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The Great American Read: All 100 Best-Loved Novels!

By Beth Clark • August 31, 2018

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 happy reading!

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.

  1. 1984 by George Orwell — #VOTE1984
  2. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole — #VOTEDuncesBook
  3. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving — #VOTEOwenMeany
  4. A Separate Peace by John Knowles — #VOTEPeaceBook
  5. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith — #VOTEBrooklyn
  6. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain — #VOTESawyer
  7. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho — #VOTEAlchemist
  8. Alex Cross Mysteries (series) by James Patterson — #VOTEAlexCross
  9. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll — #VOTEAlice
  10. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — #VOTEAmericanah
  11. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie — #VOTEAndThen
  12. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery — #VOTEGables
  13. Another Country by James Baldwin — #VOTECountryBook
  14. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand — #VOTEAtlas
  15. Beloved by Toni Morrison — #VOTEBeloved
  16. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya — #VOTEUltima
  17. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak — #VOTEBookThief
  18. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz — #VOTEOscarWao
  19. The Call of the Wild by Jack London — #VOTECallWild
  20. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller — #VOTECatch22
  21. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger — #VOTECatcherRye
  22. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White — #VOTECharlotte
  23. The Chronicles of Narnia (series) by C.S. Lewis — #VOTENarnia
  24. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel — #VOTECaveBear
  25. The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah — #VOTEWinterBook
  26. The Color Purple by Alice Walker — #VOTEColorPurple
  27. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas — #VOTEMonteCristo
  28. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky — #VOTECrimeBook
  29. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon — #VOTECurious
  30. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown — #VOTEDaVinci
  31. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes — #VOTEQuixote
  32. Doña Barbara by Rómulo Gallegos — #VOTEBarbara
  33. Dune by Frank Herbert — #VOTEDune
  34. Fifty Shades of Grey (series) by E.L. James — #VOTE50Shades
  35. Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews — #VOTEFlowers
  36. Foundation (series) by Isaac Asimov — #VOTEFoundation
  37. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley — #VOTEFrankenstein
  38. A Game of Thrones (series) by George R.R. Martin — #VOTEGOT
  39. Ghost by Jason Reynolds — #VOTEGhost
  40. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson — #VOTEGilead
  41. The Giver by Lois Lowry — #VOTETheGiver
  42. The Godfather by Mario Puzo — #VOTEGodfather
  43. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn — #VOTEGoneGirl
  44. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell — #VOTEGoneWind
  45. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck — #VOTEGrapesWrath
  46. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens — #VOTEGreatExpect
  47. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald — #VOTEGatsby
  48. Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift — #VOTEGulliver
  49. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood — #VOTEHandmaid
  50. Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling — #VOTEPotter
  51. Hatchet (series), by Gary Paulsen — #VOTEHatchet
  52. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad — #VOTEHeartDark
  53. The Help by Kathryn Stockett — #VOTETheHelp
  54. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams — #VOTEGalaxy
  55. The Hunger Games (series) by Suzanne Collins — #VOTEHungerGames
  56. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy — #VOTERedOctober
  57. The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead — #VOTEIntuition
  58. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison — #VOTEInvisible
  59. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë — #VOTEJaneEyre
  60. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan — #VOTEJoyLuck
  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
  81. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline — #VOTEPlayer1
  82. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier — #VOTERebecca
  83. The Shack by William P. Young — #VOTETheShack
  84. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse — #VOTESidd
  85. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut — #VOTESirens
  86. The Stand by Stephen King — #VOTETheStand
  87. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway — #VOTESunRises
  88. Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon — #VOTESwanSong
  89. Tales of the City (series) by Armistead Maupin — #VOTETalesCity
  90. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston — #VOTEWatchingGod
  91. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe — #VOTEFallApart
  92. This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti – #VOTEDarkness
  93. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee — #VOTEMockingbird
  94. The Twilight Saga (series) by Stephenie Meyer — #VOTETwilight
  95. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy — #VOTEWarPeace
  96. Watchers by Dean Koontz — #VOTEWatchers
  97. The Wheel of Time (series) by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson — #VOTEWheelTime
  98. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls — #VOTERedFern
  99. White Teeth by Zadie Smith — #VOTEWhiteTeeth
  100. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë — #VOTEWuthering

Keep an eye out for #TheGreatAmericanRead updates, including an "America's Most-Loved Novel" winner announcement following the grand finale episode, which airs on Tuesday, October 23.

Read more by Beth Clark

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