America’s Favorite Books (Survey of 76,000 Americans)

WordsRated received over 76,000 survey replies on our website where users let us know what their favorite book is.

Here we have collated the replies to show the nation’s favorite books and the top books from each state.

America’s 100 favorite books

1. Pride And Prejudice
2. To Kill A Mockingbird
3. Harry Potter (Series)
4. Where the Crawdads Sing
5. The Lord Of the Rings
6. The Great Gatsby
7. The Alchemist
8. Jane Eyre
9. Verity
10. It Ends With Us
11. The Stand
12. Outlander
13. The Book Thief
14. Nightingale
15. Little Women
16. Gone With The Wind
17. The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo
18. The Hobbit
19. A Court Of Thorns And Roses
20. The Hunger Games
21. A Court Of Mist And Fury
22. The Song Of Achilles
23. The Invisble Life Of Addie Larue
24. The Silent Patient
25. The Giver
26. Percy Jackson (Series)
27. The Twilight Saga
28. 1984
29. The Outsider
30. The Bible
31. All The Light We Cannot See
32. The Kite Runner
33. The Count Of Monte Cristo
34. The Catcher In Rye
35. The Handmaid’s Tale
36. The Night Circus
37. The Color Purple
38. Fahrenheit 451
39. The Midnight Library
40. Dune
41. Anne Of Green Gables
42. The Coldest Winter Ever
43. Six Of Crows
44. It
45. Circe
46. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
47. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban
48. East Of Eden
49. Throne Of Glass
50. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
51. Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus
52. Their Eyes Are Watching God
53. Wuthering Heights
54. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone
55. Ender’s Game
56. The Pillars Of Earth
57. Gone Girl
58. A Man Called Ove
59. And Then There Were None
60. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
61. Beloved
62. The Poisonwood Bible
63. The Name Of The Wind
64. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
65. The Shining
66. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
67. A Little Life
68. American Gods
69. A Thousand Splendid Suns
70. The Notebook
71. A Game Of Thrones
72. The Great Alone
73. 100 Years Of Solitude
74. A Gentleman In Moscow
75. Daisy Jones And The Six
76. The House In Cerulean Sea
77. A Wrinkle In Time
78. The Secret History
79. Good Omens
80. Educated: A Memoir
81. The Grapes Of Wrath
82. Redeeming Love
83. The Help
84. The Picture Of Dorian Gray
85. The Love Hypothesis
86. The Glass Castle
87. Persuasion
88. 50 Shades Of Grey
89. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
90. Eragon
91. Rebecca
92. Of Mice And Men
93. The Martian
94. The Bluest Eye
95. Normal People
96. From Blood And Ash
97. Pachinko
98. Harry Potter And The Order Of Phoneix
99. The Goldfinch
100. The Da Vinci Code

Each state’s favorite book

Pride and Prejudice is the most popular book in the USA. In fact, it is the most popular book in 21 of the 50 states, including 10 of the 12 most western states. The book was published in 1813, so it is interesting to see it is the nation’s favorite book today – more than 200 years later.

To Kill a Mockingbird boasts 14 states claiming to have it as their favorite book. There are bubbles in the south with Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Then another bubble in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, then a final bubble moving up from Louisiana in the south, through Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska.

Nine states state that the books of the Harry Potter series are their favorite books. This includes a bunch of states in New England and the northeast with Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut. Pennsylvania is another state in the general area with Harry Potter as their favorite book.

New Mexico, Rhode Island, and West Virginia have Where The Crawdads Sing as their favorite book. Published in 2018, it is one of the most recently published books that make the list. Verity by Coleen Hoover also makes a list as Alaska’s fav state. Interestingly, the two states not connected to the mainland US (Alaska and Hawaii) have unique favorite books. As mentioned, Alaska is the only state to favor the BookTok phenomenon Verity by Coleen Hoover, and Hawaii favors The Da Vinci code.

The other state with a unique favorite book is North Dakota with Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.

Interestingly, five of the seven books have been made into movies and Verity is believed to be in production. While the remaining book, The Alchemist, has been mooted to become a movie on several occasions but seems to be one of those projects that never get off the ground. This does indicate that Hollywood still has some power over people’s tastes. However, the reverse could easily also be argued.

Breakdown of states:

• Pride and Prejudice – 21
• To Kill a Mockingbird – 14
• Harry Potter (Series) – 9
• Where the Crawdads Sing – 3
• Verity – 1
• The Da Vinci Code – 1
• The Alchemist – 1

See the full breakdown of each state’s favorite book below: 

State	Book
Alabama	Pride and Prejudice
Alaska	Verity
Arizona	Pride and Prejudice
Arkansas	To Kill a Mockingbird
California	Pride and Prejudice
Colorado	Pride and Prejudice
Connecticut	Harry Potter (Series)
Delaware	Pride and Prejudice
Florida	To Kill a Mockingbird
Georgia	To Kill a Mockingbird
Hawaii	The Da Vinci Code
Idaho	Pride and Prejudice
Illinois	Pride and Prejudice
Indiana	To Kill a Mockingbird
Iowa	Harry Potter (Series)
Kansas	To Kill a Mockingbird
Kentucky	To Kill a Mockingbird
Louisiana	To Kill a Mockingbird
Maine	Harry Potter (Series)
Maryland	To Kill a Mockingbird
Massachusetts	Pride and Prejudice
Michigan	Pride and Prejudice
Minnesota	Pride and Prejudice
Mississippi	Harry Potter (Series)
Missouri	Pride and Prejudice
Montana	Pride and Prejudice
Nebraska	To Kill a Mockingbird
Nevada	Pride and Prejudice
New Hampshire	Harry Potter (Series)
New Jersey	Pride and Prejudice
New Mexico	Where the Crawdads Sing
New York	To Kill a Mockingbird
North Carolina	Pride and Prejudice
North Dakota	The Alchemist
Ohio	To Kill a Mockingbird
Oklahoma	To Kill a Mockingbird
Oregon	To Kill a Mockingbird
Pennsylvania	Harry Potter (Series)
Rhode Island	Where the crawdads sing
South Carolina	To Kill a Mockingbird
South Dakota	Harry Potter (Series)
Tennessee	Pride and Prejudice
Texas	Pride and Prejudice
Utah	Pride and Prejudice
Vermont	Harry Potter (Series)
Virginia	Pride and Prejudice
Washington	Pride and Prejudice
West Virginia	Where the Crawdads Sing
Wisconsin	Harry Potter (Series)
Wyoming	Pride and Prejudice

State by State details

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming