University Libraries

University Libraries shares 2025 top viewing, leisure reading titles

Penn State University Libraries’ most-accessed curated content from digital platforms offers library users viewing, reading opportunities between semesters

After a long semester of academic and research work, the end-of-year break is an ideal time to pursue leisure reading and viewing. Penn State University Libraries offers several lists of 2025’s most-consumed digital leisure titles.  Credit: Adobe Stock images. All Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For Penn State readers and movie fans seeking some leisure entertainment during the winter break, Penn State University Libraries has several options to suggest, including digital-access content, from its resources’ most popular titles of 2025. The following lists include content accessed for academic as well as leisure purposes.

Penn State students and employees can access the following content online and hundreds of thousands of other video, audio and e-book content using their Penn State login credentials. With the exception of Kaltura and Libby, the following sources are linked through the University Libraries’ Databases section of its website — which as of Dec. 15 includes 1,057 databases.

For Penn Staters who prefer music listening, the University Libraries’ databases list also includes access to more than a dozen music-streaming sources.

Libby by OverDrive has provided free access to leisure e-books and audiobooks to the University community for the past three years. Here are Penn Staters’ top leisure reads and listens from 2025. View and borrow titles from this curated Libby e-books shelf and this curated Libby audiobooks shelf online.

Penn State’s Top Libby E-books of 2025:

  1. "The Handmaid’s Tale"
  2. "Demon Copperhead"
  3. "Yellowface"
  4. "Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel," "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" (tied)
  5. "Unf*** Your Boundaries: Build Better Relationships through Consent, Communication and Expressing Your Needs"
  6. "Deep End"
  7. "Iron Flame," "The Let Them Theory," "The Midnight Feast: A Novel" (three-way tie)
  8. "Book Lovers," "Daughter of the Moon Goddess: A Novel," "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist and Our Lives Revealed" (three-way tie)
  9. "Butcher & Blackbird," "The Alice Network: A Novel," "The Ten Thousand Doors of January" (three-way tie)
  10. "House of Earth and Blood," "Verity" (tied)

Penn State’s Most-Borrowed Libby Audiobooks of 2025:

Note: all titles listed are unabridged audiobooks.

  1. "Onyx Storm"
  2. "The Midnight Library"
  3. "The Handmaid’s Tale"
  4. "The Unseen World," "Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers" (tied)
  5. "Before the Coffee Gets Cold," "I’m Glad My Mom Died," "The Pumpkin Spice Café," "The Wedding People: A Novel" (four-way tie)
  6. "People We Meet on Vacation," "You Shouldn’t Have Come Here" (tied)
  7. "Sociopath: A Memoir, The Assassin’s Blade" (tied)
  8. A"ll the Colors of the Dark," "Beach Read," "Dark Matter: A Novel" (movie tie-in), "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue," "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel," "The Song of Achilles: A Novel" (six-way tie)
  9. "Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel," "The Cinnamon Bun Book Store," "The Unmaking of June Farrow: A Novel" (three-way tie)
  10. "The Four Winds: A Novel," "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel," "The Thursday Murder Club" (three-way tie)

The University Libraries’ Kaltura channel includes digital multimedia that may be copyrighted but perhaps not currently accessible through other available channels.

Penn State University Libraries’ Top 10 Kaltura Title Playbacks of 2025:

  1. "Belly Of the Beast"
  2. "Fatima"
  3. "Pushout"
  4. "Urbanized"
  5. "Rafiki"
  6. "Too Black to Be French"
  7. "Good Morning Mr. Hitler"
  8. "Jakob the Liar - 1975"
  9. "I Am Not Your Negro"
  10. "Killing Us Softly 4"

Kanopy is a video-streaming platform self-described as “dedicated to thoughtful and thought-provoking films.”

Kanopy Top 10 Videos at Penn State in 2025:

  1. "Ken Burns: The Central Park Five," PBS
  2. "The Battle of Algiers," The Criterion Collection
  3. "Night and Fog," The Criterion Collection
  4. "First Steps," PBS (Penn State license expires Jan. 23)
  5. "The Mask You Live In," The Representation Project
  6. "Au revoir les enfants," The Criterion Collection (Penn State license expires Jan. 4)
  7. "La Haine," The Criterion Collection (Penn State license expires Jan. 5)
  8. "Miss Representation," The Representation Project
  9. "All Things Must Pass," Gravitas Ventures
  10. "The Rules of the Game," The Criterion Collection (Penn State license expires Jan. 8)

Other University Libraries-provided sources of streaming video content include several platforms:

Formerly known as Alexander Street, Academic Video Online, or AVON, offers large-scale digital collections spanning a wide range of subject areas and publishers and curated specifically for the educational experience.

According to its website, Docuseek streams essential independent, social-issue and environmental films to colleges, universities and K-12 schools, providing “exclusive academic streaming from renowned documentary film distributors.”

As noted on its University Libraries web page, Swank Motion Pictures, a distributor of feature films, provides online streaming access via their Digital Campus service through an agreement funded by the University Libraries. Movies from major motion picture studios are available for online streaming when requested by a Penn State instructor for use in a Penn State course.

Additional information is available in the University Libraries’ Leisure Viewing Library Guide.

Last Updated December 18, 2025

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