New York Public Library's 10 most checked-out books of all time

The most popular books of the past 125 years, and where to get them.

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  • New York Public library is celebrating its 125th birthday in 2020. With over 90 locations across New York City's boroughs, it is the nation's largest public library system.
  • Based on circulation data, popularity, trends, and other criteria dating back to 1895, these books are considered the library's most checked-out titles of all time.
  • "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats was checked out 485,583 times and takes the top spot, but one librarian's hatred of another book may have robbed it of the crown.
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5 eBook bundles that can raise your earning potential

We've got five great eBook bundles that can get you working in five of the hottest tech fields around, all at a fraction of their original price.

  • These eBook bundles cover in-demand skill sets, including cybersecurity, web design, data science, coding and A.I.
  • The five collections include five to 20 books each.
  • Each bundle is discounted up to 95% off their regular price.
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America’s largest public library ditches late fees

With the realization that overdue charges disproportionately affect access for low-income readers, libraries are reconsidering the value of fees.

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  • The Chicago Public Library found that a third of their economically disadvantaged members had been denied borrowing privileges due to overdue books.
  • Overdue fines account for a tiny fraction of library funding, so the ramifications of ending them are more social than financial.
  • Though 92% of U.S. libraries still charge late fees, the number is shrinking.
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Yann Martel: ‘Transgression is central to art’

Is it acceptable to write a story from the perspective of someone who is completely unlike you?

  • Man Booker Prize-winning writer Yann Martel, a Canadian man, has written from the perspectives of a man with AIDS, a body-switching woman, an Indian boy, and 20th-century Portuguese widowers.
  • Is it acceptable to write from the perspective of someone who is completely unlike you? Martel believes these transgressions put empathetic imagination into practice, allowing your mind to go where your body cannot.
  • In Martel's case, it's the recipe for great art—books that have been loved and read by millions. "[W]e are who we are in relation to others," says Martel. "But the key thing is the empathetic imagination, and the empathetic imagination is the great traveler. And travelers necessarily cross borders. And not only do they have to but it's a thrill to do so. It's a thrill encountering the other."
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Salman Rushie: ‘Write for readers, not for critics’

"You get to this age, you realize that there are people who will not like what you do no matter what you do," says Booker Prize-winner Salman Rushdie.

  • Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie recounts his evolution as a writer who has grown more aware of the reader and less aware of the critic.
  • Literary reviews, famously the Times Literary Supplement, were once anonymous—and brutal. Once the Times started publishing bylines with reviews, critics suddenly got much nicer.
  • Anonymity, especially online, is a double-edged sword. In authoritarian societies, it gives people great freedom. However anonymity is also the reason people say things online they would never say if they were in a room with you. That may be a degrading force in a highly digital society.
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