Following is a list of books selected by the readers of the BBC site as the best books. I have indicated if I have read the book by writing "yes" beside it. How many have you read? Any favorites?
BBC Top 100
1. The Lord of the Rings - Yes
2. Pride and Prejudice -Yes
3. His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman - Yes
4. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - Yes
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Yes
6. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee – Yes
7. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - Yes
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell - Yes
9. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - Yes
10. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte -Yes
11. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - Yes
12. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte -Yes
13. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk - partially
14. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - Yes
15. The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger -Yes
16. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - Yes
17. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Yes
18. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott no
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres - No
20. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - No
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - Yes
22. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - JK Rowling - Yes
23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - JK Rowling - Yes
24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rowling - Yes
25. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - ; Yes
26. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - No
27. Middlemarch - George Eliot - No
28. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving -partially
29. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - Yes; one of my faves
30. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - Yes
31. The Story of Tracy Beaker - Jacqueline Wilson - Yes
32. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - No
33. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett - partially
34. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - no
35. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Yes
36. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson - yes
37. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - Yes; it's great!
38. Persuasion - Jane Austen -Yes
39. Dune - Frank Herbert - Yes
40. Emma - Jane Austen -Yes
41. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - ? Maybe
42. Watership Down - Richard Adams - Yes
43. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - Yes
44. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas -Yes
45. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - no
46. Animal Farm - George Orwell - Yes
47. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - Yes
48. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - No
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian - no
50. The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher - no
51. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett -Yes
52. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - Yes
53. The Stand - Stephen King - Yes
54. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - Not Yet
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth – No
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl - yes
57. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome - No
58. Black Beauty - Anna Sewell - Yes
59. Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer - Yes
60. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Yes; should be top 10 here
61. Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman - no
62. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - Yes
63. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - Yes; great book
64. The Thornbirds - Colleen McCullough - yes
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett - Yes
66. The Magic Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton - No
67. The Magus - John Fowles - no
68. Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - Partially
69. Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett - Yes
70. Lord of the Flies - William Golding - Yes
71. Perfume - Patrick Süskind - no
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressel - no
73. Night Watch - Terry Pratchett - Yes
74. Matilda - Roald Dahl - Yes, great.
75. Bridget Jones Diary - Helen Fielding - Yes
76. The Secret History - Donna Tartt -No
77. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - NO
78. Ulysses - James Joyce - Started; about half finished
79. Bleak House - Charles Dickens -No;
80. Double Act - Jacqueline Wilson - No
81. The Twits - Roald Dahl - Yes
82. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith - no
83. Holes - Louis Sachar - Yes, good author.
84. Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake - No
85. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy - No
86. Vicky Angel - Jacqueline Wilson - No
87. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - Yes
88. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - No
89. Magician - Raymond E. Feist - Yes
90. On The Road - Jack Kerouac - Yes
91. The Godfather - Mario Puzo - No
92. The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel - Yes and all the sequels
93. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett - Yes
94. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho - No
95. Katharine - Anya Seton - No
96. Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer - No
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - No
98. Girls in Love - Jacqueline Wilson - No
99. The Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot - No
100. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie - Yes
Several of these I had begun reading on my Kindle and my Kindle quit working :( I haven't replaced it so I haven't finished those books. "Ulysses" I have in hard back but haven't finished. It is a slower read "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" which I did read.
You can see the BBC article here http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml
Comments
Here is a google doc where I have been collecting links to sites that advertise "free" e-books. Note I have not tried all of them; make sure you have good Anti-virus protection if you visit any of the ones not indicated as "Good" or have a Macintosh :)
The Google Document e-book list
Bea It was a BBC poll which means ordinary people submitted their favorite books. I suspect (I don't know) the BBC asked people to list their 10 favorite and them compiled the list based on how many people had a book mentioned. It wasn't designed as a "must read" list but rather Books enjoyed reading the most. For people learning English, it is probably a better reading list than what an academic best books list might look like - see the Modern Library's List of the Best 100 Novels of the 20th Century. You'll see a big divergence between the Board (academic) and the Readers (common person) with the 2 list sharing just 32 Titles.
http://timnew.com/books/best100.html has that list
I am definitely a bookaholic (my coined word). I have always read (well since I was 4 anyway) and collected books. I started making a conscious effort a couple of years ago to read the books on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of 20th Century list. Since that list had 2 surveys, the Board and readers, there are actually 168 books with 32 books making both. Then I discovered the BBC Top 100 list which is not restricted to the 20th Century. Slowly I am reading the books from both lists.
lol...yes, it's a lot of work to do. I thought about it when I was writing. But, I think whoever reads this blog might can help us to do that as well. Thanks for the list. I hope I could read one or two books soon.
Ario You are giving me a lot of work to do! We were discussing recommended books on chat which is why I copied this list from BBC. Some you can find in a local library, older ones will be available on the internet. I'll see if I ahve time to search for sites.
Hi Tim. I think it will be better if you also list which books are available for free, whether in Gutenberg project or somewhere else. It's hard to find book in English here in my city. I know that Pride and Prejudice is available for free in Gutenberg project. But there are 100 books on your list. So, it will be hard to check.
Yes I like many authors not on the list, but I'm trying to read all the books that are on the list. We have to remember this was a BBC poll and it was several years ago. So the list will reflect some biases. I'd love to see a similar poll in the USA, Austraila, New Zealand, South Africa. Be curious to see how our reading habits and likes vary.
Ok. Here are the list
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (I think I've read it)
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
5. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
6. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (One of my favourites)
7. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
8. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (Really classic and one of my favourites)
9. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
10. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
11. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
12. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
13. Persuasion - Jane Austen
14. Emma - Jane Austen
15. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (I think so)
16. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
17. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
18. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
19. The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher
20. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
21. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
22. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
23. Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer
WOW. Only 23 books from that list. But I have to admit, most of Charles Dickens' books that I read were the "concise" versions. I never try to read his full complete versions. I wonder why Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not in the list? Don't you think his books are great?