The Great American Read
This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
PBS, 100 Books
PBS and the producers worked with the public opinion polling service “YouGov” to conduct a demographically and statistically representative survey asking Americans to name their most-loved novel. Approximately 7,200 people participated.
The results were tallied and organized based on our selection criteria and overseen by an advisory panel of 13 literary industry professionals. The criteria for inclusion on the top 100 list were as follows:
Each author was limited to one title on the list (to keep the list varied).
Books published in series or featuring ongoing characters counted as one eligible entry on the list (e.g. the Harry Potter series or Lord of the Rings)to increase variety.
Books could be from anywhere in the world as long as they were published in English.
Only fiction could be included in the poll.
Each advisory panel member was permitted to select one book for discussion and possible inclusion on the top 100 list from the longer list of survey results.
This list was originally published in 2018 and was added to this site about 8 years ago.