The Great American Read names a winner—where did A Game of Thrones place?

Since May, PBS has been airing episodes of The Great American Read, a series designed to discover America’s favorite book. (Note that this was about America’s favorite book, not the favorite book written by an American; foreign authors are very much in play.) Now, after over 4 million votes, America has picked a winner: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s classic novel about racial tensions in 1934 Alabama:

I can’t be too mad about that; readers have been loving To Kill a Mockingbird for decades. Per PBS, it was in the lead since the very start. I do, however, wish George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones had placed a little higher in the rankings, although the author himself seemed perfectly pleased with it:

Here’s the full list:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Outlander (Series)
3. Harry Potter (Series)
4. Pride and Prejudice
5. Lord of the Rings
6. Gone with the Wind
7. Charlotte’s Web
8. Little Women
9. Chronicles of Narnia
10. Jane Eyre
11. Anne of Green Gables
12. The Grapes of Wrath
13. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
14. Book Thief
15. The Great Gatsby
16. The Help
17. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
18. 1984
19. And Then There Were None
20. Atlas Shrugged
21. Wuthering Heights
22. Lonesome Dove
23. The Pillars of the Earth
24. The Stand
25. Rebecca
26. A Prayer for Owen Meany
27. The Color Purple
28. Alice in Wonderland
29. Great Expectations
30. The Catcher in the Rye
31. Where the Red Fern Grows
32. Outsiders
33. The Da Vinci Code
34. The Handmaid’s Tale
35. Dune
36. The Little Prince
37. Call of the Wild
38. The Clan of the Cave Bear
39. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy
40. The Hunger Games
41. The Count of Monte Cristo
42. The Joy Luck Club
43. Frankenstein
44. The Giver
45. Memoirs of a Geisha
46. Moby Dick
47. Catch 22
48. Game of Thrones (series)
49. Foundation (series)
50. War and Peace
51. Their Eyes Were Watching God
52. Jurassic Park
53. The Godfather
54. One Hundred Years of Solitude
55. The Picture of Dorian Gray
56. The Notebook
57. The Shack
58. A Confederacy of Dunces
59. The Hunt for Red October
60. Beloved
61. The Martian
62. The Wheel of Time (series)
63. Siddhartha
64. Crime and Punishment
65. The Sun Also Rises
66. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
67. A Separate Peace
68. Don Quixote
69. The Lovely Bones
70. The Alchemist
71. Hatchet (series)
72. Invisible Man
73. The Twilight Saga (series)
74. Tales of the City (series)
75. Gulliver’s Travels
76. Ready Player One
77. Left Behind (series)
78. Gone Girl
79. Watchers
80. The Pilgrim’s Progress
81. Alex Cross Mysteries (series)
82. Things Fall Apart
83. Heart of Darkness
84. Gilead
85. Flowers in the Attic
86. Fifty Shades of Grey
87. The Sirens of Titan
88. This Present Darkness
89. Americanah
90. Another Country
91. Bless Me, Ultima
92. Looking for Alaska
93. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
94. Swan Song
95. Mind Invaders
96. White Teeth
97. Ghost
98. The Coldest Winter Ever
99. The Intuitionist
100. Doña Bárbára

Outlander beat A Game of Thrones? Outlander beat Harry Potter? People really like Outlander.

It’s also interesting that, in the voting rounds, A Game of Thrones specifically was in contention, but what’s actually honored is the Game of Thrones series. And of course, as we all know, it should be listed as the Song of Ice and Fire series, but whatever. Congratulations to all the books that made it on!

RELATED PRODUCT

Collectable Dragon Egg Box from Game of Thrones

Buy Now!

Buy Now!

Even if A Game of Thrones didn’t place as highly as it could have, The Great American Read was a fun watch, not least because George R.R. Martin occasionally popped up to give his thoughts on literature, both his and other people’s. Here he is on his process for writing villains…

…here he is talking about The Lord of the Rings, probably the single biggest influence on A Song of Ice and Fire…

…and here he discusses The Great Gatsby, a favorite of his:

If PBS does this again in the near future, after The Winds of Winter comes out, I bet A Song of Ice and Fire will place higher. Food for thought.

To stay up to date on everything Game of Thrones, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels

h/t Entertainment Weekly