It’s the end of the year again, time to reflect on what has happened in the last 12 months. Which author’s books were most often checked out by Gering Library patrons in 2022? Will someone finally overcome C.J. Box’s multi-year streak? The results are in, and some of them require an explanation. 

To start with, Gering Library patrons saved a combined $474,804 by using the library in 2022 instead of buying their own books. That’s close to half a million dollars! Now on to the most popular books.

 “Run, Rose, Run” by James Patterson and Dolly Parton was checked out 20 times if you add large print and regular print together. C.J. Box’s “Shadows Reel” tied with Delia Owens’ 2018 book “Where the Crawdads Sing” with 16 checkouts.

Tied at 12 checkouts are “Maybe Someday” by Colleen Hoover, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” by Alan Dean Foster and “The Four Winds,” by Kristin Hannah- which coincidentally tied for first with C. J Box’s  “Dark Sky,” last year. Tied at 11 checkouts are “Maybe Not,” “Reminders of Him,” “Maybe Now,” and “Without Merit,” all by Colleen Hoover,  and “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. “Lessons in Chemistry,” by Bonnie Garmus was checked out 10 times.

So who is this Colleen Hoover? Hoover writes romance and maintains a lively social media presence. Her self-published books dominated the New York Times Bestseller list this year making up six of the top ten selling books of the year. She only published two books this year, so many of her readers have just discovered her and are catching up on her older books. James Patterson, by contrast, published an astonishing 22 books this year (we do not have all of them in our collection). He writes fiction and nonfiction as well as teen and children’s books.

The most popular magazines this year were “People,” “Prevention,” “Taste of Home,” and “Reader’s Digest.” All of these magazines were checked out more times than any of the top ranked books. Magazines are published several times per year, giving them an advantage over books.

Classics led the teen checkout list this year. “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton tied with “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyer, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” by Suzanne Collins, and “Me (Moth)” by Amber McBride. Following closely were “The Selection” by Kiera Cass and “Loveless” by Alice Oseman. The most popular graphic novel with 11 checkouts this year was “Spiral into Horror” by Junji Ito.

The most popular children’s books this year were “The Way I Feel” by Janan Cain, “Clumsy Crab” by Ruth Galloway, “Crocodiles Need Kisses Too” by Rebecca Colby, “Pete the Cat and the Bedtime Blues” by Kimberly and James Dean, “Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa” by Anna Dewdney, “Delightfully Different Dilly” by Elizabeth Dale, and three books by Dav Pilkey, “Dog Man: Grime and Punishment,” “Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties” and “Dog Man Unleashed.” 

The most popular movies included “Black Panther” followed by “Star Wars: Episode I the Phantom Menace,” Star Wars: the Force Awakens” and “Black Snake Moan.”

I keep track of the books I read on Goodreads. According to these records, I read around 90 books this year (some were children’s books). The only books I read this year that made the list of most popular books in our library were “Dog Man: A Tail of Two Kitties” and “Lessons in Chemistry.”