What Did Fort Worthians Read in 2022?

The Fort Worth Public Library gives us a breakdown of their successful 2022, including the year's most checked-out books.

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Fort Worth loves to read, and it shows.

Fort Worthians checked out more than 3.4 million books from the Library’s 17 different locations in 2022, and these devoted readers also embraced the Library’s virtual catalog — there were more than 1.1 million digital checkouts using the Libby app. And more than 36,000 library patrons used Libby this past year with 13,000 of those patrons being new users to the service.

“We take pride in the Library’s role as it evolves as the City’s literary hub, from offering exciting new ways to support lifelong learning to providing early childhood literacy initiatives,” Library Director Manya Shorr says. “Our mission of creating a community of learners, dreamers and doers is at the forefront of everything we do.”

Just what did this community of learners, dreamers, and doers read in 2022?  The top five adult fiction books checked out through the system include popular titles:

  1. The Last Thing He Told Me: a Novel by Laura Dave
  2. The Judge’s List by John Grisham
  3. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
  4. Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover
  5. This Girl: a Novel by Colleen Hoover

And for the teens, the top five fiction titles were:

  1. Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
  2. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
  3. The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan
  4. The Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
  5. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

Beyond lending millions of books, providing the public with unique and innovative reading and literacy-related programs is a constant focus at the Library.

“We strive to be responsive to what our communities want from their neighborhood libraries,” Assistant Library Director Michele Gorman says. “We want to ensure that using Library resources is easy, fun and rewarding. There is something new to experience at your Fort Worth Public Library all year long.”

Once Upon a Story Time 

Between January and November, a total of 22,800 people — both in-person and virtually — participated in 1,465 story times offered at Fort Worth Public Library locations. These programs are available regularly in English, Spanish, or bilingually for toddlers, preschoolers, and families. Being part of a story time counts toward reaching 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten and for minutes in the Fort Worth Mayor’s Summer Reading Challenges.

And in the past year, 1,412 children were registered for the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge, completing 80,504 books.  As for the 2022 Mayor’s Summer Reading Challenge, 5,180 participants read a reported 2,041,323 minutes.

Join the club

For adults, book clubs were increasingly popular, and the Library supported readers with several groups based on genres and library locations. Location-based clubs met in person 128 times, and counting members of the online Stay at Home Book Club, there were 1,361 participants.

The convenience and reach of the virtual Facebook Group drew the largest share of members, which has grown to nearly 1,000 since its launch in March 2020. The group voted for its 50th reading selection in December and considers books with unlimited digital checkouts, which means it can accommodate any number of new members as the group continues to grow.

After polling hundreds of book club participants, the 2022 favorites from club members include:

  • Near the Bone by Christina Henry (Horror Reads Book Club)
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Page to Screen Book Club)
  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Books & Beans Book Club and Dewey Decimators Book Club)
  • Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (Page Turners Book Club)
  • The Mountains Sing by Que Mai Phan Nguyen (Get Lit Book Club)
  • Forever Hidden by Tracie Peterson (Sunny Days Book Club)
  • The Snowman by Jo Nesbo (Books to Big Screen Book Club)
  • Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (Talking Leaves Book Club)
  • Bluff by Jane Stanton Hitchcock (Books and Brews Book Club)
  • Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Stay at Home Book Club)

Find your next book

For those looking for their next book to read, the weekly Instagram live stream “What Fort Worth Reads” has captured a growing audience with nearly 4,000 views, and 347 active participants as of mid-December after 46 episodes during the year. Anyone can join from anywhere each Thursday, noon-1 p.m. on Instagram to participate.

The collection management division of the Library staffs librarian selectors in various specialty areas. When asked what books published in 2022 they’d recommend, these librarians had a wide-variety of options for readers. Michelle Morris in adult and Spanish selections recommended as her top five books a unique selection for various tastes:

  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
  • Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
  • Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad by Matthew Delmont
  • Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family by Erica Hayasaki

“In Take My Hand, the author takes a difficult part of American history and beautifully brings it to life with care,” said Morris of the story set in Montgomery, Alabama in 1973. “Her lyrical prose and fascinating characters made this a wonderful read.”

Children’s and Young Adult specialists, librarian Karen Jensen recommends:

  • How to Eat a Book by Mr. and Mrs. MacLeod for picture books
  • The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton for middle grade fiction
  • The Tryout by Christina Soontornvat for middle grade graphic novel
  • The Universe in You: A Microscopic Journey by Jason Chin for children’s nonfiction
  • The Getaway by Lamar Giles for teen fiction

“The Getaway is a chilling dystopian that weaves together plots of climate change, racism and something that looks a lot like Disneyland, but is twisted and scary,” said Jensen.

Meet the authors

The Library hosted 19 authors in 2022 and many of the events were hybrid, with options to attend in-person and get a personal copy of a book signed or to join in virtually via Zoom. The Author Series is growing with the addition of annual children’s author series. Many of the author series programs are available on-demand on the Library’s YouTube channel.

Aspiring writers

Beyond the dozens of city-wide programs hosted during November for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the Library regularly hosts popular programs for aspiring writers for youth and adults. The Southwest Regional library regularly hosts aspiring adult writers every other week for FW Writes, complimenting similar programs at Ridglea and Northwest. 

As Tarrant County pursues naming its first Youth Poet Laureate to compete nationally in 2023, the Library has partnered with Tarrant County College to offer writing workshops for aspiring poets and competitors to prepare submissions for the national competition.

Patron recommendations always welcome

The librarians in collection management also accept recommendations from patrons on a regular basis and evaluated more than 2,800 requests this past year. Whether via email, or on the preferred online form available on the Library’s website, patrons can request not only books, but also movies, video games and other materials they’d like the Library to carry.

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