Crime gives library loan beating to other genres

With a conspicuous absence of non-fiction, this year's PLR figures show crime fiction dominating lending, with children's books not far behind

As with Sherlock Holmes's dog that failed to bark in the night-time, the most telling thing in the league table of library borrowings for 2010/11 is what's absent. Why is there no non-fiction at all in the top 100, although cookbooks, memoirs and Guinness World Records are invariably among the leading titles in annual charts of books bought? Read more.