Canada's top 100 books ~ BrontëBlog

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Canada's top 100 books

Tuesday, September 27, 2005 6:19 pm by Cristina 1 comment

The Canadians have talked about their 100 favourite books. The top 3 are (1) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, (2) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and (3) Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen.

We don't think we're risking much if we state that The Da Vinci Code will not last long in that position, which will be taken by the next great bestseller, of course.

What interests us here is that Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë made it only (?) to number 20 and Emily Brontës Wuthering Heights got to 27. Could be better for both of them. No sight of Anne there.

The survey was carried out by Indigo & Music Inc. - a large book retailer in Canada - between June and August 2005 among 7.000 Canadian "booklovers".

Categories: In_the_News

1 comment:

Brontëana10/01/2005 10:11:00 pm
This was reported in my local newspaper as well. They were of the opinion that it reflects somehow that, for the most part, Canadians seem to discover their favourite books through films--something like that. It didn't really explain the list!

I'm not at all surprised by the low showing for the Brontës. I live in a mid-sized city, larger than some provincial capitals but not 'a big city' and not at all a cultural city. I didn't hear of the Brontës in school until 4th year university. I saw the films first, and then ran over to the library to read the real thing. In school we were made to read a lot of modern Canadian fiction with a few American novels thrown in, and then the obligatory Shakespeare.

The other side of the problem is how the Brontës are taught. I've talked to a few people in the US about this. Most of them say their teachers 'ruined' the books for them. I've even heard of professors telling their students how much they hate the books while they're teaching them. I'm happy to have had a marvellous prof. At the end of the course she took a vote and everyone not only loved the novels we did read but they wanted more of Anne's work. Tenant of Wildfell Hall ended up being voted the best of what we read.
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