"The Great American Read" on PBS is exploring and celebrating the power of reading through America's 100 best-loved novels.
Those novels include classics like "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Frankenstein," and more contemporary titles like "Gone Girl" and "Fifty Shades of Grey."
Tuesday is the fall kickoff of "The Great American Read." It will air on KPBS at 8 p.m.
The kickoff will be followed by themed episodes on identity, heroes, villains and monsters, what we do for love and other worlds. The final episode will be on America's best-loved novel, which people can vote on, up to once a day, through Oct. 18.
Bill Gardner, vice president of programming for PBS, is leading the "Great American Read." He joins Midday Edition Tuesday to discuss what's to come with the initiative.
You're listening to Midday Edition here on KPBS. I'm Allison St. John. In for Maureen Cavanagh. Have you had much time to read this summer? It's been a busy summer for the great American read a PBS initiative that celebrates the joy of reading and brings people together around America's favorite books. Among the books voted as the top 100 best loved novels are titles like The Grapes of Wrath. Fifty Shades of Grey The Color Purple. The DaVinci Code and The Joy Luck Club. There are 95 more titles you can see on PBS is great American read website. And tonight is the fall kickoff of the PBS series that airs on PBS at 8:00. And here to talk to us more about this is the vice president of programming for PBS Bill Gardner who is overseeing the great American wheat initiative. Bill thank you so much for joining us. It's my pleasure. Now back at the beginning of the summer great American read announce America's 100 best novels and they were chosen. Tell us how they were chosen because that must have not been an easy process. You know we put out a survey through YouGov that just asked a simple question What's your most love novel and when we got all the responses from about 27 100 people across the country this is the list that was put together from the top 100. So very much is a Democratic list. And I think because when you look at the titles of the books that are here it's pretty easy to tell that this isn't something that was put together by a panel of academics or public broadcasting folks. But really it is very very reflective of the depth and breadth and diversity of the American population. Yes I noticed that some of them are real classics some of them have had movies made out of. Give us a sense of the range of novels included in the list. Well we've got everything from the novel written Don Quixote to the youngest author on our list is Jason Reynolds with his book Ghost. You know you mentioned fifty shades of grey where we've got game of thrones we've caught gone with the wind the Great Gatsby. It's you know and also some young adult fiction things like Ready Player One The Hunger Games Harry Potter. And what's interesting about some of these titles is things that you read with your family. Maybe it's your parents and the kids are reading together. So no today is the fall kickoff for the initiative what's in store for those who are following along with us. So we're watching it now tonight with this relaunch that lets out the 100 books and will they explain to you how you can vote. You can take part. You can participate and we'll do some deeper dives into some of the titles that are in this list within this first hour. And then we unfold over the next six weeks with themed episodes that allow us to do deeper dives into many of these books organized thematically. For example we have them so don't Who am I. Which is about identity the things that we do for love is another one. Heroes villains and monsters. Other worlds. So it really allows us to get opportunities for folks maybe who gravitate to a particular genre or style to really get some attention on the books that they care about but also get exposed to some of the other ones too and then allows us to dig deeper deeper analyses of the things that make many of these books exciting and they're all organized around individual advocates. You know people for whom these books are really important individually and they can talk about reasons that they are and things that have inspired them to want to read and want to get you the American public to vote. Get out there and vote for your favorite novel and then we'll announce the most popular ones at the end with the final finale on October 20th 3rd. Tell us some of the people who will be talking and inspiring us about the books they love. Well we've got all kinds of people from near you know somebody that you might recognize from your local book club talking about things that have motivated them to people like Shaquille O'Neal is talking about the Alex Cross ministries. You guys Sarah Jessica Parker talking about things fall apart. You've got the Bush twins talking about books that have inspired them reading little women with their mom. So it really is. It runs the gamut of people you know one of the my favorite sequences is coming up with George Lopez is talking about Charlotte's Web and how impact will that was the aim for his you know his background and seeing what his mom did to sacrifice herself for his benefit. And then you see that in Charlotte's Web. So it really again it's the thing that's exciting about this is that literature in these novels are speaking to people on this emotional level helps us define who we are both individually and as Americans. And to really see people sharing that and coming together to enjoy that experience in a group is really exciting and gratifying. Now there are online and social media elements to tell us about those. Absolutely. It's one of the things that we're so excited about because again it's about building community and these days are like that community building takes place not just on the local level or by going to events but also in the conversations that are taking place in social media on Facebook or you know through to the Twitter conversations that come up as a matter of fact. We have a Facebook based Book Club now has over 40000 members that sprung up grassroots where people are talking about books that they're reading. Not all of which are on a list which is OK with us. We're really trying to spur that conversation and get literacy supported and get people talking about books that are impacting them. You know all of that is taking place in that space and that's really exciting for us because it's a great way to reach people where they are which is you know as a public broadcaster that's something we think is really important we want to provide the content and the ideas to people as they want to consume them and that they want to participate in them so it's a major part of the initiative that's for sure. And this being America we are looking of course for the winner. What will be America's number one most beloved novel. When will we find that out. Will be at the finale aired last week October October 3rd and we'll do the countdown of the books as they are and for first it doesn't really matter who wins. We want to be talking about the experience of having read the books there will be a winner of course. So as you say this being America right now but some really have a chance to kind of talk about why certain books were so popular. For what reasons and what are some of the drivers of things that you know result in the particular outcome. And people can still vote at PBS dot org slash great American read. Right. Absolutely and we encourage people to come come early and come often. You're allowed each book can get a vote from you one time per day. So don't feel like you only have to vote for one book. Well a great American read airs on KBB us tonight at 8 o'clock and I'd like to thank Bill Gardner very much for joining us. My pleasure. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Bill Gardner's vice president of programming for KPBS.
