With the second floor closed for renovation, the majority of our non-fiction collection has been stored offsite this year. When the books moved out of the building this past June, we pledged to fulfill your requests for these items within two to three days of your holds being placed. Weβve delivered (literally) and weβve had lots of compliments and praise for this consistent turnaround period. Our ability to keep to this timeline during the upcoming holidays will be challenging, but as always, weβll do our best to get you what you want to read in a timely manner. With several facility closings due to the holidays, there will be a reduced opportunity to retrieve your books. Weβll be taking a necessary break from retrieving non-fiction books from the offsite storage between December 22, 2016 and January 2, 2017.
Itβs interesting to see which non-fiction topics interested our community this year. Cardholders placed over 2,400 holds for books from our adult non-fiction collection in 2016, and of these, the 15 most popular titles requested were:
- βWhen Breath Becomes Airβ Paul Kalanithi
- βBetween the World and Meβ Ta-Nehisi Coates
- βThe Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up : the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizingβ Marie KondΕ
- βThe Boys in the Boat : Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympicsβ Daniel Brown
- βHillbilly Elegy : a Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisisβ J. D. Vance
- βLab Girlβ Hope Jahren
- βIn Other Wordsβ Jhumpa Lahiri
- βSeven Brief Lessons on Physicsβ Carlo Rovelli
- βH is for Hawkβ Helen Macdonald
- βAlexander Hamiltonβ Ron Chernow
- βBeing Mortal : Medicine and What Matters in the Endβ Atul Gawande
- βSpark Joy : an Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Upβ Marie KondΕ
- βDark Money : the Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Rightβ Jane Mayer
- βThe Gene : an Intimate Historyβ Siddhartha Mukherjee
- βJust Mercy : a Story of Justice and Redemptionβ Bryan Stevenson
- βSPQR : a History of Ancient Romeβ Mary Beard
Half of the list contains 2016 titles and can be found on our new non-fiction, Book Group, or Library Reads shelves. Not surprisingly, when you review the list, the other half of these titles were a bit older and therefore retrieved from storage (and because they are popular, weβve kept these in-demand copies stocked in the Quiet Room for browsers).
We were curious about which non-fiction titles from storage were requested the most. This list reflects a practical side of our non-fiction collections. Folks have been studying up this year!
- The Princeton Review Cracking the GRE
- The Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT
- GRE Verbal Workbook
- βThe Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up : the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizingβ Marie KondΕ
- βThe Decline and Fall of the Roman Empireβ Edward Gibbon
- βThe Princeton Review Verbal Workout for the GREβ
- βBeing Mortal : Medicine and What Matters in the Endβ Atul Gawande
- βZillow Talk : the New Rules of Real Estateβ Spencer Rascoff
- βThe CollegeBoard College Handbookβ
- βNew Jersey Driver Manualβ
- βThe Structure of Scientific Revolutionsβ Thomas S. Kuhn
- βThe Fiske Guide to Collegesβ
- βWriterβs Market : Where & How to Sell What You Writeβ
- βConversations with God : an Uncommon Dialogueβ Neale Donald Walsch
Lastly, we know youβre looking for gifts this season, so our Adult Services and Youth Services staff have created wonderful and unique book lists to help. Check out Book-Giving: Fiction Aficionados, Book-Giving: Books for Everyone and Book-Giving: Help Yourself. If youβre shopping for children and teens, check out Give the Gift of Books: Young Adult, Give the Gift of Books: Middle Grade and Give the Gift of Books: Young Readers. You can access all of these holiday book suggestions on our Holiday Book Selections page.
Thereβs always time to take a moment and celebrate with a good book. Happy reading!