World Book Day - Top 10 Books
Following my post of a few weeks ago, the list of the 10 books you can’t live without has been posted on the World Book Day Web site:
- Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 20%
- Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein 17%
- Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 14%
- Harry Potter books - J K Rowling 12%
- To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee 9.5%
- The Bible 9%
- Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8.5%
- Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 6%, tied with:
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 6% - Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 0.55%
None of my top 10 made the list, but it’s interesting to note that similarities with the LibraryThing top 10.  Combining the Harry Potters, the LT list looks like this:
- Harry Potter books - JK Rowling
- The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
- The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
- Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
- Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
- To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
- The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
- Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon
The 155,331 LT members who’ve catalogued their books list what they actually own, so they two lists are essentially what people say they can’t live without, and what they actually don’t live without. There are still quite a few classics on the LT list, but Dan Brown, Tolkien, and even Mark Haddon show up too - and the Bible is noticeably absent. Of course, none of my top 10 show up on either list - I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing or a good thing though.
March 1st, 2007 at 11:51 am
I saw the World Book Day list earlier today. Now, as I see these lists here in your post, I wonder how time will treat these books. For example, when the play “Equus” was first staged in 1973, it was viewed as cutting edge drama. Now, while Daniel Radcliffe is getting rave reviews for his acting in the play, critics are saying that the play itself hasn’t aged well.
So, how will the books on these lists age? Frankly, I don’t think the Da Vinci Code (a book I enjoyed reading) will be on either list in 2017. Pullman’s books probably won’t either. But I have a feeling one or more of the Harry Potter books will still be on the lists.
–Malcolm
March 1st, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I didn’t read all those books. 1984 is my favorite. I’m going to post this list on the Book & Reading Forums.
March 4th, 2007 at 11:15 am
The Bible is noticeably absent from the list because it is categorized separately. The Bible, according to a recent article in the New Yorker, is always the top, numero uno, best seller. Year after year. Religious books of all sorts are categorized out of existence on these kinds of lists, giving the erroneous impression of a generally secularized culture. Not the case.