During a year marked by protests for racial justice and a deadly pandemic that has disproportionately killed and sickened Black and Latino people across the District, books about racism rose to the top of reading lists in the city.

After the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and as protests for racial justice erupted in city streets, readers sought titles about anti-racism, privilege and white supremacy from the D.C. Public Library. The interest extended into fiction, where books that deal with race were among the most popular.

“People wanted to go deeper into some of the issues that are plaguing us,” Richard Reyes-Gavilan, executive director of D.C. Public Library. “This is what imaginative works, whether fiction or nonfiction, provides people. A better understanding of our world, a better understanding of ourselves.”

In the first two weeks of May, copies of five e-books about race — White Fragility, How To Be An Antiracist, Me And White Supremacy, The New Jim Crow and So You Want to Talk About Race — were downloaded a total of 120 times. In the last two weeks of that same month, they were downloaded 1,242 times, according to DCPL.

The demand prompted the library system to provide unlimited e-book copies of some of the most in demand books on race in the country. Interest in several books about racism peaked in late May and early June but interest held steady throughout the year — by the end of 2020, books about race were among the most borrowed.

The pandemic forced the D.C. Public Library to adapt as readers’ habits changed.

The library system shuttered its more than two dozen locations in March after Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a stay-at-home order. Some libraries reopened for limited in-person services in late June but reverted to curbside services this month as coronavirus cases surged. Other locations have remained closed throughout the pandemic. 

But demand for library services did not waver.

In the month after the coronavirus pandemic forced schools, businesses and workplaces to shut, 7,000 people in D.C. signed up for library cards. Bon Appétit was among the most popular magazines borrowed from D.C. libraries, another potential sign people were spending more time in their kitchens.

More people used LinkedIn, a job networking website, and Lynda, which provides online training courses, through the library system as the city grappled with higher levels of unemployment.  

Borrowing of physical books shrank dramatically. Readers relied on e-books and audiobooks more than they ever did, reaching nearly 1.3 million downloads.  

Here’s a list of D.C. Public Library’s most popular books in 2020.

Top 10 Non-Fiction E-books   

1. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
2. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla Saad
3. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
4. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
5. Becoming by Michelle Obama
6. The Yellow House: A Memoir by Sarah M. Broom
7. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
8. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
9. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
10.  Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Top 10 Non-Fiction Books   

1. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
2. Becoming by Michelle Obama
3. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
4. The Library Book by Susan Orlean 
5. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino 
6. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
7. Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
8. Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow
9. Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
10.  Hillbilly Elegy: a Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance

Top 10 Non-Fiction E-Audiobooks   

1. So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo
2. You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero
3. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez
4. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition by Michelle Alexander
5. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6. Becoming by Michelle Obama
7. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
8. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
9. Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong
10.  Sister Outsider–Essays and Speeches: Crossing Press Feminist Series, Book 1 by Audre Lorde 

Top 10 Fiction E-books   

1. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
2. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
3. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
4. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
5. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
6. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
7. Normal People by Sally Rooney
8. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
9. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
10.  Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Top 10 Fiction Books   

1. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
2. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
3. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
4. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
5. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
6. There There by Tommy Orange
7. Normal People by Sally Rooney
8. Circe by Madeline Miller
9. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
10. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Top 10 Fiction E-Audiobooks   

1. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
4. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
5. The 7 ½  Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
6. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
7. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
8. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
9. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
10.  1984 by George Orwell