Readers across Shetland showed a strong appetite for local writing in 2025, with homegrown authors dominating the most borrowed lists at Shetland Library.
There was close competition at the top of the Shetland section, reflecting both the strength and diversity of local voices.
Malachy Tallack’s That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz claimed the number one spot for physical book loans, narrowly ahead of Marianne Brown’s The Shetland Way and Jen Hadfield’s Storm Pegs.
However, when eBook and eAudio loans are added into the mix, Storm Pegs rises to the top overall.
In a striking result, Hadfield’s poetry collection even outperformed We Solve Murders by Richard Osman, which led the general fiction chart.
Brown welcomed the response to her book, which explores attitudes to the Viking windfarm.
“Thanks so much to Shetland Library users for taking an interest in the book.
“The varying topics of the top three reads, all with a local connection, shows how the library can cater for a range of tastes.”
Other strong performers included An Imposter in Shetland by Marsali Taylor and Vod by Christine De Luca, both published midway through the year yet still attracting high loan numbers.
Older titles also continued to find new readers, including Shadowed Valley by John Graham.
Scottish writing featured prominently in the wider collection too.
Finding Hildasay by Chris Lewis topped the general non fiction chart for the third consecutive year, followed by The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd and The Way of the Hermit by Ken Smith.
In fiction, Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen performed strongly after the author’s visit to Shetland last year.
Books favoured by reading groups also continued to loan well, including Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, which has remained popular for several years.
Crime author Vaseem Khan is also seeing rising interest ahead of his appearance at next year’s Shetland Noir festival.
eAudio borrowing continues to grow, with many top titles available on multi user licences, meaning no waiting lists for listeners.
Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid led the eAudio chart.
Children’s borrowing remained dominated by Jeff Kinney and picture books by Julia Donaldson, with The Gruffaloonce again the most borrowed picture book.
In young adult fiction, Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers climbed from second place last year to take the top spot.
Library manager Karen Fraser said the figures offer a fascinating snapshot of reading habits.
“We always find it interesting to sort through our most borrowed.
“I think the popularity of eAudio means that some people are finding time to read more books than they might otherwise.
“I am not surprised that audio boosted loans for Jen, Malachy and Marianne, they narrated their own books and did so very beautifully.”
