The Great American Read

I’m taking a pause on romance today to talk about some bookish news. Voting is open for PBS’s The Great American Read! I have a lot of mixed feelings about this whole endeavor – I love that it’s discussing reading and books, I love voting on things, I looooove lists. What I am struggling with are some of the picks. Of the top 100, I have read 82. Thank you English degree for forcing my hand on that one. (The other 18 are not super likely for me to read.) Of those that I have read, if I had to create a list from scratch of the top 100 books, would all of those 82 be there? Hell no! Here is my rundown.

My favorites on the list: 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

What did I wind up voting for? My one and only, desert island pick: 

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Titles I would swap in for authors already on the list:
(Yes, I know it’s supposed to be novels only, but for some their non-fiction is just better.)

Instead of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
Instead of Americanah, We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Instead of Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion by Jane Austen
Instead of Great Expectations, Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Instead of The Great Gatsby, Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Instead of Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Instead of The Stand, On Writing by Stephen King
Instead of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Instead of Beloved, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Instead of The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Books I’m really surprised to see on the list: 

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Authors I think are missing: 

Ray Bradbury
William Faulkner
Cormac McCarthy

In general, modern female authors are just fucking missing. There, I said it.

If I were creating this list, how would I pose the question:

If the earth was going to be destroyed by aliens or Day-After-Tomorrow-esque storms, what books would I most hope would be saved?

Be sure to check out the totally awesome posters that were created for some of the titles before you go. Are you following along with The Great American Read? Which books are you surprised by on the list, or which ones do you think are missing? What are you going to vote for? Let me know!

XOXO