Whitcoulls Top 100: Harry Potter series tops the charts once more, war and classic books on the rise

The Harry Potter series reigns supreme for another year. Photo / File

More than 22 years after the tales of Harry Potter and his adventures in the wizarding world, the book series still has a strong grip on New Zealand.

Once again, the series written by J.K. Rowling reigns supreme above the rest in the Whitcoulls Top 100 books of the nation.

Irish actor turned historical fiction writer Lucinda Riley was second with her series The Seven Sisters and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings finished third.

Whitcoulls book manager Joan Mackenzie said she was thrilled Kiwis are still reading voraciously.

"The benefits of which, are perhaps best summed up by Educated, a book by 32-year-old American writer Tara Westover, which has become a favourite with many of our staff and almost everyone who's read it," she said.

The Top 100 list also found war books, classics and true stories was among the nations favourite reads.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz skyrocketed to fourth place in the list and is indicative of the war trend.

Meanwhile, Kiwi author Doug Gold's The Note through the Wire, a true story about a prisoner of war and a resistance heroine, was also popular.

Typically, around 20 to 30 per cent of the books appear in the Whitcoulls Top 100 list are new to making an appearance - 2019 was no different.

Twenty-four newcomers made the cut, most notably Michelle Obama's internationally bestselling memoir Becoming, and a biography about Tiger Woods.

"We're thrilled to welcome Michelle Obama onto our Top 100," Mackenzie said.

"Her book was one of the highlights of 2018, reminding us all about the power of memoir and of finding your voice in the world."

The usual big-hitters were in the list again with popular authors Lee Child and Harper Lee voted among our favourites once more.

Biography and memoir accounted for nearly 10 per cent of the voting and there was also a score of books by Kiwis, including Eleanor Catton and Nicky Pellegrino.

Whitcouls was founded more than 130 years ago when printer and bookbinder George Tombs and publisher and bookseller George Whitcombe joined forces.

For the past 23 years, it has been calling for Kiwi readers to vote for their favourite books, with online voting being the most popular method.

The Top 20 books

• 1. Harry Potter series, J.K.Rowling
• 2. The Seven Sisters series, Lucinda Riley
• 3. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R.Tolkien
• 4. The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris
• 5. Outlander series, Diana Gabaldon
• 6. Me Before You, Jojo Moyes
• 7. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
• 8. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
• 9. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
• 10. Becoming, Michelle Obama
• 11. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
• 12. I Am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes
• 13. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
• 14. The Bronze Horseman, Paullina Simons
• 15. Educated, Tara Westover
• 16. Women's Wellness Wisdom, Dr Libby Health
• 17. A Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R.Martin
• 18. Past Tense, Lee Child
• 19. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
• 20. The Kingsbridge series, Ken Follett
• 21. The Bible
• 22. Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty
• 23. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a ...., Mark Manson
• 24. The Millennium series, Stieg Larsson & David Lagercrantz
• 25. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
• 26. The Hobbit, J.R.R.Tolkien
• 27. Mythos, Stephen Fry
• 28. Tiger Woods, Jeff Benedict & Armen Keteyian
• 29. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
• 30. The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
• 31. Normal People, Sally Rooney
• 32. My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult
• 33. The Note Through the Wire, Doug Gold
• 34. The Woman in the Window, A.J.Finn
• 35. The Tea Rose series, Jennifer Donnelly
• 36. The Butterfly Room, Lucinda Riley
• 37. A Year at Hotel Gondola, Nicky Pellegrino
• 38. The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah
• 39. 1984, George Orwell
• 40. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying, Marie Kondo
• 41. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
• 42. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
• 43. Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
• 44. It, Stephen King
• 45. Lilac Girls, Martha Hall Kelly
• 46. A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara
• 47. The Rosie series, Graeme Simsion
• 48. Magician, Raymond E. Feist
• 49. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
• 50. Small Great things, Jodi Picoult
• 51. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
• 52. War Cry, Wilbur Smith & David Churchill
• 53. Bridge of Clay, Markus Zusak
• 54. In Order To Live, Yeonmi Park
• 55. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
• 56. A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
• 57. Orphan X, Gregg Hurwitz
• 58. The Passage trilogy, Justin Cronin
• 59. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
• 60. The Beauty Guide, Dr Libby
• 61. The Martian, Andy Weir
• 62. Lost Roses, Martha Hall Kelly
• 63. Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
• 64. The Robert Langdon series, Dan Brown
• 65. The Choice, Edith Eger
• 66. The Dry, Jane Harper
• 67. The Kingkiller Chronicle, Patrick Rothfuss
• 68. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
• 69. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
• 70. Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty
• 71. The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks
• 72. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
• 73. A Court of Thorns and Roses series, Sarah J. Maas
• 74. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
• 75. The Alice Network, Kate Quinn
• 76. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D.Salinger
• 77. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
• 78. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens
• 79. Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
• 80. The Barefoot Investor, Scott Pape
• 81. Milk and Honey, Rupi Kaur
• 82. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
• 83. The Break, Marian Keyes
• 84. Scar Tissue, Anthony Kiedis
• 85. Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton
• 86. The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton
• 87. Edmonds Cookery Book
• 88. The Heart's Invisible Furies, John Boyne
• 89. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
• 90. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
• 91. When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
• 92. The Mortal Instruments Series, Cassandra Clare
• 93. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
• 94. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb
• 95. Life of Pi, Yann Martel
• 96. The Stormlight Archive, Brandon Sanderson
• 97. Catch 22, Joseph Heller
• 98. Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
• 99. Jessica, Bryce Courtenay
• 100. The Secret History, Donna Tartt