Harry Potter named Britain's most borrowed book
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the most popular book borrowed from British libraries last year, according to research.

By Graeme Paton writing in The Daily Telegraph, 06 Feb 2009

The latest instalment in JK Rowling's wizard series was taken out 109,000 times.
Kate Morton's The House at Riverton was in second place and the third most popular book was The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards.

The Government-funded Public Lending Right - which pays authors for books taken out in public libraries - said choices had been influenced by Richard and Judy, the husband and wife TV presenters. Five of the books named in the top 10 had been featured in their Book Club slot as part of their chat show.

The PLR, which tracked figures between July 2007 and June 2008, also said books for children and young adults represented a third of loans nationally.
It comes despite fears of declining popularity of libraries among children fuelled by the rise of the internet.

Leading authors including Philip Pullman, Michael Rosen and Alan Gibbons are already campaigning to save school libraries amid claims they are being killed off in favour of "virtual learning resources".
According to the latest study, the American writer James Patterson was the most borrowed author - with his books being taken out more than 1.5m times.
Children's author Jacqueline Wilson was named in second place on the list.