The Great American Read
This year, PBS is asking you: What are America’s favorite novels?
Tell us what your favorite novel by casting your vote now!
The Great American Read is an eight-part series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels as chosen in a national survey. It investigates how and why writers create their fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what these 100 different books have to say about our diverse nation and our shared human experience.
Now it’s your turn. Tell us what your favorite novel by casting your vote now!
Click here to watch the two-hour launch special hosted by Meredith Vieira that reveals the list of 100 books.
The series returns on Tuesday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. and continues every Tuesday night through October 23, when the winner is announced.
What’s on the list?
The list contains a broad range of titles, authors, time periods, countries, genres, and subject matter. It includes books from as far back as the 1600s and as recent as 2016. From beloved world literature to contemporary best sellers, many categories are represented. See the list.
Download a PDF checklist of the books to keep track of how many you have read or to share with family and friends.
How were the top 100 books chosen?
PBS and The Great American Read producers worked with the public opinion polling service “YouGov” to conduct a demographically and statistically representative survey asking some 7,200 Americans to name their most-loved novel. The results were tallied and organized based on our selection criteria and overseen by an advisory panel of 13 literary industry professionals. The criteria included listing only works of fiction published in English and one title for each author.
Get Social
Join The Great American Read PBS Book Club as we talk about our favorite novels, our love of reading, and the 100 books on the list. Click here to visit the group on Facebook.
Now it’s your turn. Go Vote!
Voting is currently open online and on social media. Click here to learn how you can cast your votes for your favorite novels online or through your Facebook or Twitter account.
The List
1984 by George Orwell
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Alex Cross Mysteries (series) by James Patterson
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Another Country by James Baldwin
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Charlotte’s Web by E B White
The Chronicles of Narnia (series) by C.S. Lewis
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Doña Barbara by Romulo Gallegos
Dune by Frank Herbert
Fifty Shades of Grey (series) by E. L. James
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
Foundation (series) by Isaac Asimov
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Game of Thrones (series) by George RR Martin
Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling
Hatchet (series) by Gary Paulsen
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hunger Games (series) by Suzanne Collins
The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Left Behind (series) by Tim LaHaye/Jerry B. Jenkins
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Looking for Alaska by John Green
The Lord of the Rings (series) by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Martian by Andy Weir
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Mind Invaders by Dave Hunt
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Outlander (series) by Diana Gabaldon
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Shack by William P. Young
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Stand by Stephen King
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
Tales of the City (series) by Armistead Maupin
Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Twilight Saga (series) by Stephanie Meyer
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Watchers by Dean Koontz
The Wheel of Time (series) by Robert Jordan
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte