--- title: Jimmy Kimmel Asked People to Name Their Favorite Novel description: In the wake of America voting To Kill a Mockingbird its best-loved novel, Jimmy Kimmel decided to find out what people are really reading. canonical: https://time.com/5434668/jimmy-kimmel-pedestrian-interview/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-25T14:58:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:39.329Z og:title: Jimmy Kimmel Asked People to Name Their Favorite Novel og:description: It didn't go very well og:url: https://time.com/5434668/jimmy-kimmel-pedestrian-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c1131298ac5c99b/69893d798fd2ee320435cf7c/screen-shot-2018-10-25-at-10-24-47-am.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jimmy-Kimmel-Favorite-Novel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jimmy Kimmel Asked People to Name Their Favorite Novel twitter:description: It didn't go very well twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c1131298ac5c99b/69893d798fd2ee320435cf7c/screen-shot-2018-10-25-at-10-24-47-am.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jimmy Kimmel Asked People to Name Their Favorite Novel and It Didn't Go Very Well  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 25, 2018 2:58 PM UTC  ABC/Jimmy Kimmel Live!  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 25, 2018 2:58 PM UTC In the wake of PBS announcing that [_To Kill a Mockingbird_](http://time.com/3947242/life-intro-go-set-a-watchman/)was voted [America’s best-loved novel](http://time.com/5432881/to-kill-a-mockingbird-america-best-loved-novel/) in its _Great American Read_ survey, [Jimmy Kimmel](http://time.com/5433032/jimmy-kimmel-halloween-prank/) decided to try and find out what people are really reading. Ahead of Wednesday’s episode of _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_, the late-night host sent his team out to Hollywood Boulevard to ask people on the street about their favorite novels. As per usual with these segments, it went about as well as you’d expect. “I think _To Kill a Mockingbird_ is America’s favorite novel to say is their favorite novel when someone asks them, ‘What is your favorite novel?'” Kimmel explained before airing the footage. “So to test that theory out I thought it would be fun to do a little poll of our own.” Unfortunately, considering the majority of answers involved some variation of, “I don’t read books,” it seems we may never find out what America’s actual favorite novel is. Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5434668/jimmy-kimmel-pedestrian-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5434668/jimmy-kimmel-pedestrian-interview/"},"headline":"Jimmy Kimmel Asked People to Name Their Favorite Novel and It Didn't Go Very Well","datePublished":"2018-10-25T14:58:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:39.329Z","description":"Most people had the same response","url":"https://time.com/5434668/jimmy-kimmel-pedestrian-interview/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Jimmy Kimmel","TV","jimmy kimmel live","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c1131298ac5c99b/69893d798fd2ee320435cf7c/screen-shot-2018-10-25-at-10-24-47-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c1131298ac5c99b/69893d798fd2ee320435cf7c/screen-shot-2018-10-25-at-10-24-47-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jimmy-Kimmel-Favorite-Novel","caption":"","creditText":"ABC/Jimmy Kimmel Live!","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5434668/jimmy-kimmel-pedestrian-interview/","name":"Jimmy Kimmel Asked People to Name Their Favorite Novel and It Didn't Go Very Well"}}]}] ```