I first wrote about The Great American Read, an eight-part PBS series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, back in May. The show investigates how and why writers create their fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what America’s 100 best-loved novels have to say about our diverse nation and our shared human experience. The finale, which will first air on your local PBS channel on Tuesday, October 23, will announce the results of a nationwide vote to select America’s best-loved book.
If you want to be part of that nationwide vote, you have until Thursday, October 18 at 11:59 PST, to get your vote in. There are four ways you can vote:
- Online: By using the voting app on The Great American Read website. You’ll have to register before your first vote, using either your email address or a Facebook login, but after that you’ll be able to vote with just a few clicks.
- Social Media: By posting an original post to Facebook or Twitter using the official hashtag for your favorite book. The hashtags for each book can be found on the individual book pages in the READ THE LIST section. You can also download a PDF of the hashtag list here. You can also vote on Facebook by using the hashtags in the comments on specific posts on the Great American Read Facebook site. These posts will be clearly identified with instructions of how to vote in the post.
- SMS: You can vote by sending a text message with a unique keyword hashtag for your favorite book to the Great American Read SMS short code – 97979. The unique keyword hashtags per book can be found here.
- Toll-Free: A Toll-Free phone number is available for each book to vote. The phone numbers for per book can be found here.
In my earlier post about The Great American Read, I had listed my 10 favorite books on the list, with links to a brief description of each book:
- A Confederacy of Dunces (certainly the funniest book on the list)
- A Separate Peace (I remember really liking this when I read it a few years ago, but now I can’t recall much about it)
- The Count of Monte Cristo (I couldn’t put this down)
- The DaVinci Code
- Don Quixote (another contender for the funniest book on the list)
- The Giver
- Harry Potter (series)
- Hatchet (series)
- Pillars of the Earth
- To Kill a Mockingbird
At this point, I’ve narrowed the list down to five:
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- A Separate Peace
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- Don Quixote
- To Kill a Mockingbird
I’ll be casting my vote for one of these books, and I’ll let you know which one I chose once the voting ends.
May the best book win!
Borden's Blather 