Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice has come top of the Radio 4 poll as the book that women feel has most transformed their lives.

14000 voters took part in the poll, and 93% of those were women, although the books voted for could be by men.

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, came second; Jaye Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte was third, and 4th and 5th respectively, Marilyn French's feminist classic on 1977, The Women's Room, and Margaret Atwood's futuristic novel The Handmaid's Tale. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/books for more info....

What do you think? do you agree?

One of my favourite books of all time, fantastically witty, but life-changing? Can't think why.

The Women's Room did make me see things differently.

Still, I didn't vote, so can't, won't, complain.

I'm with you here- I voted for the Women's Room because I remember reading it as an impressionable 15 year old and being knocked out by it- it gave me loads to think about and probably started me on a particular path that I can't imagine P & P would have.... interesting.

Oh, and the Richard and Judy Award shortlist has just been announced- what the Guardian describes as an 'eye popping assemblage of fiction and biography, bringing together one Booker prize nominee, one runaway bestseller in Spanish, one Whitbread nominee, and...Robbie Williams.' The list includes: The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger; The Promise of Happiness by Justin Cartwright; Fee, by Robbie Williams/Chris Heath; The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler; Cloud Atlast by David Mitchell and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Each of the books will feature in an episode of the Channel 4 show's book club and readers and viewers will vote for their favourite. This will have a phenomenal effect on sales- when Nigel Slaters's Toast was endorsed on the show by Nigella Lawson, sales doubled- and Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea increased in sales by a stunning 350%. So these polls really do a massive effect on what the nation reads- is that a good thing?

I think any event that increases the public's interest in books is a good thing. There are so many sensory diversions these days that are as portable as only books once were (iPods, Gameboys, Mobiles), that redirecting attention to literature as an illuminating leisure pursuit is very important. I get really fed up with commentators who criticise these lists on the grounds, mainly, of personal pretension, claiming they're too limited or cliched. What lists/polls/recommendations do is establish a principle, putting reading back on the tick list of options. Once the principle is established we each find the level that suits us in terms of quality and quantity, and that's the important bit:-) shyama

I agree- and what's good and interesting about the R and J poll is exactly that; a spread of work, some lit fiction, some not so, some inbetween- but bound to encourage people to pick up books they might not otherwise, as Oprah's show has done to huge success in the States. Wouldn't it be lovely though, if some slightly less well known books got on there- just slipped in, y'know..

Yeah,

Pride and Prejudice surprised me too. I'm with Anna - I read The Women's Room at 15/16 too and did the Handmaid's Tale for A-levels. they both got me thinking about a lot of stuff and I would have put them higher up definitely.

Catherine

There's been a lot of flurry in the broadsheets, with Monica Ali coming out in fierce defence of P & P and Jenny Colgan dead against, which seems the wrong way round in some ways.

(Nervously) As a well intentioned interloper who fails the medical for this debate. For some better unexamined reasons, I'm not sure there is a counterpart to this question and debate for men. Perhaps we might engage ourselves in the question of what book has had most impact on us as people, but not I think specifically as men.

Perhaps the parallel question for the guys is: what book do you think has given you the deepest insight, or perhaps helped you better understand women? (Having set this up, I'm readying my rapid escape).

My answer would be Middlemarch. Not just because first Eliot disproves the silly idea that women don't take to philosophy ( a certain Miss Anscombe I knew would have stubbed out her cigar and blasted that one away) and the moral depth of her story explores relationships, if I may say so, with even more depth even than JA. And these are beautifully contrasted women: from the plain but profound moral strength of Mary Garth, through the eventually impressive moral journey of Dorothea. MAE/GE sure knew how to take a clear-eyed view of her sisters. And don't even start me on Maggie Tulliver.

Sorry to intrude on the private discussion, but it was interesting to read.

Respectfully

Zettel

I first read Pride & Prejudice as a musty old 40 something and I thought it was excellent. I only wish I had read it when I was younger - but then again I might not have related to it as much as a young 'un.
That plus the fact that such reading matter was not looked on too kindly in the somewhat chauvinistic coal mining village where I was brought up!

I am a chap so I couldn't vote - but I thought the idea was fascinating.

If we have a life changing book for men my choice would probably be 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist'.

Hi Peter

Catch-22 - the absurdity of war.
Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - the more you love the more you hurt.
Winnie the Pooh - my hero Eeyore: who taught me the difference between sadness and unhappiness.
And of Course 'Dear Ole Charlie Brown' the antithesis of the All American Hero yet better than any of them.

I so agree that there is a 'time' to read a particular book

regards

Z