What’s your favorite novel?
Meredith Vieira and PBS want to know.
Fifty Shades of Grey or Crime and Punishment?
❚ Gone With the Wind or The Help?
❚ Catch-22 or The Catcher in the Rye?
❚ Harry Potter or The Hunger Games?
PBS is on a mission: To discover America’s favorite novel. And everybody gets to vote from a list of 100 finalists.
The public television network launches The Great American Read, an eightpart series, on May 22 with a two-hour kickoff (8 ET, check local listings). The nation then gets the summer to read before the series returns for themed episodes in the fall, with America’s “best-loved book” revealed Oct. 23.
The 100 books were chosen through a demographically diverse national survey of 7,200 Americans asked to name their favorite novels, conducted by YouGov. (Series with multiple titles, such
The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, are counted as one title each.)
It’s an eclectic, sometimes surprising international list that ranges from the low-brow to the high-brow, from the contemporary to the classic. Harper Lee ( To Kill a Mockingbird)? Check. Jane Austen ( Pride and Prejudice)? Check. F. Scott Fitzgerald ( The Great Gatsby)? Check. Stephen King ( The Stand) and James Patterson (the Alex Cross mysteries)? Check and check. J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter)? You bet.
Diversity (both in ethnicity and gender) is represented by authors such as Colson Whitehead ( The Intuitionist), Sister Souljah ( The Coldest Winter Ever), Ralph Ellison ( Invisible Man), Amy Tan ( The Joy Luck Club), Gabriel García Márquez ( One Hundred Years of Solitude) and Toni Morrison ( Beloved). The list reflects a variety of genres, from science fiction to horror to romance to mysteries to young-adult to literary masterpieces.
Series host Meredith Vieira tells USA TODAY she loves the list and its mix.
“PBS didn’t want a homogenous survey,” says Vieira, “and with that you get a real mix of books, and that’s a really a good thing. I love that it’s diverse.” She’s surprised E.L. James’ erotic blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey made the final cut, but why not?
“I love that it’s on there,” says the former Today show co-host, “because people connected with it.”
In other words, there’s nothing snobby about The Great American Read, and that’s reflected in the first episode, which features interviews with celebrities (Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Lane, the Bush twins), authors (George R.R. Martin, John Green, Mar-
garet Atwood) and regular Americans (including a Harry Potter mega-fan from the south side of Chicago) about their favorite books.
Vieira probably reflects most book lovers when she says she’d have a hard time picking her favorite, “but if somebody put a gun to my head, it would have to be To Kill a Mockingbird, because I read it at such a formative time in my life.”
Local PBS stations are partnering with libraries and bookstores to promote The Great American Read. Social media also will play a big part, as PBS hopes to inspire a national conversation about reading. The series, Vieira says, will “expose people to phenomenal pieces of fiction.”
A mystery lover, Vieira is now rereading one of her favorites on the top 100, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, and says the list is prompting her to consider books she’s never tried, like the wildly popular Game of Thrones fantasy series.
“I see books as best friends,” says Vieira, “and what better time to inspire people to read than now, when we’re always streaming on our phones.” She hopes the series will “encourage people to go to a library and sit in the stacks and read.” (The littlest readers aren’t forgotten; PBS Kids will host a PBS Kids Read for ages 2-8.)
Bill Gardner, vice president of programming and development at PBS, says The Great American Read is as democratic as it gets.
“Rather than dictate from the top, we want to reflect what Americans actually care about,” he says, explaining why the network began with the YouGov survey. If some choices — such as Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell — are controversial, all the better. (Gardner said he was surprised another Southerner, William Faulkner, failed to make the top 100.)
PBS also wants the project to be fun, Gardner says.
“We’re not trying to tell people what the greatest novel is, and does it really matter who wins? We’re not doing a vote-you-off-the island type of thing.”
If the series prompts a “positive” conversation about books, PBS will have fulfilled its mission, Gardner says. “Let’s talk about what’s good about America, what brings us together — especially now.”
Voting begins May 22 at pbs.org/greatamericanread, and on Facebook and Instagram using #GreatReadPBS.