Whangarei's love for Child

British writer Lee Child was the most popular author in Whangarei last year, with seven of his books in the top 10 most popular books loaned out from Whangarei public libraries. Photo / File

Whangarei's most popular library books for 2015 have been revealed - with one author taking out seven of the top 10 spots.

The district's most popular book was Lee Child's thriller Personal, which was issued 290 times, said Whangarei District Council libraries collections and technical team leader Supriya Khambete.

Child's other books The Affair, A Wanted Man, Never Go Back, Worth Dying For, 61 Hours and Killing Floor were also among the 10 most popular titles. Martin Handford's Where's Wally was on the list and John Grisham's Gray Mountain and Jodi Picoult's Leaving Time also made the top 10.

Whangarei District Council libraries manager Paula Urlich said the library selected its new books based on the most issued authors as well as information about what was popular in New Zealand and worldwide.

She said Child was obviously popular in the fiction category. Sought after non-fiction textsincluded biographies, travelbooks and books about spirituality.

Ms Urlich said eBooks were becoming more and more popular, however they still made up a small proportion of issues.

People had initially predicted eBooks would replace print but that wasn't going to happen, she said.

Issue numbers for physical books remained fairly constant.

The library had recently started offering electronic magazines, which were becoming more popular.

"From my point of view, everything's got its place, whether it's print or electronic, there's a place for everything," said Ms Urlich.