100 best books of century by Waterstone books shop

In an attempt to get more customers into their bookstores Waterstone’s, one of the three chains which dominate the British retail book trade, came up with a brilliant plan. Customers in their bookstores and viewers of TV Channel 4’s Book Watch programme were invited to fill in a questionnaire with ‘the titles of the five books you consider the greatest of the century’ and return it to Waterstone’s. If they wished they could also leave a comment of 50 words or less on their favorite title. The questionnaire was very clearly a marketing device where respondents were asked for their names, addresses and were offered prizes for the 5 most persuasive comments. Over 25,000 people replied nominating over 5,000 titles and the names and authors of the 100 most-nominated books were published in ‘W’, Waterstone’s own magazine, in January 1997 together with a leaflet giving further facts about the survey.