With the advent of the nationwide reading era, book resources are becoming increasingly abundant, with both variety and content growing exponentially, presenting readers with ever-expanding choices. As a major category, popular science books have garnered widespread attention. Public libraries, as key institutions for reading promotion services, ought to shoulder the responsibility of recommending high-quality books to the public. Focusing on the "City of Readers"—a long-standing book selection initiative organized by the Capital Library of China—this paper systematically reviews the selection and promotion of popular science books. It summarizes the characteristics of the nominated works, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the initiative, and evaluates reader feedback. Furthermore, it proposes optimization strategies for future reading promotion activities, including the construction of a comprehensive evaluation system and the creation of a "multi-dimensional" popular science ecosystem within libraries. These insights aim to provide reference for the promotion of science reading and the development of the popular science publishing sector in this new era.

popular science books  /  bibliographic analysis  /  book selection  /  reading promotion  /  science communication