The Great American Read – Do You Agree with the Results???

For those of you who voted day after day and watch the series programs, are you excited about the final results? Personally I am.

Here are a few facts shared during the final program that caught my interest:

• 4 million people cast votes across the search
• 50,000 joined the Great American Book Club
• 350,000 of the top 100 books will be distributed through the nation’s PBS stations to students
• several books took control of their final ranking within the last few days of the event
• several books were within 24-103 votes of nearby competitors throughout the event
• 9 high school class reads, YA and children’s books made the top 20

I enjoyed participating in the process and watching the programs. The information shared made me consider several books to add to my books-to-be-read notebook (wa-ay too many books for a single page!). I enjoyed the interviews with authors and avid readers and getting behind the scenes glimpses from time to time. If you missed the series, you can still find the programs on www.pbs.org

My favorite books that made the initial list were: Anne of Green Gables, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Call of the Wild, Catch 22, Pillars of the Earth, Charlotte’s Web,To Kill a Mockingbird and Grapes of Wrath. It was fun to see several children’s books on that initial list as well as perennial classics and one book that was written just 2 years ago.

Here are the top 5 books:

• 5 – Lord of the Rings
• 4 – Pride and Prejudice
• 3 – Harry Potter
• 2 – Outlander
• *** To Kill a Mocking Bird (Fact: it never left 1st place from day one of the event!!)

I’m a very curious person, so I hope you will let me know (1) how you liked the outcome (2) what books you voted for and (3) what books you added to your reading list after seeing the programs. I hope PBS will do other similar literacy projects in the future.