Vol. 36, No. 4
December 2006

OUR BEST SELLERS - 2006

When the federal fiscal year ended September 30 we took a look, as we always do, at what books were most popular over the past twelve months.  The most circulated book for the second year in a row, no surprise here, was The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (RC55735).  The Library could scarcely keep up with the demand for almost a year in spite of having nearly 40 copies of the title.  Other high-usage titles were typical of our readers and include a pair of Cat Who mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun, several Mountain Man books by William W. Johnstone, a couple of Danielle Steel novels, as well as books by Janet Dailey, Tony Hillerman, John Grisham, Max Brand, and James Patterson.  This year there were no non-fiction books among the top twenty titles.

In fact the first non-fiction book that appears as you work your way back through the list is one produced in our studio here in Phoenix, Arizona Goes to War (AZC2651) edited by Brad Melton and Dean Smith.  It is an interesting look at Arizona’s participation in WW II and how Arizona changed as a result of the war.  Some other non-fiction books from the Arizona collection that were popular are Arizona Curiosities, Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (AZC2700) by Sam Lowe and When We Went First Class (AZC2440) by Ellen Williamson, which has stayed in very high demand for four years in a row.

Popular Arizona collection books on the fiction side were the Joanna Brady mysteries written by J. A. Jance, last year’s OneBookAZ selection, An Unfinished Life (AZC2760) by Mark Spragg, To Live or Die in Arizona (AZC2590) by Elizabeth Bruening Lewis, and Sylvia Nobel’s Chasing Rayna (AZC2701).   These Is My Words (AZC2519), the Arizona pioneer story by Nancy Turner, remained popular with our readers as well.

Please use caution if you decide to order any of these books since you might very well have already read them, but they are all great reads and may be just as enjoyable the second time around.