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Source: www.tolkienlibrary.com
Tolkien is no longer lord in the eyes of Kiwis - with the release of New Zealand's favourite books as voted on by readers today.
The Whitcoulls Top 100 is out and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy has lost its number one spot to another trilogy - Stieg Larsson's blockbuster Millennium.
Tolkien's 1954 Rings novels have been in the top four books loved by Kiwis since the biennial list began 12 years ago.
Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, published in 2005 and the first book of the Millennium trilogy, saw off the competition by thousands of votes.
Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga was second while Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveller's Wife leapt from No 14 to No 3.
Kiwi authors fared well on the list, including award winner Alison Wong whose As the Earth Turns Silver debuts at No 42 and Nicky Pellegrino, whose latest novel Recipe For Life is another new entrant, at No 62.
Pellegrino, former editor of the NZ Woman's Weekly, and now a full-time writer said it was fantastic to be on the list, and in such illustrious company.
"New Zealand is a nation of book lovers and the list really helps foster reading as one of the nation's favourite hobbies," she said.
Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip is back on at No 73 and, with a movie version due out in 2010, it's likely to be placed higher in the next list.
"In the previous six top 100 lists, there's been a strong relationship between much-loved books and the films that are made of them," says Kalan.
"This year is no exception as, along with Millennium, Twilight and Lord Of The Rings, we have Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones at No 10 and J K Rowling's Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows at No 11.
Rowling is the most prolific author on the 2010 Top 100, with five of her Harry Potter series featured.
The 2006 winner, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, is down to No 14 while the very first winner, Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, is still on the list - as it has been since 1998 - at No 56.
"A quarter of the books on the 2010 Whitcoulls Top 100 are new but there's plenty of old favourites that have made it on to every list," says Kalan.
They include classics such as Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird (No 9), Jung Chang's Wild Swans (No 58), J D Salinger's Catcher In The Rye (No 59) and Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong (No 68).
New arrivals on the Top 100 include Jamie Oliver's Jamie Does, at No 13, Justin Cronin's recent blockbuster The Passage (No 15) and Andre Agassi's autobiography Open at No 18.
Exiting the list after 10 years are the Edmonds Cookery Book, The God Of Small Things and The Shipping News.
Whitcoulls will announce its Kids Top 50 just before the school holidays on September 20.
Top 12
1. The Millennium Trilogy - Girl With The Dragon, Girl Who Played With Fire, Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
2. Twilight Saga Collection by Stephenie Meyer
3. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
4. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
5. Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
6. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
8. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
10. Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
12. Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
