10 April 2008

And America's favorite book is...

2,513 Americans were asked "What is your favorite book of all time?" Most of them named this one:



Yes, the Bible swept all demographics in this recent Harris poll. The rest of the top 10, with books I haven't read italicized:

2. Margaret Mitchell, GONE WITH THE WIND -- my sister's favorite book!
3. J.R.R. Tolkien, LORD OF THE RINGS series
4. J.K. Rowling, HARRY POTTER series (though some might say #1 and #4 in this poll are incompatible)
5. Stephen King, THE STAND
6. Dan Brown, THE DA VINCI CODE
7. Harper Lee, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
8. Dan Brown, ANGELS AND DEMONS
9. Ayn Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED
10. J.D. Salinger, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

A few other stray facts: HARRY POTTER was the winner-behind-the-Bible among my age group, peculiarly titled the "Echo Boomers." Easterners love THE LORD OF THE RINGS and Westerners love THE STAND. Democrats and Republicans alike cherish GONE WITH THE WIND, because we would all buy what Rhett Butler is sellin'.

Clearly I have a lot of work to do if I want to communicate with the maximum number of American readers.

Photo of a 123-year-old Bible: wonderlane

2 comments:

Emily said...

i've read the exact sames ones as you... though, i haven't read the bible. obvi. still, i don't care to read any of the rest. i am a snob.

Anonymous said...

I always feel slightly worried when I look at any of these polls and realize how much I dissent from them. ;)