Canterbury’s favourite book has been found

9 September 2006

After two months and thousands of votes to the What’s Your Favourite? competition, Cantabrians have voted CS Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as their favourite book. It was tailed closely by the Bible and Dan Brown’s the Da Vinci Code.

Canterbury’s love affair with the CS Lewis classic was not unexpected after much of the film adaptation of the book was filmed in the Castle Hill area.

With the top 20 books in Canterbury found in early August after the first round of voting, the public were then given another opportunity to vote again for their favourite book from the updated list.

The What’s Your Favourite? initiative, a joint effort between Christchurch City Libraries, The Press and the Christchurch Book Festival Trust, evolved into a Canterbury-wide event, with Christchurch City Libraries working to get its library colleagues in Waimakariri, Selwyn, Ashburton and Timaru districts and their customers to participate in discussion and debate about reading and writing.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the tale of four English school children who find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia. While there they assist Aslan, the golden lion, to triumph over the White Witch who has cursed the land with eternal winter.

What’s Your Favourite’s? top 20 books ranked in order, are:

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe; The Bible; The Da Vinci Code; Lord of the Rings; Pride and Prejudice; The Power of One; To Kill a Mocking Bird; Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Cross Stitch; The Hobbit; Goat Hunter; Angela’s Ashes; Pillars of the Earth; The Time Traveller’s Wife; Jane Eyre; The Bronze Horseman; Wuthering Heights; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

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