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The top books San Franciscans read this summer, according to the library

A person is reaching for a book on a high shelf in a library with many books.
Library staff categorize and organize books at the main branch at 100 Larkin St. in San Francisco on Aug. 26, 2022. | Camille Cohen/The Standard | Source: Camille Cohen/The Standard

San Franciscans were busy this summer reading books about video game-fueled romances, the struggles of iCarly child actor Jennette McCurdy and graphic novels about a crime-fighting canine named Dog Man.

The San Francisco Public Library provided data to The Standard on its most read and listened-to books from June to August. 

Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, a novel about Harvard scholars who fall in love while creating a popular video game, was the most-read book from the San Francisco Public Library this summer, notching 2,249 e-book loans. 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, a book about a bright female scientist who’s continually hamstrung by her male counterparts, was checked out more than any other physical book, leaving the library’s shelves 932 times. 

Meanwhile, nonfiction books saw far less readership than the made-up variety. Among books based on real stories, Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died drew the most interest among San Franciscans, totaling 1,452 audiobook listens and 1,080 e-book rentals.

Dav Pilkey, the author who dreamed up the widely popular children’s series Captain Underpants, is still pumping out books about two new unlikely heroes, Dog Man and Cat Kid. Pilkey claimed the seven most popular titles in the library’s juvenile fiction genre. Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea was his most popular title.

Correction: An error in this post initially misreported the circulation figures in the “Fiction – eBook” category. It has been corrected. 

David Sjostedt can be reached at david@sfstandard.com