You can learn a lot about what people are reading from the checkout data from the country’s largest city. Every year, the New York Public Library posts data on its most checked-out books, along with data from the Brooklyn and Queens public library systems. (The New York Public Library technically only serves three of the city’s five boroughs.) Last year’s data left us with plenty to think about, from the rise of romantasy to the enduring popularity of Britney Spears. What can we learn from 2025’s checkout data?
Percival Everett Had a Very Good 2025
In the last five years, Percival Everett went from being your favorite writer’s favorite writer to the author of an awards-season juggernaut. His novel James won the Pulitzer Prize this year and the National Book Award for Fiction in 2024; it was also the most checked-out book in all of New York City. Factor in the presence of American Fiction, the critically acclaimed film adaptation of his novel Erasure, and you have a fantastic narrative: a longtime critical favorite whose latest book has (deservedly) become ubiquitous.
Queens Readers Have Very Specific Tastes
Just two writers were responsible for six of the top 10 books checked out in Queens this year. Those authors? Rebecca Yarros and R.F. Kuang. Yarros’s Onyx Storm, Fourth Wing and Iron Flame occupied the top three spots for the borough, with Fourth Wing and Onyx Storm also turning up on the top 10 list for Brooklyn. Meanwhile, Kuang’s Babel, The Poppy War and Yellowface placed fifth, seventh and ninth overall in Queens. We’re calling it now: at this time next year, Kuang’s latest novel Katabasis is going to be on the 2026 edition of these lists.
“Let Them” Check Out Books
Is Mel Robbins’s The Let Them Theory a bona fide phenomenon? That just might be the case, if the NYPL’s data is any indication. Robbins’s book was the fourth-most checked-out book citywide, and also made the borough-wide top 10 lists for both The Bronx and Staten Island.
Don’t Underestimate the Classics
Looking at the most checked-out audiobooks in 2025 revealed a list that had plenty of overlap with the overall lists: James was number one there as well. But among several recent titles, the tenth spot went to a novel that’s over two centuries old: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Meanwhile, Bronx readers also embraced a decades-old book: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, a speculative novel that has drawn praise for anticipating the current political moment.
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Body modification, annotated lyrics and more to close out 2025New York Likes Reading Miranda July
Percival Everett wasn’t the only long-running artist who reached a much wider audience this year. Miranda July’s career has encompassed everything from filmmaking to forays into music. Her latest novel, the critically-acclaimed All Fours, appears to have found plenty of readers around the city: it was the third-most checked-out book this year, according to the NYPL’s data.
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