America's Top Books
This article, Bible Is America's Favorite Book: poll, gives us a look at what books can be found in American households.
I'm betting that the Bible is also number one in the Philippines.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of the different Bible versions to see which ones are most popular, both in the U.S. and in the Philippines.
As for number two, there's great disparity. Depending on demographic, the titles mentioned in the article are "Gone With The Wind", "The Lord Of The Rings", "The Stand", "Angels And Demons", and the Harry Potter books.
Other titles mentioned in the top ten are "The Da Vinci Code", "Atlas Shrugged", "The Catcher In The Rye", and "To Kill A Mockingbird".
I wonder what the Philippines' top ten would look like.
I'm betting that the Bible is also number one in the Philippines.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of the different Bible versions to see which ones are most popular, both in the U.S. and in the Philippines.
As for number two, there's great disparity. Depending on demographic, the titles mentioned in the article are "Gone With The Wind", "The Lord Of The Rings", "The Stand", "Angels And Demons", and the Harry Potter books.
Other titles mentioned in the top ten are "The Da Vinci Code", "Atlas Shrugged", "The Catcher In The Rye", and "To Kill A Mockingbird".
I wonder what the Philippines' top ten would look like.
posted by pgenrestories at 10:00 AM
4 Comments:
Sometimes I wonder why the surveys don't just leave the Bible out of their list of choices -- it should already be a given that this is present in the vast majority of households in Christian countries.
As for Philippine households, I figure that we usually set aside the thicker novels in favor of shorter inspirational reads. "Gone With the Wind" and "The Stand" most likely wouldn't rate in our hypothetical list, most likely replaced by "Tuesdays With Morrie" and "The Five People You Meet in Heaven."
Hi Sean. I was thinking along your lines, except religious/inspirational books would be in the list, instead of those Albom books you mentioned. I was also thinking of Rizal's two novels, or perhaps Florante at Laura. I'm pretty sure there are copies of these books in Pinoy households if only because schools have made them required reading.
I figured that religious or inspirational books would be on the list as well, but the catch is that there are quite a lot of them floating around. I'm banking on the possibility that there are no single books of this category that will be present in a majority of households. (Ten years ago I would have made a case for the original "Chicken Soup for the Soul", but the expansion of its product line implies that it's too spread out nowadays. Maybe Robert Fulghum claimed its spot at some point.)
As for "Noli Me Tangere", "El Filibusterismo" and "Florante at Laura"... I agree that these would be present in a lot of households, but I also believe that few of their owners have actually read the books from cover to cover. (This is a shame, really, as I think of Rizal's novels as pretty good. I feel that Balagtas, however, hasn't quite aged well.)
Don't forget the dusty encyclopedias that's been around for decades (I'm planning to use some as chopping boards and table leg adjusters).
I think the Philippine list would be too diverse, perhaps a romance (now they call it chick lit) pocketbook, a DVC or The Purpose Driven Life here and there. Might also depend (here we go again) on the economic strata. So far our country's barometer is National Bookstore's and Powerbooks' bestsellers list.
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