Last March, 2,234 U.S. adults surveyed online in a Harris Poll were
asked to list their ten favorite books. The results give us some insight into
our reading habits, but are they also telling us something about our movie-viewing
habits?
This year, just as in 2008 when the Harris Poll last asked
this question of other respondents, the number one book is – the envelope,
please – The Bible, unsurprisingly a deeply
imbedded influence on our national nature.
The number two preference once again is Margaret Mitchell’s Civil
War-and-Reconstruction drama Gone with the Wind, published in 1936. The
book was a Pulitzer Prize winner, and the classic 1939 movie adaptation brought
Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler to life in iconic style. An argument could even
be made that, for better or worse, it is our Great American Novel. Its mark on our
cultural consciousness apparently runs deep.
Or at least it does among women, who seem to be driving that
novel’s enduring popularity (the poll also broke down the book list
demographically, racially, geographically, and politically). Men, on the other
hand, preferred J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series at number two (it is fourth overall,
below J.K. Rowling’s astonishingly successful Harry Potter series). The presence of both series suggests a
predilection among Americans for good-versus-evil fantasy epics. One has to
wonder to what degree the blockbuster movie franchises (both begun in 2001) were
responsible for the books’ appearance on the list both times.
One might wonder
too if Baz Luhrmann’s glitzy 2013 movie remake of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The
Great Gatsby helped that novel
climb onto the list (in last place) this year. Harper Lee’s To Kill a
Mockingbird, which moved up
from seventh to fifth since 2008, also may owe its presence partly to a beloved classic
film version starring Gregory Peck. And as I suggested above, Vivian Leigh and Clark
Gable are practically synonymous with Gone
with the Wind. Does this mean that our favorite books are actually just our
favorite movies?
But popular film adaptations don’t explain the presence of J.D.
Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, which moved up three spots to
number seven. That coming-of-age
classic has never yet made it to the big screen due to the late,
reclusive Salinger’s reluctance to allow the book to be Hollywoodized.
They also don’t explain the other titles new to the list this year: Herman
Melville’s Moby Dick (sixth), Louisa Mae Alcott’s Little
Women (eighth), and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (ninth).
All three have been adapted to film, but
not in recent years, and none had the popular or cultural impact of the movie
versions of the other books. The films no doubt drove new readers to the
books, but it’s less convincing to argue that they had anything to do with
earning the books their place on the list.
If Hollywood
adaptations are shaping our reading preferences, one might expect to
see, say, The Hunger Games or Twilight trilogies on the
list the next time around. Of course, those books were already insanely popular
before Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson starred in big-screen versions,
but will they prove to be endearing favorites? Time will tell.
Literary snobs (and I once was one) shake their heads over
the fact that the list includes a few critically disdained titles (Rowling’s
work in particular seems to set their teeth on edge). They point to it as a
sign of American Philistinism. But we’re talking about favorite books, not best
books. Favorites are not necessarily top-rated critically and artistically, but
are personally meaningful to us in some compelling way that may have nothing to
do with literary quality. My favorite, for example, is Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It’s not an exaggeration
to say that it changed my life. That doesn’t mean I also don’t also appreciate,
say, T.S. Eliot.
It may be comforting to the snobs to know that last time,
Dan Brown of Da Vinci Code fame held two spots on the list, and Stephen King
another. This time the list features even more classics, with not a 50 Shades of Grey to be found. Maybe
Americans aren’t dumbing down after all.
2008 and 2014 Harris Polls
Favorite
Books (all adults)
|
2008
|
2014
|
The Bible
|
1
|
1
|
Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
|
2
|
2
|
Harry Potter
series by J.K. Rowling
|
4
|
3
|
The Lord of the
Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien
|
3
|
4
|
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
|
7
|
5
|
Moby Dick by
Herman Melville
|
*
|
6
|
The Catcher in the
Rye by J.D. Salinger
|
10
|
7
|
Little Women by
Louisa May Alcott
|
*
|
8
|
The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
|
*
|
9
|
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
|
*
|
10
|
