Top ILL titles for 2025

We recently noted that books (regular print), DVDs, and large print were the top 3 most-requested formats in the NHAIS ILL System last year. Now let's look at the titles involved and include the 4th most-requested format: audiobook CDs. Bearing in mind that a multi-copy request for 10 copies creates 10 separate requests and that these statistics are largely driven by demand from book groups, here are the ranks for the 100 most-requested regular-print books along with the counts for requests created (but not necessarily filled) in our ILL system from January 1 to December 31, 2025:

1. The frozen river : a novel / Lawhon, Ariel 1,374
2. James : a novel / Everett, Percival 1,111
3. The berry pickers : a novel / Peters, Amanda 815
4. The women / Hannah, Kristin 700
5. How to read a book : a novel / Wood, Monica 527
6. The god of the woods / Moore, Liz 464
7. Remarkably bright creatures : a novel / Van Pelt, Shelby 356
8. The lion women of Tehran / Kamali, Marjan 348
9. The wedding people : a novel / Espach, Alison 335
10. North woods : a novel / Mason, Daniel 284
11. West with giraffes : a novel / Rutledge, Lynda 280
12. Small things like these / Keegan, Claire 271
13. The measure : a novel / Erlick, Nikki 265
14. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store / McBride, James 258
15. The Thursday murder club / Osman, Richard 247
16. Tom Lake : a novel / Patchett, Ann 245
17. Horse / Brooks, Geraldine 237
18. The Briar Club : a novel / Quinn, Kate 218
19. Unlikely animals / Hartnett, Annie 209
20. Becoming Madam Secretary / Dray, Stephanie 202
21. Lady Tan's circle of women : a novel / See, Lisa 184
22. The midnight library / Haig, Matt 183
23. The ride of her life : the true story of a woman, her horse, and their last-chance journey across America / Letts, Elizabeth 181
24. The rose code : a novel / Quinn, Kate 174
25. The secret life of sunflowers / Molnár, Márta 173
26. The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo : a novel / Reid, Taylor Jenkins 171
27. The lost bookshop / Woods, Evie 170
28. All the colors of the dark : a novel / Whitaker, Chris 165
29. The housemaid / McFadden, Freida 160
30. Broken country : a novel / Hall, Clare Leslie 153
31. This is happiness / Williams, Niall 146
32. Finding Margaret Fuller : a novel / Pataki, Allison 145
33. The correspondent : a novel / Evans, Virginia 145
34. Time of the child / Williams, Niall 145
35. Lessons in chemistry / Garmus, Bonnie 140
36. The art thief : a true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession / Finkel, Michael 140
37. The borrowed life of Frederick Fife : a novel / Johnston, Anna 138
38. Orbital / Harvey, Samantha 137
39. The lioness of Boston : a novel / Franklin, Emily 136
40. The salt path / Winn, Raynor 136
41. Demon Copperhead : a novel / Kingsolver, Barbara 133
42. Grandma Gatewood's walk : the inspiring story of the woman who saved the Appalachian Trail / Montgomery, Ben 123
43. Go as a river / Read, Shelley 120
44. The personal librarian / Benedict, Marie 120
45. Anxious people : a novel / Backman, Fredrik 115
46. Theo of golden : a novel / Levi, Allen 115
47. The book of lost names / Harmel, Kristin 113
48. The demon of unrest / Larson, Erik 110
49. The book club for troublesome women : a novel / Bostwick, Marie 105
50. The anxious generation : how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness / Haidt, Jonathan 103
51. Wild dark shore / McConaghy, Charlotte 102
52. All the beauty in the world : the Metropolitan Museum of Art and me / Bringley, Patrick 101
53. How to age disgracefully / Pooley, Clare 101
54. Vera Wong's unsolicited advice for murderers / Sutanto, Jesse Q. 101
55. Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine / Honeyman, Gail 100
56. The collected regrets of Clover / Brammer, Mikki 100
57. Tell me everything : a novel / Strout, Elizabeth 98
58. The let them theory / Robbins, Mel 97
59. Code name Hélène : a novel / Lawhon, Ariel 96
60. The four winds / Hannah, Kristin 96
61. Hello beautiful : a novel / Napolitano, Ann 95
62. Lula Dean's little library of banned books : a novel / Miller, Kirsten 95
63. The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks / Skloot, Rebecca 95
64. The silent patient / Michaelides, Alex 95
65. The reading list : a novel / Adams, Sara Nisha 94
66. Our missing hearts : a novel / Ng, Celeste 92
67. The extraordinary life of Sam Hell : a novel / Dugoni, Robert 92
68. The nightingale / Hannah, Kristin 92
69. Project Hail Mary : a novel / Weir, Andy 91
70. The devil in the white city : murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America / Larson, Erik 91
71. The island of missing trees / Shafak, Elif 91
72. Everyone in my family has killed someone / Stevenson, Benjamin 90
73. Magnolia table : a collection of recipes for gathering / Gaines, Joanna 90
74. The first ladies / Benedict, Marie 90
75. The history of sound : stories / Shattuck, Ben 89
76. The magnificent lives of Marjorie Post : a novel / Pataki, Allison 89
77. The maid / Prose, Nita 89
78. Winter garden / Hannah, Kristin 89
79. Absolution / McDermott, Alice 88
80. American dirt / Cummins, Jeanine 88
81. Mad honey : a novel / Picoult, Jodi 86
82. The keeper of happy endings / Davis, Barbara 86
83. The road to tender hearts : a novel / Hartnett, Annie 86
84. Yours truly / Jimenez, Abby 86
85. A tree grows in Brooklyn / Smith, Betty 85
86. Before we were yours : a novel / Wingate, Lisa 85
87. Parable of the sower / Butler, Octavia E. 85
88. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Twain, Mark 84
89. Gather / Cadow, Kenneth M. 84
90. Heartwood : a novel / Gaige, Amity 84
91. The echo of old books : a novel / Davis, Barbara 84
92. The many lives of Mama Love : memoir of lying, stealing, writing, and healing / Hardin, Lara Love 84
93. The guncle : a novel / Rowley, Steven 83
94. Crow Mary : a novel / Grissom, Kathleen 82
95. The complete autumn & winter cookbook : 550+ recipes for warming dinners, holiday roasts, seasonal desserts, breads, food gifts, and more / America's Test Kitchen 82
96. My friends : a novel / Backman, Fredrik 81
97. Pride and prejudice / Austen, Jane 81
98. Isola : a novel / Goodman, Allegra 80
99. The Christmas tree farm / Gilmore, Laurie 80
100. Sipsworth : a novel / Van Booy, Simon 78

Here are the large print titles with at least 20 ILL requests created last year:
     
1. The frozen river : a novel / Lawhon, Ariel 192
2. Remarkably bright creatures : a novel / Van Pelt, Shelby 98
3. James : a novel / Everett, Percival 96
4. The berry pickers : a novel / Peters, Amanda 73
5. The women : a novel / Hannah, Kristin 68
6. West with giraffes : a novel / Rutledge, Lynda 57
7. The god of the woods / Moore, Liz 51
8. The Thursday murder club / Osman, Richard 50
9. How to read a book : a novel / Wood, Monica 35
10. All the light we cannot see / Doerr, Anthony 31
11. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store / McBride, James 31
12. The lion women of Tehran / Kamali, Marjan 28
13. Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet / Ford, Jamie 27
14. The kitchen front / Ryan, Jennifer 26
15. Lessons in chemistry / Garmus, Bonnie 25
16. Finding Margaret Fuller : a novel / Pataki, Allison 24
17. North woods : a novel / Mason, Daniel 23
18. The art thief : a true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession / Finkel, Michael 23
19. All the colors of the dark : a novel / Whitaker, Chris 22
20. The postmistress / Blake, Sarah 22
21. Plum Island / DeMille, Nelson 21
22. The wedding people a novel / Espach, Alison 21
23. Carnegie's maid / Benedict, Marie 20
24. News of the world / Jiles, Paulette 20    
25. The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo / Reid, Taylor Jenkins 20 

Here are the audiobook CD titles with at least 10 ILL requests last year:

1. The frozen river : a novel / Lawhon, Ariel 22
2. The berry pickers : a novel / Peters, Amanda 17
3. Remarkably bright creatures : a novel / Van Pelt, Shelby 16
4. West with giraffes : a novel / Rutledge, Lynda 13
5. Horse : a novel / Brooks, Geraldine 11
6. Demon Copperhead : a novel / Kingsolver, Barbara 10 

And here are the titles on DVD for 2025 that had at least 10 ILL requests created:

1. Killers of the flower moon 23
2. Conclave 15
3. Jaws 13
4. Young Frankenstein 13
5. Greyhound 12
6. Nightmare Alley 12
7. All the president's men 11
8. NCIS, Naval Criminal Investigative Service / The twenty-first season 11
9. The French connection 11
10. A few good men 10
11. Apollo 13 10
12. The way we were 10

A few observations...on the regular-print book list, 21st-century fiction rules, largely with works from the last 5 years. There are just two 20th-century books here: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (#85) and Parable of the Sower (#87). Representing the 19th century are Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (#88) and Pride and Prejudice (#97). There are 13 nonfiction works, of which two are cookbooks, three involve long, late-life treks (two on foot and one on horseback), and two are by Erik Larson. Other authors with two titles in the top 100: Ariel Lawhon, Kate Quinn, Annie Hartnett, Niall Williams, Allison Pataki, Marie Benedict, Fredrick Backman, and Barbara Davis. Kristin Hannah has four titles in the list.

On the DVD list, the 1970s are still with us, 50 years on. Looking at the request counts here, you might think more large print books than DVDs were requested overall last year. In fact, there were 14,135 requests created for DVDs and 8,743 for large print in 2025 but apparently the DVD requests were spread across more titles. The different seasons of TV series count as different titles but, if we combined requests for different seasons, Gilmore Girls, All Creatures Great and Small, Murdoch Mysteries, Hacks, 1923, and Professor T would join NCIS on the list of DVD titles with at least 10 requests created last year.

Remember that the counts here represent requests created but not necessarily filled. It's possible some items were requested multiple times on their way to getting filled.