Everyone has seen the popular Facebook meme in which your friends rattle off the ten books that have stayed with them. Now the social network has found a way to determine the top 100 books mentioned most in that meme.
The analysis was conducted using 130,000 status updates matching “10 books” or “ten books” appearing in the last two weeks of August 2014. Of the people posting, 63% were from the U.S. and women outnumbered men 3:1. The average age of those posting was 37.
The top twenty books do reflect more classic novels, however, the Harry Potter series leads the list with The Hunger Games series coming in at number seven. Looking at the top 100 books we see The Giver at number twenty-two, The Fault in Our Stars at number forty-two, Outlander at number sixty-four, and A Song of Ice and Fire series at number seventy-nine.
Top 20 books
Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling 21.08%
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee 14.48%
The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien 13.86
The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien 7.48 %
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen 7.28%
The Holy Bible 7.21%
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams 5.97%
The Hunger Games Trilogy – Suzanne Collins 5.82%
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger 5.70%
The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis 5.63%
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald 5.61%
1984 – George Orwell 5.37%
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott 5.26%
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 5.23%
The Stand – Stephen King 5.11%
Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell 4.95%
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle 4.38%
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood 4.27%
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis 4.05%
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho 4.01%
This week on Hypable we are starting our own version of this meme called Hypable Challenge: The books that define us. Karen kicked off this feature for us today and her book choices are very interesting. Be sure to check back weekly on Tuesdays to see what other staff have picked as well.