Huntley library shares own ‘Spotify Wrapped’-style list of most checked-out books

While streaming service Spotify users found out Wednesday what their most-listened to songs of the year were, the Huntley Area Public Library shared their most checked-out books of the year in honor of the annual music-streaming breakdowns.

The library shared of its Facebook page a slide deck that mirrored the Spotify Wrapped format and broke out a few categories. Those included Top Adult Fiction books, Top Young Adult books, Top Juvenile Fiction and Top Children’s books.

In the Top Adult Fiction category, “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt was No. 1, followed by “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus, “The Women” by Kristin Hannah, “Think Twice” by Harlan Coben and “Mind Games” by Nora Roberts.

The “One Piece” series by Eiichiro Oda was the No. 1 Young Adult book. The “Naruto” series by Masashi Kishimoto was No. 2 and No. 3 was the “Jujutsu Kaisen” series by Gege Akutami and Ballad Kitaguni. The “My Hero Academia” series by Kohei Horikoshi was No. 4 and rounding out the top 5 was “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” by Koyoharu Gotouge.

In the Juvenile Fiction category, encompassing children in 4th to 6th grades, the most popular check-outs were:

1. “Guts” by Raina Telgemeier.
2. The “Bone” series by Jeff Smith.
3. “Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea” by Dav Pilkey.
4. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling.
5. “Best Friends” by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham.

It was a clean sweep for Pigeon in the children’s category, with each of the top five books coming from the series by author and illustrator Mo Willems. Those books were, in order from 1-5:

• “The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!”
• “The Pigeon Will Ride the Roller Coaster!”
• “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!”
• “The Pigeon Needs a Bath!”
• “Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!”

Aris Sherwood, the head of marketing for the library, said the Nos. 6 and 7 children’s books were also Pigeon, while No. 8 was a different Mo Willems book, with the rest of the Pigeon series following.

Sherwood said she started the Huntley Library “Wrapped” last year after Spotify Wrapped came out.

“This year, I was prepared for it,” Sherwood said. She said the data ran from Jan. 1 to Dec. 1, and the post was up by mid-morning Wednesday. The data only include physical books that were checked out from the library, Sherwood said.

The No.-1 checked-out book overall was the “One Piece” series, which Sherwood said was “surprising.”

Sherwood said the post did well on social media, and maybe people will get book recommendations.

In Spotify Wrapped, Taylor Swift was the most streamed artist for the second consecutive year. Swift was the most-streamed artist globally, followed by The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Drake and Billie Eilish, according to the Associated Press. In America, Swift was the most-streamed artist, followed by Drake, Zach Bryan, Morgan Wallen and Kanye West.