This city is one for readers. In 2017, more than four million items were borrowed or downloaded from the DC Public Library in books, ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and music. Great job, fellow word nerds. The DC Public Library has released its lists of the 10 most popular books that area bookworms greedily grabbed from its shelves. Washingtonians had diverse interests—from George Orwell’s prescient dystopian classic to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ fierce exploration of blackness in America. Separated into categories of fiction, nonfiction, and magazines, here’s what locals were reading this year. 

Top 10 Fiction Books:

1. The Girls by Emma Cline

2. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

4. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

5. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

6. The Girl on the Trainby Paula Hawkins

7. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

8. 1984 by George Orwell

9. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

10. A Little Lifeby Hanya Yanagihara

Top 10 Nonfiction Books:

1. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

2. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

3. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

4. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

5. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown

6. Yes Please by Amy Poehler

7. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling

8. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

9. Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda

10. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

Top 5 Magazines Downloaded:

1. The Economist

2. The New Yorker

3. The Atlantic

4. Newsweek

5. New York Magazine