The Great American Read

A week or so ago the finale of The Great American Read aired and the most beloved books were

·         To Kill A Mockingbird

·         The Outlander series

·         The Harry Potter series

·         Pride and Prejudice

·         Lord of the Rings

·         Gone with the Wind

You can find the rest of the 100 most beloved books in America at the PBS site.  It was an exciting series to watch over the last few months. Apparently from the beginning To Kill a Mockingbird was number one which seems a logical choice for Americans. I suspect from the top 20 that the majority of participants were middle aged or older. In the final analysis it was interesting to hear certain areas choices, some seemed logical and some seemed funny.  I think it was Hawaii that chose Call of the Wild which just seems weird that they would like a book that is set in a cold climate; meanwhile Lonesome Dove resonated with Texans.

Two books that did not make the list of 100 (which were pre-chosen for the show so not sure how they were picked) was Lord of the Flies and So Big. Both were books that were read in school and were popular for a long time; instead A Separate Peace and Heart of Darkness made it (both were so bleak that I am surprised they were favorites). Some were naturals such as Catcher in the Rye, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. One that I wondered about was Atlas Shrugged; why it and not The Fountainhead which I thought was the more famous of Ayn Rand’s books? No author made the list twice which I believe was a conscious selection by those who chose the hundred in the first place.

I am proud to say that I have read more than half of those on the list and am familiar with 90 of them; only a handful had I never heard of.

A new book is out now called “The Written World” by a Harvard professor, Martin Puchner, leads us on a remarkable journey through time and around the globe to reveal the powerful role stories and literature have played in creating the world we have today. Puchner introduces us to more than four thousand years of world literature and reveals how writing has inspired the rise and fall of empires and nations, the spark of philosophical and political ideas, and the birth of religious beliefs. Indeed, literature has touched the lives of generations and changed the course of history.