Curl up with The Great American Read

Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Tuesday, September 11. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
The Great American Read (PBS, 10 p.m.): Books are good. People like them. That’s the engine behind this Meredith Vieira-hosted series, which celebrates the 100 books best beloved by American readers (as determined by an advisory panel that worked with “public opinion polling service ‘YouGov’ to conduct a demographically and statistically representative survey asking Americans to name their most-loved novel.”) Note that the show isn’t concerned with the best American books, or even the best-loved American books. Or books by American authors: Instead, it’s looking at the works of fiction (published in English) most loved by American readers, no matter the country of origin or whether or not they’re works of titanic intellectual accomplishment. You can check out the full list here. Alphabetically by title, it begins with 1984 and ends with Wuthering Heights; authors include Harper Lee, Leo Tolstoy, Stephenie Meyer, Dean Koontz, Nicholas Sparks, Louisa May Alcott, Zora Neale Hurston, J.K. Rowling, and the Left Behind guys, so it’s pretty varied, you might say.