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FILE: Shelves filled with books at the City Lights Bookstore, an independent bookstore founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin on Columbus Avenue in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood.
Robert Alexander/Getty Images
The San Francisco Public Library recently released its list of the top books of 2023, ranked by how frequently a title was checked out during the year. Many of the titles may even be familiar to those less bookish, as they’ve been adapted for film or television as well.
The data breaks down the most popular titles by e-book and print, nonfiction and fiction. The most prevailing theme was the popularity of books that are being made or have been made into a movie or TV series. The top adult fiction e-book, “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin, had its rights purchased by Paramount Pictures in 2021, and “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus, the second most popular print fiction book, was recently released as a miniseries on Apple TV+.
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This trend was especially prominent among young adult fiction, a trend Kate Patterson, director of communications for the SFPL, said she’s seen in the past. The top pick, “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas, is being made into a TV series that is slated to debut on Hulu, and “The Summer I Turned Pretty” by Jenny Han is already a popular series on Amazon Prime Video.
Overall, fiction is more popular than nonfiction for San Francisco readers, Patterson said, though nonfiction such as cookbooks, travel books and memoirs are still fairly popular. The library also keeps track of the highest circulating vinyl records, with Miles Davis and Pink Floyd edging out Taylor Swift as most popular.
Here are the top picks from the year:
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- “When No One Is Watching” by Alyssa Cole
- “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus
- “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
- “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin
- “The Covenant of Water” by Abraham Verghese
- “Our Missing Hearts” by Celeste Ng
- “When We Were Sisters” by Fatimah Asghar
- “Dry” by Neal Shusterman
- “Happy Place” by Emily Henry
- “Hello Beautiful” by Ann Napolitano
Top e-books adult fiction
- “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin
- “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus
- “Happy Place” by Emily Henry
- “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
- “Verity” by Colleen Hoover
- “Our Missing Hearts” by Celeste Ng
- “Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr
- “The Paris Apartment” by Lucy Foley
- “It Starts With Us” by Colleen Hoover
- “Book Lovers” by Emily Henry
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