Saturday, February 14, 2015

Dan Brown’s Inferno thrills UK library users as passion fades for Fifty Shades


EL James’s erotic bestseller checks out of top 100 list of books borrowed from UK libraries, as readers turn to murder, crime and conspiracy novels



Inferno author Dan Brown
Symbology trumps sex, on the page at least … Dan Brown’s Inferno was a particular favourite of Scottish readers in 2014. Photograph: Alessia Pierdomenico/Reuters

Fifty Shades of Grey might sweep the romantically inclined off their feet in cinemas this weekend, but EL James’s erotic novel has failed to hold onto the hearts of UK library visitors. It has dropped out of the top 100 chart of most-borrowed titles over the past year.

The bestselling title was loaned more than 75,000 times from libraries in 2013, making it the UK’s third most-borrowed book. Last year, however, the story of a billionaire and the student he lures into a sadomasochistic lifestyle was borrowed 29,827 times, meaning it failed to even make the top 100, according to new figures released today by Public Lending Right (PLR), which tracks borrowing from UK libraries.

Instead, readers found their thrills elsewhere, plumping for murder, crime and conspiracy in lieu of erotica. The list of the UK’s most-borrowed titles was topped by Dan Brown’s Inferno, which follows the ingenious symbologist Robert Langdon, with the adventures of Lee Child’s former cop Jack Reacher and thrillers from the likes of James Patterson, Harlan Coben and Mark Billingham in the top 10. The list is not entirely comprised of crime fiction: two titles from Jeff Kinney’s bestselling Wimpy Kid series appear, while Jamie Oliver’s Save With Jamie sits in 11th place and JK Rowling’s first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, in 17th.
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