National Read A Book Day

Today is National Read a Book Day and I'm teaming up with DKC News to tell you about the television series The Great American Read, which returns to PBS on Tuesday, September 11. The series is a competitive and nationwide campaign that asks the public to vote on American's 100 best-loved novels. Through the votes, the show explores the power of books and the joy of reading – two things I wholeheartedly believe in – and do themed episodes like "Heroes" or "Other Worlds". The top 40 best-loved novels currently leading the voting polls can be found here and the voting is ongoing. Then on the finale (Oct 23rd!), we'll find out which books made the list and most importantly, which is "American's #1 Best-Loved Book".

Just so you know, I've already voted for Anne of Green Gables five times.

But I actually ended up going through the entire list and it made me think of all the times I've looked up lists just like this because I've always made the effort to read classics (thanks to my dad!) or popular contemporary fiction. I thought it would be fun to share which books I've read, authors mentioned on the list that I've read other books from and lastly, which ones I plan to read.

What I've read

one of my all-time favorites

1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
3. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery (I want this to be #1)
5. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rynd (I made it more than halfway and DNFed)
6. Beloved by Toni Morrison
7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
8. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Who by Junot Diaz
9. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
10. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
11. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (I read the first two books)
12. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
13. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (I'm trying not to judge but seriously, why is this here?)
14. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (read the first three) 
15. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
17. Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling
18. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
19. The Hunger Games (series) by Suzanne Collins 
20. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
21. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
22. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
23. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
24. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
25. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
26. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
27. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
28. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
29. The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
30. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
31. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
32. Looking for Alaska by John Green

Authors on this list but I read a different book from the one listed

I've read this twice!

1. Animal Farm by George Orwell (instead of 1984)
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (instead of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
3. Murder on Orient Express by Agatha Christie (instead of And Then There Were None)
4. The Pearl by John Steinbeck (instead of The Grapes of Wrath)
5. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (instead of Great Expectations)
6. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (by One Hundred Years of Solitude) 
7. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (instead of The Sirens of Titan)
8. Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (instead of The Sun Also Rises)
9. The Death of Ivan Illych + Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (instead of War and Peace)
10. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (instead of The Picture of Dorian Gray)
11. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (instead of The Lord of the Rings)

What I want to read 

1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
2. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
3. Ready Player One  by Ernest Cline
4. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

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Which books have you read?

Don't forget to vote and to check out the show on PBS!