Rotorua Library’s most-issued fiction and non-fiction book in 2022 revealed

Thriller books appear to be Rotorua readers' favourites. Photo / Shestock Blend Images

Action-packed thriller books kept Rotorua bookworms entertained last year.

Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series kept its hold at the top of the most-read Rotorua Library books in 2022, with Better Off Dead issued 56 times and The Sentinel 26 times.

In 2021, Child’s The Midnight Line, another book in the Jack Reacher series, topped the issue list with 24.

The authors with the most issues last year - fiction and non-fiction - were David Baldacci - who like Child featured twice, Felix Francis, C.J. Box, Sarah Barrie, Helen Cox, and William McIlvanney.

Meanwhile, The lost Café Schindler: One Family, Two Wars, and the Search for Truth by Meriel Schindler was the library’s most-issued non-fiction book.

It’s a memoir of a Jewish family spanning two world wars and its flight from Nazi-occupied Austria, whose relatives included the Jewish doctor who treated Hitler’s mother when she was dying of breast cancer and Alma Schindler, the wife of famous composer Gustav Mahler.

The Rotorua Library saw an average membership increase of 28 per cent every month since it introduced its fines-free initiative last year.

Rotorua Library/Te Aka Mauri acting director Tori Williams earlier told the Rotorua Daily Post it had been great, as many members of the community had joined or re-joined the library.

“They now are not worried about collecting overdue fines.”

Rotorua Library acting director Tori Williams says the fines-free initiative is great. Photo / Andrew Warner

Williams said it was a good idea to join the library because there was a wide range of items and resources encompassing many collections, as well as toys for children.

“We constantly get feedback that they love the building, with many members using it as a space to study, research, meet, or simply hang out for the day.”

Figures show last year, 416,764 books, including e-books, digital resources magazines and newspapers were borrowed, compared to 413,789 in 2021.

The library could not say precisely how many items were borrowed and not returned.

Meanwhile, there were 25,925 members in 2021 compared to 25,088 last year, and 57 per cent of those were adults.