants in the program can choose to read nonfiction, or books for young readers, and they did both. The most popular subject in nonfiction was Christianity. Other topics included law, gardening, cooking, finance, dieting, raising chickens, and ice fishing. Juvenile and YA books included the Goosebumps and the Warriors series.
Some of the participants read multiple books by one author. Others read a wide variety. When you participate in the program, you read whatever you want! Credit goes to library staff member Mikaila for compiling these interesting statistics about this year’s program.
Thank you to the Friends of the Litchfield Public Library for sponsoring the prize drawing for the program. Everyone who turned in a reading log by March 16 with six books read and rated was entered into the drawing for three gift certificates to local businesses. It’s a fun bonus on top of the small prizes that everyone gets for taking part in this reading challenge.
Watch for more information on the library’s summer reading program for children and teens that begins in June. The adult winter program will be offered again in January of next year.