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Behold, the 10 Most Checked-Out Books in N.Y. Public Library History

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To celebrate its 125th anniversary (which happens to be this year), the New York Public Library crunched the numbers to determine which are its most checked-out books of all time. How? According to the NYPL, "A team of experts from the Library carefully evaluated a series of key factors to determine the most borrowed books, including historic checkout and circulation data (for all formats, including e-books), overall trends, current events, popularity, length of time in print, and presence in the Library catalog." Isn't data fun? Check out the top ten below to see how many you've read. 

44 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2020


the snowy day

1. the Snowy Day By Ezra Jack Keats (485,583 Checkouts)

the cat in the hat dr seuss

2. the Cat In The Hat By Dr. Seuss (469,650 Checkouts)

george orwell 1984

3. 1984 By George Orwell (441,770 Checkouts)

where the wild things are

4. where The Wild Things Are By Maurice Sendak (436,016 Checkouts)

to kill a mockingbird harper lee

5. to Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee (422,912 Checkouts)

charlottes web

6. charlotte’s Web By E.b. White (337,948 Checkouts)

farenheit 451

7. fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury (316,404 Checkouts)

how to win friends and influence ppl

8. how To Win Friends And Influence People By Dale Carnegie (284,524 Checkouts)

harry potter

9. harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone By J.k. Rowling (231,022 Checkouts)

the very hungry caterpillar

10. the Very Hungry Caterpillar By Eric Carle (189,550 Checkouts)


sarah stiefvater

Wellness Director

Sarah Stiefvater is PureWow's Wellness Director. She's been at PureWow for ten years, and in that time has written and edited stories across all categories, but currently focuses...