Our borrowing habits revealed

The UK’s Public Lending Right (PLR) has revealed that over the Valentines period the most borrowed romantic novel of last year was not an obvious contender.

Alan Titchmarsh’s novel Folly was named on the PLR list for Most Borrowed Romantic Fiction for the period June 2008 until July 2009. Loans of Mr Titchmarsh’s book outdid the likes of Adele Parks for Tell Me Something and Nora Roberts for Heart of the Sea in the data released over Valentines weekend. The Surrendered Wife: a Practical Guide to Finding Intimacy by Laura Doyle was most borrowed of the non-fiction relationships category.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that children’s and educational books now represent 35% of all books borrowed. James Patterson’s Sail has held the most borrowed book position since 2007, but Jacqueline Wilson is, overall, the most borrowed writer of the decade with her titles being loaned over 16 million times in the last ten years. JK Rowling holds second, third and fourth most borrowed books of the decade with her Harry Potter series.

Delia Smith’s How to Cheat at Cooking was number 1 of the non fiction Top Ten for 2008-2009. PLR revealed Bill Bryson is the only writer to have books make the Top 10 every year since 1999/2000.

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