"Most Wanted" List

For 2002, Jail Library Group volunteers gathered in-depth data about the most popular and frequently requested items, authors, subjects, and fiction genres. These are the results:

Most wanted items

• Dictionaries
• Almanacs
• Atlases
• Thesauri
• Encyclopedias
• Large print, in genres other than romance
• New fiction in Spanish

Most wanted authors

• Dean Koontz
• Donald Goines
• Stephen King
• John Grisham
• V. C. Andrews
• James Patterson
• Mary Higgins Clark
• Louis L’Amour
• Anne Rice
• John Saul

Most wanted subjects

• Poetry, especially love poems
• Religion, especially Islam
• Physical and mental health
• Psychology and self-help
• Job manuals and career advice
• Hobbies and games: chess, card games, Scrabble, drawing
• Crime, gangs and prison life
• AODA and recovery materials
• African-American nonfiction topics: Black history, slavery, Black nationalism

Most wanted fiction genres

• Horror: Stephen King, Dean Koontz, V.C. Andrews, Anne Rice, John Saul
• Crime stories: Donald Goines, Patricia Cornwell, Tami Hoag, John Sandford
• General fiction: Sidney Sheldon
• African-American fiction: Terry McMillan, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, E. Lynn Harris, Eric Jerome Dickey
• Action-adventure and thrillers: Tom Clancy, Michael Connelly, Clive Cussler
• Westerns: Louis L’Amour, Larry McMurtry, Tabor Evans
• Romance: Jackie Collins, Catherine Coulter, Nora Roberts
• Science fiction/fantasy: Terry Brooks, David Eddings, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert
• Mystery/suspense: James Patterson, John Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark, J.A. Jance, Ann Rule