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Search for Canterbury's favourite book

Lord of the Rings, The Bible, The Goat Hunter, Pride and Prejudice and The Da Vinci Code are the early top five runners in Canterbury's search to find the region's favourite book.

In the 10 days since voting opened for What's Your Favourite?, readers have nominated almost 1000 books as their favourite.

What's Your Favourite? is an initiative of Christchurch City Libraries, The Press and Christchurch Book Festival Trust to find the region's top 20 books by Saturday, 5 August in the first phase of voting.

Once the top 20 are identified, these will be presented in a random order and the public asked to vote again to find the top book by the end of August. The winner will be announced on Saturday, 9 September during The Press Christchurch Writers Festival 2006 and will be posted on the www.whatsyours.co.nz website.

What's Your Favourite? has, as predicted with Canterbury being a region of readers and book lovers, attracted strong interest, says Christchurch Libraries Manager Carolyn Robertson.

"Readers are taking voting for Canterbury's favourite book very seriously. They are picking up the voting forms from the libraries and taking them home to have a think about their vote.

"A common comment is that 'there are so many books from which to choose, the choice is difficult'," she said.

Classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye and Wuthering Heights, are ranked high as favourites, as are five of the Harry Potter books, The Lovely Bones and The Time Traveler's Wife.

Mrs Robertson said What's Your Favourite? is a Canterbury-wide event, with Christchurch City Libraries having got library colleagues in Waimakariri, Selwyn, Ashburton and Timaru districts and their customers to participate.

She encourages all Canterbury residents to take part in What's Your Favourite? so the reflects truly reflect the favourite books of the region. "The more votes we get, the better the result will be in representing the favourite books of the region.

"Libraries fulfil an important role in helping those who love reading to broaden their reading experience by introducing them to new and a more diverse range of books.

"What's Your Favourite? will get people talking about their favourite books and whet the appetites of others to enjoy new authors and genres," Mrs Robertson says.

Vote for their favourite books online at www.whatsyours.co.nz, collect a voting paper from any Christchurch City library or clip the coupon from The Press.

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