Wednesday, August 19, 2009

How Well Read Are You - BBC "The Big Read"?

I couldn't resist posting one more list. As you can tell from my last few posts, I used many lists to come up with my How Well Read Are You - American Literature? list. I really love this list from the BBC. It contains a lot more "popular" classic literature (and more women writers). Although it is a list of the favorite novels of the British, it contains quite a few American authors.

"In April 2003 the BBC's Big Read began the search for the nation's best-loved novel, and we asked you to nominate your favourite books. "

X = Read Book
M= Watched movie


1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien(X) (M)
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (X) (M)
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams(X) (M)
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling(X) (M)
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee(X) (M)
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne(X) (M)
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell (X)
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis(X) (M)
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (X) (M)
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë(X) (M)
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks(X)
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (X) (M)
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger(X)
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens(X) (M)
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott(X) (M)
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell(X) (M)
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling (X) (M)
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling(X) (M)
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling(X) (M)
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien(X)
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy(X) (M)
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving(X) (M)
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck(X) (M)
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll(X) (M)
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(X)
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens(X) (M)
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson(X)
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen(X) (M)
39. Dune, Frank Herbert(X) (M)
40. Emma, Jane Austen(X) (M)
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery(X) (M)
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald(X) (M)
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas(X) (M)
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh(M)
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens(X) (M)
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(X) (M)
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck(X)
53. The Stand, Stephen King(M)
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy(X) (M)
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell(X)
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden(X) (M)
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens(X) (M)
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough(X) (M)
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding(M)
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding(X) (M)
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins(X)
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens(M)
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith(X) (M)
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
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac(X)
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton(X)
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer(X)
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez(X)
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson9
9. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Books Read = 50
Movies Watched = 39

My favorite reads on this list:

1. Katherine by Anya Seton. Seton is one of the best historical fiction authors that I have ever read. I have been madly searching for her books at every used book store I can find for the past 15 years. Luckily they have been getting reprinted the past few years.
2. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I love Rebecca and have read it quite a few times. It is a psycological masterpiece and is a nice homage to Jane Eyre. I love the 1940 Oscar winning movie as well.
3. Peruasion by Jane Austen. P&P gets all of the publicity, but Persuasion is my other favorite Austen novel. I love the message that there is always hope and love never dies.

If you post this list on your blog, please leave me a comment. I love to read what others have read and what their favorite classics are!

3 comments:

  1. rebecca du maurier is another of my faves as well. been meaning to read frenchman's creek after seeing a tv movie version of it.

    btw: i have something for you here...
    http://vvb32reads.blogspot.com/2009/08/lets-be-friends-award.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Much better number this time around . . . 22!!

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  3. I'm not quite as good as you, but I managed to have 33 of the list and have heard of most of them. Progress, not perfection...right?

    http://www.yuletimereading.com/2009/08/another-book-list-to-make-me-feel-uneducated

    ReplyDelete