Throughout the summer and fall we watched The Great American Read, a series on PBS where people around the country voted on what they thought was the most loved fiction book in the US.  We also held a contest here at the library where Camden County Library members could vote for their favorites and be entered to win a basket of some of the nominated books! 

The winner of The Great American Read was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which led the voting for all five months of the contest.  One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. The four runner ups were Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. (See all the voting results here.)

Here in Camden County we had 410 people vote.  We selected Harry Potter as our number one choice, To Kill a Mockingbird came in second, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was third.  Congratulations to Linda Miller: the winner of our gift basket!

Though the voting is over, it's never too late to read the titles that were nominated. See our list of the 100 nominees and check them out from our catalog today!

Visit the Great American Read Website.

Camden County Library card holders now have access to a new streaming video service: Kanopy! 

Offering what the New York Times calls “a garden of cinematic delights,” Kanopy showcases more than 30,000 of the world’s best films, including award-winning documentaries, rare and hard-to-find titles, film festival favorites, indie and classic films, and world cinema with collections from Kino Lorber, Music Box Films, Samuel Goldwyn, The Orchard, The Great Courses, PBS and thousands of independent filmmakers.

All titles are free to stream with your library card and will be available for three days after checkout. You can stream up to six films each month. Watch on your computer, or use the IOS, Android, or Kindle Fire app. You can also watch on your television using a Roku or Chromecast.

Get started with Kanopy.