The Top 10 Favourite Books
Yesterday was World Book Day and to mark the fact a poll was run in order to find the nations favourite books.
The list is commendable in terms of quality and may provide some reassurance for those that think quality and culture are things of the past. Call me a cynic but two things strike me:
Most of the books have been made into movies and how much of a Desert Island Discs phenomenon is there ?
Pride and Prejudice was a very clear winner scooping an impressive 20% of the votes. There is also some gender bias that needs to be considered. This was taken into account with separate lists for men and women, these showed some clear differences with Lord of the Rings being the number one choice for men followed by the likes of Crime and Punishment and Catch 22.
Anyway here’s the combined male and female top top 10, make of it what you will.
PS some good news, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown only made number 42 !
The Top Ten Most Popular Books
- Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
- Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
- Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
- Harry Potter books - JK Rowling
- To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
- The Bible - By God, edited by Moses
- Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
- Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
- His Dark Materials trilogy - Philip Pullman
- Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
PS: For our overseas visitors, the Desert Island Discs phenomenon relates to a well known radio show on which famous people pick their top 10 favourite pieces of music that they would take to a desert island. It is widely believed that many people make a selection based what people may think of them rather than what they actually listen to.
A Retired Bookdealer said,
March 2, 2007 @ 11:57 am
More Ramblings from ARB !, Yes More … Read on ……
Way back in Nineteen Eighty Four I remember reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien, at the time I was visiting a young lady who strongly resembled a character, which I am unable to bring to mind Charlotte Brontë used in her classic work Jane Eyre, though her temperament was better to suited to that of an evil witch, even though she had me under a spell for a short time, this spell I am sure would have been found in any Harry Potter novel, “thanks JK Rowling”, the next young lady I was to meet which I think was in 1986, after a mid week church meeting, yes even I visit the house of God occasionally, anyway this poor young thing had dropped her Bible, to which I did the gentlemanly thing and picked up her volume,
“Why thank you she said”, “Oh what eyes she had”.
Later that week I had arranged to meet this young lady, would you believe at her village book group, Friday evening 5 pm prompt, I seem to recall, anyway to my surprise and joy the book of the week was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a volume I had missed reading until now, I continued my visits to the book group for many weeks after, during which time I read Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë,Great Expectations by Charles Dickens,
though by this time I must admit I had great expectations of my own,
which sadly never materialised.
I wonder what happened to the young lady and the book group, I shall ponder on it while I make my way through my latest tomes,
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, which sadly is in paperback.
Rod said,
March 2, 2007 @ 3:22 pm
ARB
Witches of Eastwick said,
March 2, 2007 @ 5:18 pm
Rod,
ARB’s book club meetings sound a world away from ours don’t they? I mean, where’s the gougere and the hot gossip?
Perhaps we should start with the serious stuff like actually reviewing a book instead of lounging about eating what we fancy and generally having a good time. Better still we could sit you on the book shop throne, as it were, and all listen attentively as you read to us ….. we’ll bring the scatter cushions next week and the Morocan tea table, meantime you tune up your best sultry vocal cords and choose something that might appeal to a motley crew.
We cannot promise there won’t be any heckling or apple crunching but trust you will be able to deal with any offenders.
WoE
Rod said,
March 2, 2007 @ 5:59 pm
WoE
gougere at a book club meeting should be de rigeur more vital than the books in fact !
The idea sounds great in principal, the main problem would be choosing a volume that would appeal to such a disparate and eclectic group.
I could suggest some individual volumes but leave it to others to match them up to their readers:
Emmanuel
Nigella Lawson’s Domestic Goddess
Grand Designs - How to Renovate a Listed Building
The History of Apple Mac Computers
How to Meet & Greet Ladies by W.N. Dring Hands
I’d take any book I could sell for a profit !
Best
Redaneleye
A Retired Bookdealer said,
March 2, 2007 @ 7:07 pm
Hello All ,
I have been giving this top ten book thing a lot of thought,
anyway I have made my decision,
And ….
My Favourite Book is a …. Building Society Paying In Book !
Witches of Eastwick said,
March 2, 2007 @ 8:46 pm
Rod,
Let’s kick off with Nigella …. the Witches will be spellbound. As to Emmanuel, well, the weather is warming up and what with the greenhouse effect …. we should probably wait until November for fear of an attack of the vapours on an unprecedented scale.
Yours in eager anticipation ….
WoE
p.s. it’ll have to be gougere laced with heart pills for most if not all of the congregation, for most if not all of the books!!
Little Brother said,
March 2, 2007 @ 10:36 pm
ARB,
Church, Book Clubs, Dickens….Come on, who are you kidding? Seriously, even with your penchant for the opposite sex I find that hard to believe.
Rod said,
March 3, 2007 @ 11:48 am
WoE
You may need to make mini gougeres individually laced with an appropriate substance for each recipient !
I’ll take bromide in mine