I got tagged by a friend on Facebook to do the BBC's The Big Read - Top 100 Books list. Apparently the BBC believes that the average person has read only 6 of the following 100. So here goes, I've marked the ones I've read with an X, and ones I think I've read (but don't remember for sure) with a ?. And just for fun, I've also put a ! by ones that are currently on my bookshelves.
Keep in mind that this list was compiled by a BBC poll from 2003, asking for UK residents' favorite novel. Over 750,000 people voted. (I've found other versions of this list online, but below was the first, at BBC's site, so I went with it.)
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (X)
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling (X!)
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (X)
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne (X)
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell (X!)
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis (X!)
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (?)
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (?)
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger (X)
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (X)
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott (X)
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (X!)
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell (X)
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling (X!)
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling (X!)
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien (X)
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck (X!)
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez (X!)
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams (X)
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald (X!)
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas (X!)
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell (X)
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck (X)
53. The Stand, Stephen King (X!)
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (X!)
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (X)
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden (X!)
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (?)
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett (X!)
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (X!)
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett (X)
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding (X)
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett (X)
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar (X)
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (X!)
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist (X)
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac (X!)
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo (X)
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett (X!)
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho (X!)
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (X!)
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
So if you're counting along with me, I've read 38 (or possibly 41) of the 100 on the list, and currently own 20 of them. I was hoping to have read at least half, but maybe you have to be British to appreciate some of the ones on the list...
Anybody else want to join in the fun?
11 comments:
I've read 54 of those. A lot of those are quite British, yep. Might not even have been published here.
Hey Kitt - 54! I'm impressed. I've got some catching up to do :)
What an... interesting list. I've only read 30 of them. I think it's kind of sick that there is more Harry Potter than Tolkien. But then again, I don't like Potter and I love Tolkien. ;)
Hi Bob - Some aspects of the list (e.g. Potter) were depressing. Some unbelievable - I mean, who really says War & Peace is their favorite novel? I'm just happy that Coelho and Marquez made the list.
I've got to find an American version or stop reading best sellers and hit the classics harder.
Hi Betts - ooh, good idea, I'll look for an American one. But with today's video game / TV society, do you think I'll find one?
My number is exactly 38 too! When I was little, every time the school or library had a list of great books, I'd grab one and try to read as many as possible.
hello there - this was quite fun. i've read 42 - haven't heard of most of those books...i wonder if owning the comic book classics counts? :)
i'd rather read than watch tv.
Hi WC - I think most of the ones on this list that I read, I read before I was 20.
Hi caninecologne - I've been w/o a TV for over a year, reading is much more preferable.
hi vicky - wow, no tv - that's great. most of what's on is junk anyways.
Hey again CC - Yup, junk. The only thing I miss is football :)
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