"Reality" Reading

Amongst my "jack-of-all-trades" duties in the library lies some interesting work at circulation as well as collection development, technical services and cataloging. This week I happened upon a way to track the circulation statistics over a period of time for certain collections. Since tweets and blogs are often about hot new fiction and everyone's "faves", I want to pass on to you what new nonfiction had everyone beating a path for this year in the library. From last December through last week, Outliers: the story of success went out 26 times. Doing the math, 40 weeks with a 3-week loan period means an item could at the least been taken out 13 times. We happen to have two copies of this title, so 26 makes sense. Now look at what else has been nearly as popular over the past 10 months (and some of these actually arrived less than 10 months ago):
Dewey: a small town library cat who touched the world, circulated 25 times;
We went to war: New Hampshire remembers, 20;
Wicked intentions: the Sheila LaBarre murders, 18;
Animal, vegetable, miracle: a year of food life, 16;
Apartment Therapy presents real homes, real people, 16;
Wesley the owl: the remarkable love story of an owl and his girl, 16;
Why we suck: a feel good guide to staying fat, loud, and lazy, 16;
Act like a lady, think like a man: what men really think, 15;
Buying a piece of Paris: A memoir, 15;
Do cats hear with their feet? where cats come from, 15;
The forever war, 15;
If not now when?: duty and sacrifice in America's time of need, 15;
Thin is the new happy, 15;
The Yankee years, 15.
So if you're up for a little more reality in your reading, you may want to jump on the bandwagon and check out the popular nonfiction!