
THE WINNERS ARE ANNOUNCED! If you haven’t been following this fun program on PBS, it was an eight-part series that celebrated the power of reading by utilizing a
national survey that selected America’s 100 best-loved novels. Throughout the eight weeks people across the nation have been voting for their “best-loved” novel from the survey-selected 100 titles. Last night, the final order was announced.
I think you will be surprised by some of the top titles! If you want to watch the programs, you can access them at https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read. Not surprisingly, the most “best-loved” novel in America is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. But, here’s a sleeper, the second most loved title was Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. This is a novel written almost 30 years ago, but has been heavily read recently because of the Starz television series of the same name. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling is third, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice fourth, and the fifth finalist was J.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series.
The titles in the rest of the top ten are not surprising. The sixth selection is Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, seventh is Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White, eighth is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, ninth is The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, and the tenth top finalist is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Click here for more information and access to the entire list.
All of the titles in the top ten are well worth reading. Check them out today!