The public library has been open ever since the pandemic started and more people are borrowing digital content than ever before. Overdrive is estimating that over a half a billion audiobooks and ebooks will be loaned out in 2021. Public libraries around the world are seeing double-digit growth in their digital checkouts with Toronto Public Library leading the way, having already surpassed five million checkouts this year. 129 libraries are on pace for 1 million checkouts.
Popular 2020 releases have maintained their popularity into 2021 with titles such as The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, A Promised Land by former President Barack Obama, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. New releases from this year are also topping the charts: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir are all being borrowed in massive numbers. Readers are also discovering page-to-screen titles like Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone and Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland after their onscreen adaptations entered the cultural zeitgeist
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
