The ten most borrowed are...

The most-borrowed library books

According to the statistics people, the top ten borrowed books are:

1. The Affair, Lee Child
2. A Wanted Man, Lee Child
3. Fifty Shades of Grey, EL James
4. 11^th Hour, Maxine Paetro
5. The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney
6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff kinney
7. Guilry Wives, James Patterson
8. Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel
9. I, Michael Bennett, Michael Ledwidge
10. The Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling

That's a mixed list, and only JK Rowling's life after Harry Potter was on my to read list.

Worryingly, total loans are falling, year on year, pretty much every year, down from 460 million in 1998/99 to 263 million in 2012/13.

Why do library loan statistics to the tax / financial year thing and have to incorporate two years in one?

Diary of a Wimpy Kid was top in London, A Wanted Man in the North East, A Shark in the Dark! Was top on Merseyside, and The Real Katie Lavender in the South East.

Generally, the kids section is getting as much traffic, now, as the adult books. I've used the library less (and I'm making a note to self here and now to reverse that trend) because of the enjoyment of the e-reader. Two things, really. I borrow most books through reservation, as soon as they are published. As a result I have three choices: plough through them within the loan period of three weeks (scant time when I'm pushed for any reading time Monday to Friday and the book is long); hand it in and try to get back in the queue (because there's a list of reservations and an extension isn't available); or keep on regardless and run up the fine. For those huge, weighty hardbacks, the e-reader is much easier on the wrists, and the temper, than the big, heavy, paper version.

Now I still love books. I love MP3's. That doesn't mean I don't still love CD's and vinyl records, and there's no mutual exclusion between paper and epub versions. I have drifted towards the electronic form, and need to think on those use it or use it lines about the libraries.

Before fitting BLISS' old car stereo...

...to replace the broken one in mine, I did the internet research thing. I actually laughed at the bloke (fifth comment down) who said, after the first four moaned about the blanking plate locating lugs (see – I've picked up radio-installer jargon in a day) breaking off as soon as you try to pop it in place, that, yes, of course they broke, “if you're a ham-fisted clumsy accident prone strongman”. Something like that anyway. I made a mental note to take care.

Well, call me a ham-fisted...

I glued the blanking plate in place, the right way up according to all information and photographs available. The stereo clip on front frame promptly de-clipped and the radio disappeared into a dashboard black hole.

Needless to say, there's been a number of quick fixes (all failed after varying lengths of time) until I abandoned aesthetic considerations and now I have a fantastic, working, radio and cd player with a mp3 player connection. Granted, you can see some parcel tape, and a cardboard schim (an ASDA own-brand ibuprofen box, appropriately enough), but the bugger is no longer disappearing into the dashboard black hole.