Book Review: The Book Of Books, America's 100 Best-Loved Novels

THE GREAT AMERICAN READ - THE BOOK OF BOOKS: EXPLORE AMERICA’S 100 BEST-LOVED NOVELS by Jessica Allen, PBS Network.

(Black Dog & Leventhal, August 2018)  Hardcover, 288 pages.  ISBN # 0316417556 / 9780316417556

 

Summary from the Goodreads website . . . . .

 

A blockbuster illustrated book that captures what Americans love to read, The Great American Read: The Book of Books is the gorgeously-produced companion book to PBS's ambitious summer 2018 series. 

 

What are America's best-loved novels? PBS will launch The Great American Read series with a 2-hour special in May 2018 revealing America's 100 best-loved novels, determined by a rigorous national survey. Subsequent episodes will air in September and October. Celebrities and everyday Americans will champion their favorite novel and in the finale in late October, America's #1 best-loved novel will be revealed. 

 

The Great American Read: The Book of Books will present all 100 novels with fascinating information about each book, author profiles, a snapshot of the novel's social relevance, film or television adaptations, other books and writings by the author, and little-known facts. Also included are themed articles about banned books, the most influential book illustrators, reading recommendations, the best first-lines in literature, and more. 

 

Beautifully designed with rare images of the original manuscripts, first-edition covers, rejection letters, and other ephemera, The Great American Read: The Book of Books is a must-have book for all book lovers. 

 

MY 4-STAR REVIEW ON THE GOODREADS WEBSITE . . . . .

 

     This is a book best sampled a little at a time, for full appreciation. If the intent was to indicate the 100 best fiction books of all time, then I would not be satisfied with this volume. However, it's a companion to the wonderful PBS television series The Great American Read - - which didn't set out to identify the 100 best books in the world, but rather the 100 best-loved books of American readers.

 

     What was most gratifying to me was to see that many of the true literary trailblazers made it onto the Top 100 list, including Crime And Punishment, Don Quixote, Frankenstein, Dune, Great Expectations, The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick, 1984, To Kill A Mockingbird, War And Peace, and more. 

That made it easier to accept the inclusion of the Fifty Shades series, the Left Behind series, the Hunger Games trilogy and the Twilight series. While I might argue about the absence of quality writing in these works, there is no disputing their popularity among American readers. Whatever encourages people to keep reading and explore books is a positive sign. 

 

     Every one of the selections includes photos of book covers and authors, as well as a short synopsis of the story, a biography and the impact of the story. There are also several interesting short features on various aspects of the selections, including predictive texts, design, and how to read a literary text. There's a neat categorization of the 100 books by release year and genre in the appendices, as well as lists of resources for further exploration. I wish they had included a list of the books by number of votes, ranking from first to last, but that's a minor complaint. 

 

     There are several books in here that fell under my radar, and now that I've learned a little more about them will end up adding to my never-ending list of want-to-reads.