Jane takes pride of place

By Callan Date
CASEY bookworms have given their tick of approval to the classic novel Pride and Prejudice as their favourite book.
Local readers voted Jane Austen’s romantic comedy in at number one after Angus and Robertson released their top 100 book list on Tuesday.
More than 75,000 votes were recorded throughout Australia with the Harry Potter series coming in as Australia’s number one read.
Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code was voted in at number two with The Lord of the Rings coming third.
Pride and Prejudice was the fourth most popular book overall.
The latest list is the bookshop’s fourth compilation of readers’ favourite books with some interesting trends emerging since the first survey in 1997.
Classic, Australian and fantasy books have all risen in popularity with self-help books slipping down the order in 2007.
Fountain Gate and Cranbourne store owner Roberta Clark said the top 100 list was a great way for customers to get involved and have their say about their favourite books.
“It has been very well received in our area. Most of the voting was done on-line and also some in-store voting,” Ms Clark said.
She said it was exciting to see Pride and Prejudice voted in at number one by Casey readers.
“The top 10 are books that sell really well for us all time. They are hugely popular.”
Ms Clark said it was great that classic books, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, sat along side more contemporary novels like Cloudstreet.
“It is good that some children’s book have made it on to the list. I think it helps that a lot of the younger books also cross over to the adult market as well,” Ms Clark said.
Trends show Australian books feature very well – taking out 18 spots.
And fantasy novels continue to gain popularity with each book list – a total of five featured in the top 20 in 2007.
Ms Clark said she was thrilled to see her favourite book make the list at number eight.
“I voted for My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.
“A lot of people love to come in and tick off how many they have read from the top 100,” she said.