Great American reading

Regarding the Great American Read concluded last month by PBS, some observations:

1. The selection of To Kill a Mockingbird as America's favorite novel should have surprised no one. Most of the books on the list of 100 finalists have a certain constituency: female readers (Pride and Prejudice, Little Women), male readers (The Hunt for Red October, The Godfather), younger readers (The Hunger Games, Ready Player One), older readers (The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath), black readers (The Color Purple, Invisible Man), Asian-American readers (The Joy Luck Club), Latino readers (Bless Me, Ultima, Dona Barbara) Christian readers (The Shack, This Present Darkness), romance readers (The Notebook, Outlander), mystery readers (And Then There Were None), science fiction readers (Foundation, The Martian) and so on. In fact, the majority of the books on the list appeal mainly to certain groups of readers.

Yet To Kill a Mockingbird seems to appeal to everyone who reads it (or has seen the movie starring Gregory Peck). Thanks to English teachers across the nation, it has been read by many, many people. This was an obvious choice.

2. Outlander as the second choice does surprise me. I know it is a very popular series of novels, but more popular than the Harry Potter series (third place) or James Patterson's Alex Cross books? I would have guessed Pride and Prejudice would finish second. In fact it was fourth.

3. Wisely PBS counted a series of books as a single book. I am wondering if this is why Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn did not make the list of 100 novels, though The Adventures of Tom Sawyer did. Were these books considered a series just because they have a few characters in common? If not, I would have thought Finn the more popular novel.

4. I spend a lot of time wandering in bookstores and leafing through book catalogs, so I was surprised at how many novels in that list of 100 I had never heard of. I'm speaking of books like The Coldest Winter Ever, Ghost and The Mind Invaders. Each of these novels finished near the bottom of the list, so maybe a lot of other people haven't heard of them either.

5. Everyone was permitted to cast one vote a day, whether for the same book or a different one. Thus the vote has almost as much to do with the commitment of its fans as with the popularity of the book itself. I did not vote at all, but if not To Kill a Mockingbird, which novel would have gotten my vote (or votes)? Lonesome Dove (22), perhaps, or the Narnia series (9), or The Catcher in the Rye (30) or The Grapes of Wrath (12)? I didn't vote mainly because I don't have a favorite novel. I love many novels, including many not on that list.

6. Although there were books on the list obviously written for adult readers, a surprising number were books for young readers, whether children (Charlotte's Web, The Little Prince, the Narnia series, etc.) or teens and young adults (the Harry Potter books, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Book Thief). Many of the books, in addition to To Kill a Mockingbird, are books commonly assigned in classrooms. Many of those listed books are novels I read for college classes. Many adults read few books, whether because of lack of time or lack of interest, but they remember, sometimes fondly, those books they read for school. I suspect the reading done in those early years greatly influenced the final tally of votes.