Malaysia's Top Ten

The people have spoken! These are Malaysia's Top Ten Books according to a survey carried out by ReadsMonthly in Starmag:

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

5. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

6. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

7. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

9. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

218 readers contributed lists, most of them, not surprisingly from the Klang valley, although there also appear to be enthusiastic readers in Kuching, Sarawak.

As Daphne Lee says in her article, fantasy is clearly a favourite genre. What also strikes me is that so many of the books are the kinds of classics typically read by young readers, four of them are children's books (Harry Potter, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, The Chronicles of Narnia). (I use the term children's books advisedly, before legions of Potter fans accost me, because I know that older readers enjoy them too!)

The Catcher in the Rye and The Lord of the Rings trilogy typically find their most enthusiastic readership among teenagers, while To Kill a Mockingbird is a typical college choice. (I've taught it to matric students.)

Now this could represent the demographic of the survey (most readers were under 35, but I wonder how many were under 20?) ... or it could represent the fact that older readers hold on to their childhood friends ... for comfort or nostalgia or simply because a busy life has meant that they haven't had time to read since. Or, more worryingly, (and here my neck is stuck right out!) it could mean that a Malaysian readership is not really maturing? Mind you, there are some interesting similarities with the list produced by British readers, where To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice, Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter books also hold sway.

Of course, plenty of other books were nominated - most receiving just a single vote.

My own list of favourites looks a bit stuffy and dead-white-male-ish though:

1. Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. A Hero of our Time – Lermentov
3. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
4. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
5. The Shipping News – Annie Proulx
6. 1984 - George Orwell
7. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
8. The Malayan Trilogy – Anthony Burgess
9. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
10. True History of the Kelly Gang – Peter Carey

My criteria? These are books that constantly live in my head, and I keep needing to reread, whole and in part. (I'm not a reader who rereads very much, so these books have to be special.)

Only one woman on it (and a woman who writes like a man, at that!). But I got conniptions of the heart yesterday when I realised that I hadn't included Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea which I've read three times.

And should I have had An Equal Music instead of A Suitable Boy? I truly love both.

And shouldn't Atwood have been there?

Dilemmas!

Besides the result of this survey, ReadsMonthly has some very good reviews, including a couple by guest reviewers. Lim Chee Seng reviews Raise the Red Lantern by Su Tong (and there's a 25% off voucher from Kinokuniya) and Gerry Liston (Acting British Council Regional Director) writes about The Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace. There are also another couple of reviews I plan to link to later ...