Most borrowed authors from UK public libraries, 2005-06

[wellinghall]

1. Jacqueline Wilson C
2. James Patterson A
3. Josephine Cox A
4. Danielle Steel A
5. Ian Rankin A
6. Janet & Allan Ahlberg C
7. Mick Inkpen C
8. Roald Dahl C
9. John Grisham A
10. Nora Roberts A



1. James Patterson
2. Josephine Cox
3. Danielle Steel
4. Ian Rankin
5. John Grisham
6. Nora Roberts
7. Agatha Christie
8. Bernard Cornwell
9. Katie Flynn
10. Patricia Cornwell

I am familiar with two of these authors, and have read a couple of books by two others.



1. Jacqueline Wilson
2. Janet & Allan Ahlberg
3. Mick Inkpen
4. Roald Dahl
5. Lucy Cousins
6. Lucy Daniels
7. Eric Hill
8. Enid Blyton
9. Francesca Simon
10. Nick Butterworth

I am familiar with two of these authors.



1. Roald Dahl
2. Agatha Christie
3. Georgette Heyer
4. C S Lewis
5. Beatrix Potter
6. Charles Dickens
7. Jane Austen
8. J R R Tolkien
9. William Shakespeare
10. A A Milne

I am familiar with six of these authors.

Published by Public Lending Right, Richard House, Sorbonne Close, Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6DA, www.plr.uk.com

Comments

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Nice to see that somebody (other than us, of course) is acknowledging Tolkien as a classic author. Just a shame that people seem to think that Dickens is more appealing. Blegh!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what "classic" means in this context. "Dead", maybe?

[tree_and_leaf]

Given that Roald Dahl is classed as such despite having only been dead five minutes, I think so, yes.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Ah, but these are library books. Therefore, they are books that people quite like enough to pick up and read once or twice, but are not so fond of that they actually want their own copy. I think this may explain the lack of Pratchett and Rowling, for example.

I used to try to borrow Pratchetts from the library because I'm not actually that huge a fan, but the new ones flew out and didn't come back for months, so I resorted to buying them instead.

Borrowing Tolkien from a library is vexed with woe, because the three books can be borrowed independently and the one you need is *never* there. The most ardent library enthusiast, having read to the end of Two Towers, will surely crack and buy ROTK rather than wait for some other dilatory person to bring the end of the damn book back.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

.. at least, such was my experience when I used to borrow LOTRs from the public library in Oxford, so we'd have more copies for Dramatic Reading purposes.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

In my early days of reading Tolkien I existed on library books of LotR, Silmarillion and UK. Some of those were school library copies, but I did also borrow from public libraries too.

[sally_maria]

Especially if the person with RotK was me, who had a one-volume edition but used to borrow the last book at least once a year so I could read the Appendices, which my copy didn't have. It would be the one book on my library ticket that didn't get returned within days so I could read something else.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

It doesn't mean it's more appealing necessarily, for example, maybe Dickens is borrowed because it's a set text for things (if, for example, I shortly go and borrow Of Mice and Men it's not because I "want" tobut because I need to), or perhaps more people buy Tolkien and borrow Dickens? Also, look at the ratios of number of publications from each author. There are many explanations. Although, maybe Dickens is just more popular among library users, nothing inherently wrong with that IMO.

Sorry, I'll stop being a stats geek for a minute now.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Yes, you are very probably right. However, I would argue that Dickens is tedious and boring and not worth reading, whereas Tolkien isn't tedious or boring and is well worth reading. Just my opinion, of course. ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah me to. I was just trying to find reasons to believe Dickens isn't that popular after all ;) dj

[chainmailmaiden]

Janet & Allan Ahlberg wrote one of my all time favourite books, 'Each, Peach, Pear, Plum.' I borrowed it from the library very frequently when I was a child and I still love to read it, it's just such a lovely book :-)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

When you say you are familiar with them, how does this differ from having read some of their books?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Rather, "familiar with their works" - have read several of their books, sometimes more than once.

[tree_and_leaf]

Jaqueline Wilson gives me the creeps, but her books do seem to be very popular with reluctant readers, so I suppose there's something to be said for her.

I think I may once have read a children's story which featured an unpleasant character who wore lots of rings, as I find this habit of hers particularly off-putting - and that's certainly not a logical reaction.

(Unless I'm thinking of Umbridge. But I don't think so.)

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Yes! I find Jacqueline Wilson's rings very worrying. I can't really listen to what she's saying in interviews, since all I can do is stare in horror at her hands, and think "How can you write anything with all that weight on your fingers?"

I think that girls who read Jacqueline Wilson grow up to become women who read all those misery memoirs about awful childhoods. All her perky heroines have such miserable family lives. But 11 year old girls love her, and, as you say, she inspires reluctant readers, so I can't complain.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Also I bet a huge slice of the Jacqueline Wilson's go to adults who can't bring themselves to pay for what is effectively junk-misery-lit that they will devour in about half an hour, but which they want to read! (*self identifies*)

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

My 13 and a bit neice loves her too, but then her reading is a few years behind (for various reasons)

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I disagree as quite a lot of children DO have miserable family lives, or can at least identify with the issues anyway or have a friend with similar issue. Others who don't, like to read about children other than themselves(IMO healthily) who have different lives. We all like a good triumph-over- adversity story, don't we? Even *I* like Tracy Beaker and I don't read those misery memoirs more than about once a year, or less. Although I don't see there's much wrong with them in small doses?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I certainly don't object to her writing about non-happy families and issues. I just find her focus on unhappy family lives a bit samey. Children with "happy" home lives can still have problems and issues and concerns that are no less valid than those of children who live in a mouldy flat with pregnant sister, and a mentally ill mother with an abusive boyfriend. Nothing wrong with the books... but I just wish that there was a bit more variety. (Though, really, why should she want to change a winning formula?)

There was a period when "experts" thought that children should only read books they could "relate to" - i.e. children in care should only read stories about children in care etc. Now people recognise that, while these books certainly ought to be available, some children will want to read anything but. Books provide an opportunity for escapism as well as identification. Different readers want different things at different times.

But I'm probably being unfair, come to think of it. I posted a few weeks ago remembering the girls' comics I used to read when I was young, full of suffering, put-upon orphans getting kicked when they're down, but winning through at the end. There's nothing different, really...

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

She goes down well at our house both in print and on film and there aren't any reluctant readers here.

[tree_and_leaf]

As with so many things, YMMV.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Some of those children's authors are creators of popular pre-school picture book characters - Kipper (Mick Inkpen), Percy the Park-Keeper (Nick Butterworth), Maisy Mouse (Lucy Cousins), Spot the Dog (Eric Hill) - so I wouldn't have expected you to have heard of them. Francesca Simon does the immensely popular Horrid Henry series - one of the few books that have huge appeal to 7 year old boys. (Publishing for 7 year olds is horribly girl-centred and overflowing with fairies and princesses, which is very annoying.)

Lucy Daniels, however, doesn't exist. "She" is a consortium who churns out animal stories, using a name carefully chosen to put the books next to Roald Dahl on the shelves.

JK Rowling probably doesn't feature partly because lots of people buy the books, but mostly because she only has 7 titles, as opposed to the 30 plus that most of these authors have. Plus, her books are long, so people tend to renew them and keep them for ages. Pre-school books issue really well, because people swap them much more frequently than they do older fiction.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I agree re the girls' choices. Fortunately our girl, although liking fairies and princesses too up to a point (I refused to have more than one set of 7 of those rainbow fairies books in the house, although being the first 7 they were probably the best of the lot), also enjoys HH. (HH is very popular still with our much older boy although he reads things like LoTR as well, it's one of his childhood pleasures that he comes back to).

It's not often that I can say "I am familiar with" more authors on a list than wellinghall, but I will revel for a second in saying:

1. Jacqueline Wilson
2. Janet & Allan Ahlberg
3. Mick Inkpen
4. Roald Dahl
5. Lucy Cousins
6. Lucy Daniels
7. Eric Hill
8. Enid Blyton
9. Francesca Simon
10. Nick Butterworth

I am familiar with 8 of these authors (and potentially the other 2 as I don't always notice the author name on children's books that come into the house).

1. Roald Dahl
2. Agatha Christie
3. Georgette Heyer
4. C S Lewis
5. Beatrix Potter
6. Charles Dickens
7. Jane Austen
8. J R R Tolkien
9. William Shakespeare
10. A A Milne

I am familiar with 9 of these authors and was listening to someone, I think Stephen Fry, extolling the guilty pleasures of the 10th, Georgette Heyer the other day, so I at least just about know who she is.

:)

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

I am familiar with one and a bit of the 'adult' authors. I am becoming a lot more familiar than I was with many of the 'children's' authors ;-) Unsurprisingly, however, I am most familiar with every single one of the 'classic' authors.

[psychostace.livejournal.com]

Where is George Orwell?!! ;)

I love Bernard Cornwell books but am surprised he's so popular!