Textbooks are among the most frequently requested books at BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library, but a list of the library’s top 10 has “Twilight“ in the lead.
The library arranged its current top-10 titles by tracking the number of holds placed on items in the library collection over the past month. Some 40 percent of the books with the most holds cover religious scripture and LDS Church doctrine.
Here, in order, is the current top-10 list:
1. “Twilight,” by Stephanie Meyer
2. “Western Literature in a World Context, Vol. 2,” by Paul Davis
3. “1 Nephi to Alma 29,” by Kent P. Jackson
4. “Who’s Who in the Doctrine & Covenants,” by Susan Easton Black
5. “A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants,” by Stephen Edward Robinson
6. “The Human Record: Sources of Global History,” by Alfred J. Andrea
7. “A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language,” by Randolph Quirk
8. “Ender’s Game,” by Orson Scott Card
9. “Gardner’s Art Through the Ages,” by Helen Gardner
10. “The Holy Temple,” by Boyd K. Packer
The “Twilight” saga broke records at the box office, and USA Today reports the vampire epic surpassed the great “Harry Potter” series in at least one category:
Stephenie Meyer‘s four-book Twilight series has sunk its fangs into USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list — with no signs of letting go. Meyer’s domination of the list for the past 12 months has smashed records that until now had belonged to J.K. Rowling.Rowling, overall, has sold more books than Meyer — her seven-book series about boy wizard Harry Potter has 143 million copies in print in the USA, while Meyer has sold 40 million copies of her four books. But Rowling can’t match Meyer’s control of the list.
Between 10,000 – 12,000 people visit the Harold B. Lee Library each day during fall and winter semesters, according to library administration. Some readers won’t give in to the rising trend of some digital media. Kane Hsieh of Gizmodo offers insight to the dull draw of ebooks:
…The ebook is a new medium that has yet to see any true innovation, and resorts to imitating an old medium. This is obvious in skeuomorphic visual cues of ebook apps. Designers have tried incredibly hard to mimic the page-turns and sound effects of a real book, but these ersatz interactions satisfy a bibliophile as much as a picture of water satisfies a man in the desert.
There is no reason I need to turn fake pages.
A second list was identified as the most checked-out books from the reading room’s sampler selection in the library. The list of popular books among BYU students speaks to the ideals held by the students themselves.
The top-10 list of the most checked-out books from the Popular Readings & Samplers Collection
1. “Twilight,” by Stephanie Stephanie
2. “Seventh Son,” by Orson Scott Scott
3. “Fishers of Men,” by Gerald N. Lund
4. “The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury,” by Bill Watterson
5. “The Far Side Gallery 2,” by Gary Larson
6. “The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury,” by Bill Watterson
7. “Wizard’s First Rule,” by Terry Goodkind
8. “Shadow of the Hegemon,” by Orson Scott Card
9. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” by J.K. Rowling
10. “Pillar of Light: A Historical Novel,” by Gerald N. Lund (the first volume in “The Work and the Glory” series)
