middle of nowhere vs the sticks

middle of nowhere

noun
  • A very remote place; a nondescript place lacking population, interesting things, or defining characteristics. 

the sticks

noun
  • A remote, rural area; a place that is removed from civilization such as the boondocks. 

  • The set of yardage markers used by a chain crew to indicate the ten yards between the line of scrimmage from the previous first down and the line to gain, which the offense must reach in their series of four downs in order to retain possession of the ball. 

How often have the words middle of nowhere and the sticks occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )