Posted on 10/16/2018 9:07:09 AM PDT by BlackAdderess
The Great American Read, presented by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), is exploring the power of reading with an eight-episode series where viewers will vote for the top book from a list of 100 of the most-loved novels. And our community is participating in this national celebration of reading!
The Reston Regional Library is one of 50 libraries nationwide to receive a grant from the American Library Association and PBS to host programs around the television series. We have also partnered with our local PBS station, WETA TV 26, which will air the series. To supplement the PBS show, we want you to vote in a series of polls from the same list to determine Fairfax County’s favorite book.
(Excerpt) Read more at fairfaxcounty.gov ...
Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Chronicles of Narnia (series), by C.S. Lewis Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell Harry Potter (Series), by J.K. Rowling Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott The Lord of the Rings (series), by J.R.R. Tolkien Outlander (Series), by Diana Gabaldon Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
I'm sorry to see that Mark Twain dropped off the list but I truly dread the idea that To Kill a Mockingbird might win. This is not a book that is smuggled into study hall. This is not a book that children read under the covers by flashlight. This is a book that is assigned in school to be read. This is the subject of book reports and other unfun things. This is a book that does not have an independent fan site. Am I wrong?
I guess my vote for Finnegan’s Wake didn’t work out....
Given today’s environment, The Joke and 1984 should be on the top of the list.
When I note that War and Peace is defeated by Ann of Green Gables I cannot take this competition seriously.
Ha, Nice!
It's the "great american read" not "the great american gaze and hope for something intelligible".
1984 did OK for a while
Nothing by Lawrence Durrell - the greatest America writer until his death. Nor anything by Gene Wolfe, the current best American writer.
Looks like list of best books for junior highschoolers.
Average American probably reads at a junior high level.
Average American probably reads at a junior high level.
mostly by sounding out the words ... books over 100 pages in large type are about the limit unless assigned reading over the summer while basking on the beach before consuming alcohol. Then when asked which books are the best, they vote for the title of the one they can remember ... what the content may have been is long forgotten and irrelevant.
Any one wonder the Chinese are slowly over taking the US?
Really?
Two sections.... Gone With The Wind and To kill a Micking Burd are leading their sections
Gone with the Wind looks to be the overwhelming choice
“Charlotte’s Web” advanced considerably further than “1984”.
My list:
Deerstalker tales James Fennimore cooper
or
Last of the Mohicans
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Tarzan of the Apes By Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Martian Chronicles By Ray Bradbury
Ramona By Helen Hunt Jackson.
Huck Finn. — Twain
Tales of Terror and Imagination — Poe
Moby Dick — Melville
Of Mice and Men — Steinbeck
For Whom the Bell Tolls — Hemingway
Can substitue White Fang or Call of the Wild for the Steinbeck.
American stories. By American authors.
Indeed. Something called "the great American read" should be, ya' know, American. Yes, I'm soo provincial!
Hmm. How were the original 100 books picked in the first place?
And cleanse they did.
That is a very good question. There is a whole lot of stuff that truly did not belong.
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