Torontonians are reading more, library says
The war between printed books and ebooks is over. While there are still dedicated readers of printed books and partisans who prefer ebooks, many people now read both.

thestar.com
By HINA ALAM
June 29, 2017

As the world seems to spiral toward entropy, more people are using books to see into the future.

Dystopian fiction is increasingly in demand from readers at the Toronto Public Library, according to staff.

Some of the titles most borrowed are It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, George Orwell’s 1984 and Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick.

“Dystopian fiction, in general, has been growing in popularity,” says Susan Caron, director of collections and membership services at the Toronto Public Library. “The most recent interest in them has been because of the political situation in the U.S. and that started before the U.S. election.”

Dystopian fiction portrays a frightening society set in the future, which is characterized by totalitarian or military regime, dehumanization or a complete decline in society as we know it.

This is the time of year Torontonians really turn into bookworms, she says. July and August are the busiest months, with circulation increasing by 12 per cent in July from June, she says.

People are on vacation - maybe looking for something to enjoy at the cottage or the beach - and there are kids’ and teens’ reading groups at the libraries for those in the city.

But people have been using the library more year-round, too; from 2012 to 2016, the number of people who curled up with a book - electronic or printed - went up by 25 per cent. And the number of children who stuck their noses into a book went up by 12 per cent.

“We know that Toronto is a city of readers,” Michelle Leung, communications officer for Toronto Public Library, said in an email.

“They’re definitely still reading and actually reading more.”

Also on the rise is psychological suspense especially books that have unreliable narrators, or women in peril such as Gone Girl or Girl on the Train, Caron says.

Other notable trends are literary and authentic historical fiction in the form of such titles as Wolf Hall, All the Light We Cannot See, The Luminaries and The Book of Negroes.

There is also a growing interest in Indigenous writers and subjects, she says. For instance, The Education of Augie Merasty by Joseph Auguste Merasty with David Carpenter, The Secret Path by Gord Downie and The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King are all proving popular.

It’s not possible to pick the most borrowed books, she says, but the titles that are most circulated include Gone Girl (more than 20,000 loans since 2012), and Girl on the Train (more than 26,000 since 2014).

Ligia Carvalho, who works at a daycare, was at the Toronto Public Library’s Lillian H. Smith branch, on College St., browsing children’s books. But she likes to read fiction written by female authors - recently digging into tomes by Anita Shreve and Miriam Toews.

Carol Rowe, semi-retired, lives close to the branch, and comes to the library about three times a week. On this day, she was browsing the magazine section, picking up a cooking magazine; The Week, a news magazine; Real Simple, a home decor title, and Harper’s, and books on cholesterol and health.

Non-fiction titles are popular.

“We expected nonfiction to be hardest hit by the availability of information online, but it is stronger than ever with the rise of literary nonfiction,” Caron says.

Memoirs, especially memoirs by women such as Sheryl Sandberg, Roxanne Gay and Joan Didion are popular, she says. “Most relate stories of overcoming or coming to terms with hardship - abuse, addiction, loss, Caron says.

Other widely read subjects, she says include medicine - especially anything to do with healing or training the brain, vegan and paleo food, and books about the U.S. election.

A surprise trend is stoicism, she says.

“There are new titles, but one of the most popular is Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations,” Caron says. “We had to buy new copies to meet demand.”

Among children’s books, Caron says the rulers are, after all these years, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Harry Potter.

Caron says human beings have always told each other stories, speaking them or writing them.

“It’s really a basic human need,” Caron says. “It allows us to experience other people’s lives and go to real and fictional places, learn about the world around us, and other people...to empathize with other people.”