Fifty Shades of Grey might sweep the romantically inclined off their feet in cinemas this weekend, but EL James’s erotic novel has failed to hold onto the hearts of UK library visitors. It has dropped out of the top 100 chart of most-borrowed titles over the past year.

The bestselling title was loaned more than 75,000 times from libraries in 2013, making it the UK’s third most-borrowed book. Last year, however, the story of a billionaire and the student he lures into a sadomasochistic lifestyle was borrowed 29,827 times, meaning it failed to even make the top 100, according to new figures released today by Public Lending Right (PLR), which tracks borrowing from UK libraries.

Instead, readers found their thrills elsewhere, plumping for murder, crime and conspiracy in lieu of erotica. The list of the UK’s most-borrowed titles was topped by Dan Brown’s Inferno, which follows the ingenious symbologist Robert Langdon, with the adventures of Lee Child’s former cop Jack Reacher and thrillers from the likes of James Patterson, Harlan Coben and Mark Billingham in the top 10. The list is not entirely comprised of crime fiction: two titles from Jeff Kinney’s bestselling Wimpy Kid series appear, while Jamie Oliver’s Save With Jamie sits in 11th place and JK Rowling’s first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, in 17th.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney. Photograph: Antonio Zazueta Olmos

Regional preferences were also unveiled by the PLR, with non-fiction guide for new residents Life in the United Kingdom becoming London’s most-borrowed title. The north-east, Yorkshire and the Humber, and Wales favoured Child’s Thriller Never Go Back, and the West Midlands preferred Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The most romantic region, at least judging by its book-borrowing habits, was south-east England, which made Erica James’s romantic hit The Hidden Cottage its most-borrowed title. Scotland, meanwhile, fancied a slice of conspiracy theory in Brown’s Inferno.

The new figures also show that US thriller author Patterson has kept his position as the UK’s most-borrowed author for the eighth year running, with 13 of his books in the top 100 list. Library users continue to hold a soft spot for children’s authors, with Rainbow Magic writer Daisy Meadows in second place, Julia Donaldson in third and Francesca Simon in fourth. MC Beaton, and her PR boss-turned-amateur sleuth Agatha Raisin, is in fifth place, up from seventh the previous year, while Roald Dahl edges his way into 10th place from 14th.

Library users firmly focused on fiction Read more

Donaldson, the former children’s laureate and author of The Gruffalo, said she was “thrilled” at how widely borrowed her books are. “I developed my own love of books in my local library and would quite possibly not otherwise have become a writer myself,” she said. “With the closure of so many bookshops … it’s important that [libraries] remain open and at the heart of our communities.”

Seven authors saw their books borrowed more than 1m times last year, said PLR, which pays authors when their books are loaned: Patterson, Meadows, Donaldson, Simon, Beaton, Beast Quest creator Adam Blade and Jacqueline Wilson. The most-borrowed non-fiction author of the year was Mary Berry, the most-borrowed classic author was Dahl and the most-borrowed children’s author was Meadows.