What DC Public Library Customers Read, Listened To, and Watched in 2020

From DCPL:

Reading has long been shown to help people cope with anxiety, learn new skills, make sense of troubling times and practice self-care. The top reads at the DC Public Library in 2020 show customers exploring and adjusting to this year’s events. Below are the most popular titles by type and format.

Top 10 Non-Fiction Ebooks   

1. “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo
2. “Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor” by Layla Saad
3. “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover
4. “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
5. “Becoming” by Michelle Obama
6. “The Yellow House: A Memoir” by Sarah M. Broom
7. “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed” by Lori Gottlieb
8. “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi
9. “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup” by John Carreyrou
10.  “Untamed” by Glennon Doyle

Top 10 Non-Fiction Books   

1. “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover
2. “Becoming” by Michelle Obama
3. “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” by Trevor Noah
4. “The Library Book” by Susan Orlean
5. “Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-delusion” by Jia Tolentino
6. “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
7. “Three Women” by Lisa Taddeo
8. “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators” by Ronan Farrow
9. “Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations” by Mira Jacob
10.  “Hillbilly Elegy: a Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” by J. D. Vance

Top 10 Non-Fiction E-Audiobooks

1. “So You Want to Talk about Race” by Ijeoma Oluo
2. “You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” by Jen Sincero
3. “Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men” by Caroline Criado-Perez
4. “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition” by Michelle Alexander
5. “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6. “Becoming” by Michelle Obama
7. “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” by Neil deGrasse Tyson
8. “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover
9. “Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life” by Ali Wong
10. “Sister Outsider–Essays and Speeches: Crossing Press Feminist Series, Book 1” by Audre Lorde

Top 10 Fiction Ebooks   

1. “Such a Fun Age” by Kiley Reid
2. “Girl, Woman, Otherl” by Bernardine Evaristo
3. “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng
4. “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens
5. “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett
6. “The Goldfinch” by Tartt, Donna
7. “Normal People” by Sally Rooney
8. “An American Marriage:” by Tayari Jones
9. “Crazy Rich Asians” by Kevin Kwan
10. “Nine Perfect Strangers” by Liane Moriarty

Top 10 Fiction Books   

1. “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng
2. “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens
3. “An American Marriage” by Tayari Jones
4. “The Testaments” by Margaret Atwood
5. “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead
6. “There There” by Tommy Orange
7. “Normal People” by Sally Rooney
8. “Circe” by Madeline Miller
9. “The Water Dancer” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
10. “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett

Top 10 Fiction E-Audiobooks   

1. “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng
2. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J. K. Rowling
3. “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott
4. “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens
5. “The 7 ½  Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” by Stuart Turton
6. “The Water Dancer” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
7. “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
8. “My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante
9. “The Testaments” by Margaret Atwood
10. “1984” by George Orwell

Top 10 Magazines

1. The New Yorker
2. The Economist
3. The Week Magazine
4. Newsweek
5. Us Weekly
6. New York Magazine
7. New York Review of Books
8. AppleMagazine
9. National Geographic
10. Bon Appetit

Top 10 Videos Streamed on Kanopy

1. “What We Do In the Shadows”
2. “I Am Not Your Negro”
3. “Midsommar”
4. “The Farewell”
5. “Stash Short Film Festival: Comedy”
6. “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”
7. “Seven Samurai”
8. “The Bookshop”
9. “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”
10. “Force Majeure”

Top 10 Videos Streamed on Kanopy Kids

1. “Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus”
2. “Creepy Carrots”
3. “Don’t Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late”
4. “Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs”
5. “Duckling Gets a Cookie!?”
6. “The True Story Of The 3 Little Pigs”
7. “Hooray For Amanda And Her Alligator”
8. “You Are (Not) Small”
9. “Scaredy Squirrel at Night”
10. “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site”

Top 10 Linkedin Learning/Lynda.com Courses where Customers Received a Certificate of Completion

1. Time Management Fundamentals
2. Giving and Receiving Feedback
3. Microsoft Teams Essential Training
4. What is Graphic Design?
5. HTML Essential Training
6. Writing Email
7. Resume Makeover
8. Customer Service Foundations
9. Communication Foundations
10. Programming Foundations: Fundamentals

Top 10 Linkedin Learning/Lynda.com Courses

1. JavaScript Essential Training
2. Project Management Foundations
3. CSS Essential Training
4. Time Management Fundamentals
5. Programming Foundations: Fundamentals
6. HTML Essential Training
7. Time Management Tips
8. Microsoft Teams Essential Training
9. Excel Essential Training (Office 365/Microsoft 365)
10. Bootstrap 4 Essential Training

In 2020, DC Public Library took steps to ensure DC residents had access to the many resources available digitally. These measures included restoring access to 92,200 expired, blocked, and barred accounts; extending the expiration date for online accounts from 30 to 90 days and removing fines and fees from Library materials. In addition, the Library offered unlimited ebook and audiobook copies of curated titles on race following the murder of George Floyd.

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