Top 100 Romances Poll for 1998

As Determined by AAR’s Readers in October 1998

Introduction | Results | Analysis

Introduction:

Shelley Dodge, AARList member, had a terrific idea after this summer’s 100 Best Books of the Century list was released. She decided to poll readers for their 100 favorite romances. Unfortunately, after number 83 on the list, she ran into a 69-vote tie! As a result, we opened up the voting to be Internet-wide. The shortest list sent in by a reader had one title and the longest contained 100 titles. There were a total of 3,346 “votes”, and 1,733 titles were included in her database. Historicals dominate the list – they comprise 52% of the final choices.

As you’ll see from the list below, the list is in order, but there were several ties. We ended up with 105 titles on our list; the last group of titles tied with six votes each. The number one ranked book received 22 votes. A very diverse group voted – Shelley’s database includes many books which received only one or two votes.

I was surprised by the final tally – I expected many titles to show up on the list which did not. I did not expect so many Judith McNaught titles to be included and thought Mary Balogh and Laura London (aka Tom and Sharon Curtis) would have more titles on the final list. The showings of Nora Roberts (aka J.D. Robb), Jude Deveraux, and Elizabeth Lowell were as to be expected, but I was surprised at how few times Jayne Ann Krentz (aka Amanda Quick) and Johanna Lindsey showed up on the list. I could go on and on, but I won’t. Take a look for yourself and let Shelley know what you think about the results.

Results: