We work for you — and we’re matching your donation 1:1! Our journalists attend city council and school board meetings, follow tips and make the calls to keep you informed on the important issues in Berkeley. Will you chip in today?
The Berkeley Public Library’s central branch. Credit: Pete Rosos
As 2025 wraps up, the Berkeley Public Library crunched the numbers to find out the year’s most popular items.
The Berkeley-raised filmmaker, artist, actor and author Miranda July’s semi-autobiographical novel “All Fours” — about a middle-aged, multi-hyphenate artist (resembling July), who impulsively remodels a motel room and has an extra-marital sexual awakening involving a younger man and an older woman — is No. 1 in the adult fiction category.
In the adult nonfiction category, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ memoir and travelogue “The Message” was the most-requested title. Reflecting on the nature of mythmaking and Coates’ trips to Senegal, South Carolina and Palestine, the book garnered attention and controversy for the comparisons he drew between being Black in America and Palestinian in the Middle East and his full-throated condemnation of the Israeli occupation.
In the kids section, the most checked-out book was “Hot Mess,” from Jeff Kinney’s silly “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series. In the teen category — for the second year in a row — Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” reigned supreme.
But the most checked-out item from the Berkeley Public Library in 2025 wasn’t a book at all — it was the laptops patrons can use for up to two hours inside the library. This year, at least 15,243 patrons used the self-checkout laptops, said library spokesperson Aimee Reeder — a significant rise over last year as the library’s brought more Windows 10 computers into circulation.
Over at the Tool Lending Library, established in 1979 and available to all cardholders 18 and up, 50-foot extension cords were the most checked-out tool. In addition to items like toys, sports equipment and event supplies, the library’s offerings include a lawn mower, a bike repair kit, air quality monitors, ladders, a kids’ wheelbarrow, a dinosaur-shaped cake pan, a Belgian waffle maker and a sous vide cooker.
More than 5,000 tools are available at the Berkeley Tool Lending Library. Credit: Berkeley Public Library
By the way, here’s your annual reminder that you can check out a California State Library Parks Pass for up to two weeks, which means you don’t have to pay for parking at over 200 state parks, including at Mount Tamalpais, Big Basin Redwoods, Mendocino Woodlands. This year, 348 people took advantage of the pass, Reeder wrote in an email.
The library’s most checked-out items of 2024
Tools
50-foot extension cords (1,229)
Weedwhacker (950)
Drill bit set (543)
32-inch lopping shears (484)
Hedge shear (477)
14-foot tree pruner (462)
Pruning shears (426)
Cordless battery charger (372)
Cordless impact driver (353)
Adult Fiction
“All Fours” by Miranda July (1,540 checkouts)
“James” by Percival Everett (1,460)
“Orbital” by Samantha Harvey (1,402)
“Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver (1,248)
“Creation Lake” by Rachel Kushner (1,215)
“The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore (1,158)
“Tell Me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout (1,067)
“Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt (838)
“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride (833) — last year’s top title
“The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley (815)
Adult Nonfiction
“The Message” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (546 checkouts)
“The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt (519)
“The Backyard Bird Chronicles” by Amy Tan (437)
“Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir” by Ina Garten (409)
“Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders and the Rise of Social Engineering” by Malcolm Gladwell (388)
“Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World” by Naomi Klein (369)
“Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (368)
“Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous” collected by Gillian Anderson (349)
“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval N. Harari (342)
“Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover (340)
Teen
“Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” by Suzanne Collins (286 checkouts) — also last year’s top title
“A Court of Thorns & Roses” by Sarah Maas (236)
“The Giver” by Lois Lowry (233)
“My Hero Academia: Volume 1” by Kohei Horikoshi (202)
“Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins (194)
“Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed” by Dashka Slater (193) — about an incident at Albany High School
“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins (191)
“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak (185)
“Saga” by Brian K. Vaughan (181)
“Olympians: Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess” by George O’Connor (173)
Kids
“Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess” by Jeff Kinney (702 checkouts)
“Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy” by Tui Sutherland (589)
“The Baby-Sitters Club: Mary Ane’s Bad Luck Mystery” by Cynthia Yuan Cheng (544)
“Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End” by Jeff Kinney (540)
“The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy and the Walking Disaster” by Ellen T. Crenshaw (526)
“Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas” by Dav Pilkey (526)
“Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea” by Dav Pilkey (523)
“The Baby-Sitters Little Sister: Karen’s Grandmothers” by DK Yingst (522)
“Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild” by Dav Pilkey (522)
“Hilo: Rise of the Cat” by Judd Winick (518)
Note: The statistics the library shared with Berkeleyside reflect circulation data from Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 8, 2025.
Let’s be real …
These are uncertain times. Democracy is under threat in myriad ways, including the right of a free press to report the truth without fear of repercussions.
One thing is certain, however: Berkeleyside was built for moments like these. We believe wholeheartedly that an informed community is a strong community, so we’re doubling down on our mission of reporting the stories that empower and connect you when it matters most.
If you value the news you read in this article, please help us keep it going strong in 2026.
We’ve set a goal to raise $180,000 by year-end and we’re counting on our readers to help us get there. And a bonus: Any gift you make will be matched through Dec. 31 — so $50 becomes $100, $200 becomes $400. Will you make a donation now in support of nonprofit journalism for Berkeley?
Tracey Taylor
Co-founder, Berkeleyside
“*” indicates required fields