Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Top 100 books

Australian booksellers Angus and Robertson polled their customers again for their favourite books - here's the 2008 list  they've just released.  It's a curious brew of classics and best sellers.  


Do you want to play along? (If you do, leave a comment and a link to your blog so I can see your choices too). 

*** my top pick on this list
** read it, a favourite
* read it
~ read it, indifferent
^ would like to read it/plan to read it



1 Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling*
2 Twilight - Stephenie Meyer*
3 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen**
4 The Obernewtyn Chronicles - Isobelle Carmody
5 My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult~
6 To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee*
7 The Book Thief - Markus Zusak^
8 Breath - Tim Winton
9 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini^
10 Break No Bones - Kathy Reichs
11 The Power Of One - Bryce Courtenay
12 Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
13 Magician - Raymond E. Feist
14 The Bronze Horseman - Paullina Simons
15 Mao's Last Dancer - Li Cunxin
16 Memoirs Of A Geisha - Arthur Golden^
17 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold**
18 Cross - James Patterson
19 Persuasion - Jane Austen**
20 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte*
21 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger***
22 The Secret - Rhonda Byrne
23 Marley and Me - John Grogan
24 Antony and Cleopatra - Colleen McCullough
25 April Fools Day - Bryce Courtney
26 North & South - Elizabeth Gaskell
27 In My Skin - Kate Holden
28 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte*
29 A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini^
30 The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory*
31 Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult~
32 Atonement - Ian McEwan*
33 Shantaram Gregory - David Roberts
34 Pillars Of The Earth - Ken Follett^
35 The Pact - Jodi Picoult
36 Ice Station - Matthew Reilly
37 Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
38 Jessica - Bryce Courtenay
39 A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
40 The Princess Bride - William Goldman*
41 Running With Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
42 Anybody Out There? - Marian Keyes
43 Life Of Pi - Yann Martel
44 Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly
45 People Of The Book - Geraldine Brooks*
46 Six Sacred Stones - Matthew Reilly
47 Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards~
48 Brother Odd - Dean Koontz
49 Tully - Paullina Simons~
50 Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
51 The Catcher in the Rye - J.D Salinger~
52 Eragon - Christopher Paolini
53 Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert~

54 It's Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong
55 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens*
56 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
57 The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
58 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell*
59 A Fortunate Life - A.B. Facey*
60 The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
61 The Notebook -Nicholas Sparks~
62 Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen*
63 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
64 The Host - Stephenie Meyer*
65 Dirt Music - Tim Winton
66 Eldest - Christopher Paolini
67 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon^
68 It - Stephen King
69 World Without End - Ken Follett
70 Emma - Jane Austen*
71 Temple - Matthew Reilly
72 Little Women - Alcott Louisa May*
73 Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich
74 Scarecrow - Matthew Reilly
75 American Gods - Neil Gaiman~
76 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
77 P.S, I Love You - Cecelia Ahern
78 All That Remains - Patricia Cornwell*
79 The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
80 Past Secrets - Cathy Kelly
81 The Persimmon Tree - Bryce Courtenay
82 Husband - Dean Koontz
83 Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult~
84 Wicked - Gregory Maguire~
85 Spot Of Bother - Mark Haddon
86 Always And Forever - Cathy Kelly
87 The Road - Cormac McCarthy
88 Cents & Sensibility - Maggie Alderson
89 Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
90 The Shifting Fog - Kate Morton^
91 We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
92 Everyone Worth Knowing - Lauren Weisberger
93 Hour Game - David Baldacci
94 Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
95 The Woods - Harlan Coben
96 Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
97 Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
98 Scar Tissue - Anthony Kiedis
99 Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali
100 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

If you're quick, you can toddle over and see the 2007 list on their website here.  It does include Cross Stitch, by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander, if you're US/Canadian).  Dang.  I shoulda voted.  There's got to be more love in the room for it than at least some of those listed above.  Another note: lookee how Twilight's up there at no. 2.  And that's before the film's out.
In case you were idly wondering, according to Forbes magazine the world's ten best paid authors are:
  1. JK Rowling
  2. James Patterson
  3. Stephen King
  4. Tom Clancy
  5. Danielle Steel
  6. Nicholas Sparks
  7. Janet Evanovich
  8. John Grisham
  9. Dean Koontz
  10. Ken Follett

7 comments:

RHONDA said...

What an interesting list. I am always amazed at the mix of classics and "why did I bother?"s that I find in these lists. For instance, why I bothered reading "World Without End", I have no idea! Probably because " Pillars of the Earth" was so good. Writing a sequel to a formula rarely works...
And, I can't really see why "Wicked" is so popular, as I found it a deeply unsatisfying book, although I did enjoy its sequel "Son of a Witch". Oh, I could discuss this list for hours, I think...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this. I blogged it.

rooruu said...

@ wjc - thanks for sharing your version of the list.

@ rhonda - I'm so glad to find someone else who wasn't 'got' by Wicked. I wanted to like it and am still struggling through. I did buy Son of a Witch, though (at the same time), so you've given me hope for that.

These lists really are rather odd, though. What I do like is the oddness, the window into what people are reading and are passionate enough about to vote. That said, a small corner of my mind wonders if a really ginormous percentage of the votes were for the top five or ten, and the last half or quarter on the list made it by very little, because the readers of those did vote and the readers of other popular books didn't.

Anonymous said...

A great list and I will start watching !!!

Janellybelly said...

If I'd had known, I would have voted for Cross Stitch too :) Interesting that it was No/50 on the list last year! I took your advice & have started giving Cross Stitch as a present - $15.69 at Big W (Arrow trade paperback copy).
Janelle

rooruu said...

@ roentarre - thank you!

@janelle - we'll have to vote, if they run it again (January, I think). Another source for the pb Outlander books is bookdepository.co.uk - with free worldwide postage, they're pretty competitive too. I'm sure your recipients have appreciated the book - I'm waiting to see what the two most recent ones will say...

Margaret said...

I would like to see the ages of the people who bought the books and if they were for their own reading or a gift. Yeah! that sounds like me always want more out of a survey. I have only read 9 of the listed books.