Laptops and an 18th-century shipwreck: What Berkeley library patrons checked out in 2024

by Iris Kwok

Dec. 30, 2024, 2:38 p.m.Dec. 30, 2024, 9:11 a.m.

The Berkeley Public Library’s central branch. Credit: Pete Rosos

As 2024 winds down, we asked the Berkeley Public Library to crunch some numbers to find out the year’s most popular items. 

James McBride’s The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, a novel set in a Black and Jewish neighborhood in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, was No. 1 in the adult fiction category. 

In the adult nonfiction category, journalist David Grann’s The Wager, about a harrowing British shipwreck, barely clinched first place, beating Hua Hsu’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Stay True by just one checkout. You might know Grann as the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, the nonfiction true crime book adapted into a Martin Scorsese film starring Leonardo Di Caprio in 2023. The Wager is also being adapted for film by Scorsese and DiCaprio.

David Grann’s “The Wager” was the most popular nonfiction book among Berkeley library patrons in 2024. Credit: Penguin Random House

Hsu’s nostalgia-seeped memoir, which chronicles his years at UC Berkeley, was the library system’s top checked-out adult nonfiction book in 2023. Coincidentally, both Grann and Hsu are staff writers at The New Yorker. (Speaking of which, copies of The New Yorker’s print version are available at the library and were circulated 659 times this year.) 

In the kids section, the most checked-out book was Mary Anne’s Bad Luck Mystery #13 by Cynthia Yuan Cheng and Ann M. Martin. In the teen category, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes reigned supreme. The movie adaptation of the dystopian young adult novel, starring Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth, broke box office records when it hit theaters in fall 2023. 

But the most checked-out item from the Berkeley Public Library in 2024 wasn’t a book at all  — it was the Windows 10 laptops patrons can use for up to two hours inside the library. This year, at least 9,534 patrons used the self-checkout laptops, said library spokesperson Aimee Reeder. 

The laptop kiosks, initially only available at the Central Library when the program was introduced in 2018, are now available at every branch except Claremont due to space limitations. (Chromebooks with Wi-Fi hotspots, which can be taken home and used for up to four weeks, can be checked out from all library locations.)

More than 5,000 tools are available at the Berkeley Tool Lending Library. Credit: Berkeley Public Library

Over at the beloved Tool Lending Library, established in 1979 and available to all cardholders 18 and up, weed whackers were once again the most checked-out tool. In March, Councilmember Sophie Hahn introduced a proposal to expand the city’s library of things to include items like toys, sports equipment and event supplies as a way of reducing waste. Current offerings include a lawn mower, a bike repair kit, air quality monitors, ladders, a kids’ wheelbarrow, a dinosaur-shaped cake pan, a Belgian waffle maker and a sous vide cooker.

By the way, here’s your annual reminder that you can check out a California State Library Parks Pass for up to two weeks, which means you don’t have to pay for parking at over 200 state parks, including at Mount Tamalpais, Big Basin Redwoods, Mendocino Woodlands. This year, 434 people took advantage of the pass, Reeder wrote in an email.

The library’s most checked-out items of 2024

Tools

Weedwhacker (774)   50-foot extension cords (709) Drill bit set  (534)  14-foot tree pruner (486)  Hedge shear (424)  32-inch lopping shears (383)  Cordless impact driver (381) Cordless battery charger (375)  Pruning shears (340) Sabre saw (318)

Adult Fiction

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (1,726 checkouts) Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (1,309) The Fraud by Zadie Smith (1,177) Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (1,171) The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (1,043) Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (805) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (800) North Woods by Daniel Mason (794) Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (791) The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (781)

Adult Nonfiction

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann (499 checkouts) Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu (498) Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein (478) I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy (456) Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge & the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (434) An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong (418) Going Infinite: The Rise & Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis (406) Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher (397) The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness & the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen (368) How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others & Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks (365)

Teen

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (327 checkouts) Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood (254) A Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah Maas (252) A Court of Wings & Ruin by Sarah Maas (241) Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross (222) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (216) Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater (189) The Giver by Lois Lowry (188) My Hero Academia Volume 1 by Kohei Horikoshi and Caleb D. Cook (184) The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (102)

Kids

The Baby-Sitters Club: Mary Anne’s Bad Luck Mystery 13 by Cynthia Yuan Cheng and Ann M. Martin (686 checkouts) Click by Kayla Miller (603) Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea by Dav Pilkey (588) Dog Man: Mothering Heights by Dav Pilkey (573) Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui Sutherland, Mike Holmes, and Barry Deutsch (562) The Baby-Sitters Club: Karen’s Birthday by Katy Farina and Ann M. Martin (548) The Baby-Sitters Club: Claudia and the Bad Joke by Arley Nopra and Ann M. Martin (531) Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties by Dav Pilkey (530) Cat Kid Comic Club: Collaborations by Dav Pilkey (527) Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas by Dav Pilkey (527)

Note: The Tool Lending Library rankings are based on circulation data from Jan. 1, 2024 through Dec. 23, 2024. All other statistics the library shared with Berkeleyside reflect circulation data from Jan. 1, 2024, through Nov. 30, 2024.