America's favorite book: poll

This was on yahoo this morning. I thought it was interesting... I um.. fall in the 18-31 group... I :wub: Harry! Ok.. and the guys too... I love Lord of the Rings

Just wondering... what's ya'll fav?

I don't fall into the 18-31 group. :razz:

I like Gone with the Wind a lot but it isn't in my top 5. Although To Kill a Mockingbird is in my top 5. I like Stephen King a lot but I've not read The Stand. Okay I haven't read The Lord of the Rings trilogy either. I just couldn't get into it. :blush:

Lol. I thought it would be the bible. :lol:

going to check it now.

WTH. I was right. :o :rofl: (I had not read the whole post of nmzl)

I bet you this would not be the outcome in my country. :whistle:

Love the second choice though. Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite books too. Same with Gone With The Wind.

I have so many favorites.

Lord of The Rings
Gone with the Wind
Amber
Dark Tower series + It by Stephen King
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons.
are some that come to mind.


These are all books I have re-read many a times.

When I saw the title I just knew it would be To Kill A Mockingbird as that seems to to be the pat answer most folks I know who aren't heavy readers give. In the same vein, I would have thought that The Catcher In The Rye or The Great Gatsby would have been pretty high up as well as they seem pretty popular. I know alot of people who haven't read a book since they graduated high school or college and these were probably the three most popular books we read back then.

Never in a million years would the Bible have entered my mind. I don't really think of it as a regular book I guess.

Being that I am a white, female, Republican living in the South I would say they are pretty spot on with Gone With The Wind. Its my all time favorite and I do reread it over and over.

I would take me some serious time to whitltle all the books I've read down to a top ten. I do know my top three are Gone With The Wind, A Confederacy Of Dunces and Bridget Jones' Diary. Not sure where it would fall overall, but I also am pretty sure that Hungry Planet: What The World Eats could potentially be very high on my list. Just not sure how relevant it will be over time as world economies change.

I would be interested to see where in the US the people were located at. Kinda makes me wonder if they did just say the New York area vs all the major areas of the US. I would think the favorites would change a bit from region to region.

Also.. how much do these people read.. that might change. I agree with Ramson. I wouldn't mind seeing a more indepth study. Like people who read an avg. of X amout of books per year say xxx is the fav vs people who read say 100 or more a year the fav. is xxx.

I would also love to see a favorites list in each catagory too.

(Then again..maybe I'm just weird.)

My fav has been The Count of Monte Cristo for years, but I also love The Egg and I, The Sparrow and pretty much whatever book I happen to be reading, or that I have my eye on to read next.

I just wonder how many of those Bible people have really read it or just say that because they think they should.

Green Eggs and Ham. Fantastic novel, that one. :D

I'm not a fan of to Kill a Mockingbird and haven't read the others. I always liked Animal Farm. :) But, really, I don't have a most favorite book. I'd probably have chosen A Time to Kill. I thoroughly enjoyed reading that book.

I agree with Ramson, I would've thought The Great Gatsby would've been up there.

Me! I've read it through a couple of time and working my way through it again. :D

As for a literary classic, my favorite is Jane Eyre with
Gone With the Wind running a close second.
If I had to chose a favorite from something more contemporary, I'd be hard pressed to pick just one. :wacko:

Stephen King's 'The Stand' has always been my all time favorite as well.

Of course I can list many more that I have enjoyed but it is one of the only ones that I have every reread and that is saying a lot.

Tad Williams 'Otherland' Series is another set that I would be willing to rearead if given the opportunity.

I very rarely reread anything.

I don't think I could ever pick just one favorite. Maybe I could pick a top 5 or top 10, but not just one. Nope, can't do it. But I do know that if I was forced to pick just one, it for sure wouldn't be the bible!

Well, of course The Lord of the Rings makes my all-time favorites list. But so do:
Animal Farm by Orwell,
The Pearl by Steinbeck,
Zenzele by J. Nozipo Maraire,
the collected Sherlock Holmes works,
The Once and Future King by TH White,
and probably a few others if I thought harder.

I only read Gone with the Wind recently. I enjoyed it very much but not enough to put it onto a favorites list. Atlas Shrugged is on my TBR shelves somewhere. Maybe I need to move it higher in the stack? (But I need to focus on my Olympic reading if I'm going to finish by August :thinking: )

ETA: meshe, obviously I couldn't pick just one either. I expect that's a common problem for people who love to read. Non-readers have more limited choices. :D

*CheriePie scurries over to BookMooch to pick up a copy of "The Stand". :runaway:


For a literary book, I loved Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

I've never read Gone with the Wind, nor saw the movie for that matter. What am I missing? Isn't it kind of romance-y? :unsure:


ETA - Oh, I just realized that I saw "The Stand" as a movie. It obviously didn't make a huge impression on me if I didn't even remember until I went and looked it up on Netflix. I only gave it a 4 out of 5, which is basically saying I really liked it, but its not one of my all-time faves. So nevermind, I'm not gonna read the book too with over 600 TBRs waiting here. :P

I think my favourite novel has been Blindness by Jose Saramago

My fav book is An Ordinary man by Paul Rusesabagina

I tried reading "The Stand" and I coudn't finish it.. I actually hated it. Then again I don't like Stephen King at all. The movies, yes, like the movies, I just don't like his style of writting... then again I'm weird. :shrug:

I was thinking precisely how (excluding the Bible of course) all authors are English speaking, predominantly Americans. Aren't you (US folks) read in school (as a mandatory literature or not) authors who wrote in languages other than English?

(Ace I know you're :talk: :wink: )

Yes, in school we do read literature from around the world. There are required readings from all types of lit. These vary from school to school though and depend largely on the teacher.

My favourite novel has, for many years, been Watership Down by Richard Adams (although, I wouldn't list him as my favourite author -- having read many of his other works, too). The GateKeeper's vote is Count of Monte Cristo, which he frequently re-reads. It's a habit I think he picked up from his mother, who would (honestly!) re-read The Count every year, so that'd prolly be her vote, too :giggle: My kid sister would vote Time Traveller's Wife. But nothing we have to say would count, anyways 'cause we're all Canadian :wink:

But Rowling and Tolkein aren't American... and Ayn Rand was Russian, wasn't she?

When I went to school in the Dark Ages, we read only English and American authors not even Canadian authors. However in French we did read Canadian authors

Yes but they are English speaking authors right? Indeed she has been born in Russia but she's an American author; she published her first book in USA (I think). You didn't quote my entire post where I asked about authors who wrote in language other than English.

Here this type of list wouldn't be possible without Russians and first among them would undoubtedly be Dostoevsky. I can't think anyone who'd be even near to him. Then comes other Russians and German authors (in my opinion by far best two world literatures) and the after few empty spots would be Brits, French, Italians etc.
Maybe I'm just too serious but any list of best books which doesn't include Dostoevsky would (should) be considered as an instant culture.

Aw Z, don't be a book snob. They asked for Americas favorite book. Not which book Americans thought was most influential or important or smart or whatever... When I think favorite I'm thinking of something I loved. Each person would have a different criteria and while you might name what you deem 'important' literary works, I'd be more likely to name a book that made me laugh and cry and "FEEL". Who's right? both of us.

meshe but I am a book snob :lol:
Yeah after I posted my comment I thought about that and indeed you're right but I do believe (according to the circle of people I know) that they would include Dostoevsky. He is mandatory in our school system but in spite that, he is one of the most popular even among the ones who read only what is mandatory! Later with the people who continue to read other books he definitively remains one of the best writers. For example my girlfriend was an extreme: she was reading ONLY Dostoevsky over and over again. And then thanks to me (I do think that's quite insane) she started to read other writers and now I can say she's healed.
So I do agree with you completely (including the snob part :wink:) but I think he would remain on that list (truth probably accompanied by gents Potter and Gandalf).

Blindness by Jose Saramago - I LOOOVVEEE this book!!

I'm thinking that I should just buy a stack so I can give them out as gifts :lol:

This thread made me scuttle over to find the list of Australia's favourite books, as decided by a poll run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Here's the result...

1. The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien


2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen


3. The Bible by Various Contributors


4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee


5. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton


6. Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Book 5) by J.K. Rowling


7. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell


8. The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams


9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown


9. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller


10. A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey


Of course the poll was taken late in 2004, so I suspect there would be a few changes now - hopefully the ghastly Da Vinci thing would be dropped.

There was a lot of conversation about the fact that only 2 of the books were Australian... and as you can see zzz, no non-English books at all!!!