“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” wasn’t really a surprise, and there always seems to be a John Grisham title. Dolly Parton and James Patterson’s thriller also made the Erie County Public Library’s 2022 list of most-circulated titles, along with a book about a real-life Erie bookmaker’s murder.
“We’re probably the only library in the country that has this in our top circulating titles,” said Anitra Gates, technical services manager for the Erie County Public Library, about “The Unholy Murder of Ash Wednesday.”
Gates compiled the unscientific list in late November and made a few edits to it in early December. Including results from Blasco Library, the library branches — Edinboro, Iroquois, Lincoln and Millcreek — and the bookmobile, the list spans the first 11 months of the year and is meant to be “a fun little thing,” she said. The results are based on library data but also Gates’ “editorial curation.”
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“A purely data-driven top titles list would be dominated by adult fiction and I wanted to make sure the list highlighted several areas of the collection,” said Gates, who also included results in categories such as nonfiction, children’s books and DVDs.
“Not everybody’s a book person,” she said. “We do have DVDs.”
Among those DVDs available from the Erie County Public Library, Disney’s animated “Encanto” came out on top with 176 circulations. Another Disney production, “Jungle Cruise,” starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, also made the list, along with “Despicable Me 3,” “Sing” and “The Batman.”
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Grisham’s “The Judge’s List” topped this year’s Erie library list overall with 402 circulations. “Run, Rose, Run,” from Parton and Patterson, is a thriller that circulated 268 times since its March publication.
“Harry Potter” books by J.K. Rowling usually lead among children’s titles so Gates picked one for the list this year: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Entries in the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series by Jeff Kinney are typically among top requests from young readers, too, and Gates included “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul” for this year. Another top children’s book was “100 Ways to Rebuild the World,” which features “fun ideas to be kind and spread joy to the world around you” using Lego bricks.
“Haikyuu!!” is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Haruichi Furudate. Gates said 234 circulations were divided up among the 44 volumes in the set.
Actress and Food Network personality Valerie Bertinelli reflected on her life in “Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today,” which made the Erie County list. So did Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s “Peril,” about the transition from President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden. Also there was CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s “Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty.”
“I think the nonfiction ones are always a surprise just because every year trends tend to change for what’s popular,” Gates said.
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The cover of “The Unholy Murder of Ash Wednesday: The Stained Life and Rude Times of Mob Wannabe ‘Bolo’ Dovishaw” calls it “a cop’s memoir” by Dominick D. DiPaolo as told to Jeff Pinski. The 2014 book tells the story of the 1993 gangland-style murder of Frank Dovishaw, whose nicknames included “Bolo” and “Ash Wednesday.” Caesar Montevecchio pleaded guilty to third-degree murder related to arranging the murder, and Robert E. Dorler Sr. was convicted of first-degree murder as the triggerman.
Dana Massing can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ETNmassing.
If you want to read them
These were among the “most circulated library titles” for 2022 as compiled by Anitra Gates, technical services manager for the Erie County Public Library:
“100 Ways to Rebuild the World,” Helen Murray”Apples Never Fall,” Liane Moriarty”Attack on Titan,” Hajime Isayama”Black Widow,” DVD”Despicable Me 3,” DVD”Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul,” Jeff Kinney”Dune,” DVD”Encanto,” DVD “Enough Already,” Valerie Bertinelli”Extreme Animal Rumble,” Jerry Pallotta”Game On,” Janet Evanovich”Haikyu!!,” Haruichi Furudate”Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” J.K. Rowling”If You Give a Cat a Cupcake,” Laura Numeroff”Jungle Cruise,” DVD”Lego Jurassic World: The Dino Files,” Catherine Saunders”Minecraft: Guide to the Nether & the End,” Stephanie Milton”My Hero Academia,” Kohei Horikoshi”Paw Patrol: Sea Patrol,” DVD”Peril,” Bob Woodward and Robert Costa”Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes,” Kim Dean”Run, Rose, Run,” Dolly Parton and James Patterson”Shadow and Bone,” Leigh Bardugo”Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” DVD”She Drives Me Crazy,” Kelly Quindlen”Sing,” DVD”Smile,” Raina Telgemeier”The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” Suzanne Collins”The Batman,” DVD”The Judge’s List,” John Grisham”The Pigeon Needs a Bath!,” Mo Willems”The Smart Cookie,” John Jory”The Unholy Murder of Ash Wednesday,” Dominick D. DiPaolo as told to Jeff Pinski”The Wish,” Nicholas Sparks”Twilight,” Stephanie Meyer”Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty,” Anderson Cooper”Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” DVD”What is Nintendo?,” Gina Shaw
For more about these titles, visit erielibrary.org.
