Jane Austen tops Dymocks survey list

Jane proves she is still no 1. Jane Austen's timeless romance Pride and Prejudice has topped the list of the 101 best books ever written, according to Australian readers. The survey of more than 15,000 members of bookseller Dymocks' booklover program put JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy second followed by Harper Lee's 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird in third place and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown fourth. Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, Tolkien's The Hobbit, The Harry Potter series, Bryce Courtenay's The Power of One, Magician by Raymond E Feist and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre rounded out the top 10. Dymocks buying manager Meredith Drake said most of the books included in the top 101 were predictable, although there were some surprises, including Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, released just a year ago. But she described them all as "great reads" that reflected the diverse tastes of Australian readers. Austen lives on!

The next meetings of the Jane Austen Book Club will be as follows: Blayney Library Tuesday 18 March at 11am to chat about Northanger Abbey; Cowra Library Tuesday 18 March at 12.30pm to discuss Persuasion; Orange Library Day Group Thursday 20 March at 12.30pm to talk about Sense and Sensibility; Orange Library Evening Group Thursday from 5.30pm on 20 March to talk about Mansfield Park.