Rowling's first book voted the best in 25 years
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has been voted the best book in 25 years by bookshop chain Waterstone's.
British author J K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has been voted the best book of the past 25 years, in a survey of book lovers.
The first book of the Potter series topped the poll conducted by book chain Waterstone's to mark the chain’s 25 anniversary.
The chain’s spokesperson, Jon Howells, said that the book is a ‘justified winner’.
“I am not at all surprised that The Philosopher's Stone won,” the Telegraph quoted Howells, as saying.
Howells added that the book touched many lives in the past decade, and that it changed the view of what a book can achieve.
"It started a phenomenon that has touched so many people's lives in the last 10 years. Harry Potter has changed people's perceptions of what a book can achieve and I think it's a justified winner,” he added.
The Philosopher’s Stone was followed by Audrey Niffenegger’s Time Traveler's Wife at the second spot.
Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights and Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong secured third and fourth places respectively.
Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code completed the top five, at the fifth position.
The top 10 books in ‘The best book of the past 25 years’ survey are as follows:
1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling
2. Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
3. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
4. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
5. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
6. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
7. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
8. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
9. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
10. The Curious Incident of the Dog by Mark Haddon