2020's Top Ebooks and Audiobooks from Public Libraries Reflect Interest in Social Justice

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Dec 29, 2020, 07:09 ET

CLEVELAND, Dec. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the global pandemic closed buildings and led to widespread remote learning, readers turned to their local libraries more than ever for digital books. OverDrive, the leading digital reading platform for 64,000 libraries and schools worldwide, released 2020's most popular ebooks and audiobooks downloaded from the public library. Readers borrowed and read these digital books on the award-winning Libby reading app.

Many of these books address social justice issues and land within the top 10 for the first time. These lists are based on record circulation in public libraries around the globe.

Top 10 Ebooks from Public Libraries Worldwide in 2020

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Educated by Tara Westover
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Guardians by John Grisham
Blue Moon by Lee Child

Top 10 Audiobooks from Public Libraries Worldwide in 2020

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Educated by Tara Westover
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Top 10 Fiction Ebooks & Audiobooks (Released in 2020) from Public Libraries Worldwide in 2020

Walk the Wire by David Baldacci
Camino Winds by John Grisham
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

Top 10 Nonfiction Ebooks & Audiobooks (Released in 2020) from Public Libraries Worldwide in 2020

Untamed by Glennon Doyle
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump
Open Book by Jessica Simpson
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
The Room Where It Happened by John Bolton
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
A Very Stable Genius by Philip Rucker
Wow, No Thank You. by Samantha Irby

Top 10 Juvenile & Young Adult Ebooks & Audiobooks from Public Libraries Worldwide in 2020

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Funny, You Don't Look Autistic by Michael McCreary
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The Libby app is available from over 20,000 public libraries around the world including approximately 90% of those in North America. Through Libby, users have free access with a valid library card to ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, magazines, cookbooks and more from their local library. To begin borrowing ebooks and audiobooks from your local library, download the Libby app from the App Store or Google Play.

For more information, visit www.overdrive.com.

About OverDrive
OverDrive strives to create "a world enlightened by reading." Serving a growing network of 64,000 libraries and schools in 84 countries, OverDrive delivers the industry's largest digital catalog of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and other content through award-winning apps. The Libby reading app for libraries is one of Popular Mechanics' 20 Best Apps of the Decade, while the student reading app Sora is one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2019. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA and was named a Certified B Corp in 2017. www.overdrive.com

Contact:
David Burleigh
Director of Brand & Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE OverDrive