Sanders, Mark2009-08-272011-05-162009-08-272011-05-162009Public Services Quarterly; 5:3 p. 174-183http://hdl.handle.net/10342/1873Offering a separate, popular reading collection can be a valuable public service in academic libraries. Popular reading is also known as leisure reading, recreational reading, and reading for pleasure. These phrases are synonyms for an interest in reading bestsellers, mysteries, romance novels, biographies, graphic novels, humor, self-help, or popular nonfiction, among other literature categories. This article examines the survey data of popular reading collections in the public universities of three southeastern states. It also discusses the popular reading collection at the author’s library, also located at a southeastern public university, and analyzes the data from both circulation records and a survey of more than 100 patrons who used the collection during the fall 2008 semester.en-USPopular readingPublic librariesUniversity librariesRecreational readingArticle