Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Top Book of the Decade

UK newspaper The Telegraph has compiled a series of lists of things that defined this decade. One such list involves the top 100 books, with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling taking the number one spot. Quotage:

“If you don’t know what a Muggle is by now, you’re either Rip van Winkle or
enormously stubborn. This is the seventh and final instalment in Rowling’s
record-breaking series about Harry Potter, the world’s most famous
lightning-scarred boy wizard and his tribulations with Lord Voldemort. We’ve
seen Harry grow from a spindly, messy-haired 11-year-old into a heroic young
adult. Children have grown up with him, finding in his battles metaphors for
their own. This volume alone sold 15 million copies in the first 24 hours
after it was published. Whether wickedly skewering suburbia, or bringing
Harry, Ron and Hermione into mortal danger, Rowling is never less than
absorbing. Some may sneer at her books, but they are triumphant sagas about
the defeat of evil that tap into our basic hunger for stories. Most
importantly, she makes reading a 700-page book seem easy. This one even has
a quotation from Aeschylus as its epigraph. It stands as a cornerstone of
the decade, a melding of high and low culture that appeals to all ages and
nations.”

Thanks Catherine and Jamie for emailing!