Movie lovers have Netflix, music lovers have Spotify, and book lovers have Scribd. The digital library has only been around since 2007, but with more than 300,000 books in its subscription collection, it’s one of the most popular apps on iTunes.
And Scribd's 80 million monthly readers can tell us a lot about literary trends: Take their recent list of the most downloaded books in all 50 states.
Most of the popular titles in each state are works of contemporary fiction — bestsellers, romance and sci-fi/fantasy. Several non-fiction winners also made the list, though. Among them: Patti Smith’s "Just Kids" (#1 in California), Howard Blum’s "The Eve of Destruction: The Untold Story of the Yom Kippur War," which topped the list in Arkansas, and Ohio's top title, Steve Dublanica’s "Waiter Rant."
Only one author makes the list twice: Neil Gaiman, whose books "Neverwhere" and "American Gods" topped the list in Wisconsin and Illinois, respectively. The only classic on the list comes out of Texas, where they love Agatha Christie’s "Murder on the Orient Express." And we had to chuckle at the single cookbook that made it in: "Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book" takes the prize in Alaska, of all places!
Here’s a sample of what the rest of the nation is reading, and you can check out the full list here.
Arizona: "Sh*t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern
Washington, D.C.: "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho
Hawaii: "The Devil’s Star: A Novel" by Jo Nesbo
Indiana: "The Strain" by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Iowa: "The Venging" by Greg Bear
Louisiana: "The Scent of Lemon Leaves" by Clara Sanchez and Julie Wark
Maryland: "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter
Missouri: "The Princess Diaries" by Meg Cabot
Montana: "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein
Nebraska: "I Am Number Four" by Pittacus Lore
New Hampshire: "Microserfs: A Novel" by Douglas Coupland
New Jersey: "When We Meet Again" by Victoria Alexander
New York: "The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee" by Sarah Silverman
North Carolina: "Keeping Faith" by Jodi Picoult
North Dakota: "The Mental Floss History of the United States" by Erik Sass, Will Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur
Rhode Island: "Raylan: A Novel" by Elmore Leonard
Tennessee: "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" by Tucker Max
Utah: "Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story" by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent
Virginia: "Dear Cary: My Life with Cary Grant" by Dyan Cannon
West Virginia: "A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning" by Lemony Snicket
Have you read the most popular book in your state? See the whole list here.
Jessica Dukes is a working mom of two. You can find her on Google+ and Pinterest.