Oz book lovers prefer vampire stories to Bible

MELBOURNE - In Australia, readers prefer fantasy, especially vampire stories, to the holy Bible, according to an annual survey.

Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series came out to be the winner in Bookseller Dymocks’ Top101 best books survey for 2010, for the second year in a row.

In the survey of 35,000 booklovers, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series came second.

Following closely at the third place was Jane Austen’s timeless romance ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

However, ruling the survey were fantasy titles including Vampire Academy, The Mortal Instruments, and the Sookie Stackhouse series also making an appearance.

“The current trend we’re seeing from the inaugural survey is a shift from classic novels to fantasy fiction as evident through the Twilight phenomenon,” News.com.au quoted Dymocks chief executive Don Grover as saying in a statement.

“And with the release of the series’ movie adaptations over the next few years, it doesn’t look like it will budge from the top ten anytime soon,” he added.

The list shows Australian readers are also big fans of homegrown writing, with Marcus Zusak voted favourite author for his novel ‘The Book Thief’, which came sixth in the overall list.

Australians still appreciate classics, with Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone With The Wind’ and Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ in the mix, alongside Barack Obama’s ‘Audacity of Hope’ and Eckhart Tolle’s ‘The Power Of Now’.

However, the Bible dropped in ranking to 53rd place, from 23rd when the survey was launched three years ago. (ANI)