Baltimore County Public Library patrons circulated nearly 9 million items during 2025, with “BookTok” and movie adaptations helping shape some of the year’s favorites.
Parents of young children are likely to have heard about “Dog Man,” author Dav Pilkey’s series of children’s graphic novels about the crime-fighting adventures of half-canine, half-human cop Dog Man. (Pilkey is the same author and illustrator behind the “Captain Underpants” children’s novels that readers this reporter’s age might find familiar.)
With “Dog Man” being made into an animated comedy movie this year, it should come as no surprise that the top 12 circulated children’s books came from this series. The most popular volumes from the series were 1,2,7,12, and 13, which were circulated a total of 8,942 times.
“Dog Man is obviously one of a kind, but graphic novels, especially for kids, are where the action is,” said Jamie Watson, Collection Development manager for the system, in a statement. “Children’s graphic novel circulation is up 19% over last year. And it’s not just Dog Man—author Raina Telgemeier’s work as well as the Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland are some examples.”
For teenage readers, books from the Suzanne Collins’ dystopian novel series “The Hunger Games” found themselves among the most circulated titles. The top four spots were held by “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire” (the first two books in the original trilogy about Katniss Everdeen) as well as prequels “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and “Sunrise on the Reaping,” the latter of which was released this year and is being adapted into a film to be released in theaters Nov. 20, 2026. Coming in fifth for teens was Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ mystery novel “The Inheritance Games.”
Kristin Hannah’s “The Women” clinched the top spot of the library system’s most-circulated adult fiction books of 2025, after previously coming in second on that same list in 2024.
James Clear’s “Atomic Habits” topped the adult nonfiction list, after earning fifth place in 2024. (Erik Larson’s “The Demon of Unrest,” which was the third-most circulated adult nonfiction book last year, found itself in fourth place this year.)
Here are the full lists for adults:
Top 5 Adult Fiction Books Circulated in 2025:
- The Women by Kristin Hannah
- We All Live Here: A Novel by Jojo Moyes
- Nobody’s Fool by Harlan Coben
- The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
- In Too Deep by Lee Child
Top 5 Adult Nonfiction Books Circulated in 2025:
- Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
- Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ida Garten
- Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham
- The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson
- The Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell
Top Circulated Books in Other Categories:
- Adult Fiction on Libby–The Women by Kristin Hannah
- Adult Nonfiction on Libby–The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
- Adult Fiction on CloudLibrary–Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
- Adult Nonfiction on CloudLibrary–Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
