The Great American Read on PBS

Part 4: "America's 100 Most-Loved Novels" List, Titles 61-80

The Great American Read is a PBS series that explores and celebrates the power of reading as the core of an ambitious digital, educational, and community outreach campaign designed to get the country reading and passionately talking about books. One hundred books, to be exact, so as promised, here are books 61—80 on the list! (If you missed the first blog post, here you go.)

What is The Great American Read?

The Great American Read is an eight-part PBS series that explores and celebrates the power of reading through the prism of America's 100 most-loved novels as chosen in a national survey¹. The series explores how and why writers create their fictional worlds and features documentary segments with testimonials from celebrities, authors, notable Americans, and book lovers across the US.

The 100 books on the list were revealed in the first episode, so no spoilers here, just the goods to get you reading! Also, you can participate in choosing "America's most-loved novel" by voting for your favorite—the winner will be announced in the series finale.

¹PBS doesn't actually endorse any of the books on the list, so for the curious, the FAQs outline the process of how the titles were selected.

America's 100 Most-Loved Novels, Titles 61—80

Each title has a hashtag, so you can vote for your favorite book on social media or via SMS. You can also vote on the PBS website, or skip voting altogether and let ThriftBooks help you build a "100 Most-Loved Books" collection.

61. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton — #VOTEJurassic
62. Left Behind (series) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins — #VOTELeftBehind
63. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry — #VOTEPrinceBook
64. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott — #VOTELittleWomen
65. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry — #VOTELonesome
66. Looking for Alaska by John Green — #VOTEAlaska
67. The Lord of the Rings (series) by J.R.R. Tolkien — #VOTELOTR
68. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold — #VOTELovelyBones
69. The Martian by Andy Weir — #VOTEMartian
70. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden — #VOTEGeisha
71. Mind Invaders (also know as The Archon Conspiracy) by Dave Hunt — #VOTEInvaders
72. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville — #VOTEMobyDick
73. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks — #VOTENotebook
74. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez — #VOTE100Years
75. Outlander (series) by Diana Gabaldon — #VOTEOutlander
76. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton — #VOTEOutsiders
77. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde — #VOTEDorian
78. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan — #VOTEPilgrims
79. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett — #VOTEPillars
80. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen — #VOTEPridePrej

Happy reading, and keep an eye out for #TheGreatAmericanRead, Part 5 blog post with books 81 through 100 on the PBS list!

Read more by Beth Clark