Press Release: Prizes and Awards
Time Traveler's Wife Pips Kite Runner To Be The Lovereading Book Of The Decade
Posted at 7:12AM Thursday 13 May 2010
In February 2010 Lovereading began the search for 'the readers Book of the Decade'.To begin with Sarah Broadhurst, Lovereading's Editorial guru, chose her 50 favourites from the last 10 years and then it was over to the readers. The first stage, which attracted nearly 20,000 votes, took the top 50 to a shortlist of ten. Then, in April, the voting reopened to allow readers to choose the overall winner. Sarah Broadhurst said of the list: "Ten terrific books, something for everyone from love story (The Time Traveler's Wife) to thriller (The Shadow of the Wind), strong drama (The Kite Runner) to a book narrated by Death himself (The Book Thief); a difficult choice to choose just one. I have, now you must. It is interesting to note that of the ten, seven have been filmed. Good films though they may be, none of them can portray the full depth and strength of the novels so if you have seen the film, why not now read the book. You'll glean so much more from it." The final vote was very close with less than 0.5% between the top two titles! But with 18.1% of the total vote, Audrey Niffenegger's unique book The Time Traveler's Wife came out the winner. Second was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and third was Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. Audrey Niffenegger – author of The Time Traveler's Wife said "Thank you to everyone who read the book, and to all who voted. I am flabbergasted; I tend to think of The Time Traveler's Wife as my odd little book that somehow found its readers. It's amazing to me how many readers it has found, and how intensely they care for the book." Richard Charkin Executive Director at Bloomsbury Publishing said "We're delighted that The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini has been selected by Lovereading as the number two title of the last Decade. We're so pleased it continues to resonate with today's readers and hope it will continue to do so for many decades to come." Finally, Larry Finlay, Managing Director, Transworld said of The Book Thief. "It is a great, great book, one that calls out to your head and your heart whatever your age. Its success is due almost entirely to word-of-mouth for unlike many bestsellers it has not been made into a film (yet), nor was it picked by a Book Club such as Richard and Judy."
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