BBC 100

There's nothing like a 'how many of these have you read' list to make me feel like I'll never really be very well read.  But I keep trying.  I nabbed this from Sherry at Semicolon. 

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog.

I'm going to cheat a little and just bold those that I've read and assume I'm likely to want to read the rest.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - I've read parts, does that count?
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - I read this when I was younger but I think I totally missed the point...deserving of a reread I think.
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - Someday.
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - If I was going to cross out one, it would probably be this one, but never say never.
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I read something by Dostoevsky in high school, sadly I don't remember which one.
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - Am contemplating starting this one soon.
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - I have this one on my MP3 player and will be listening soon.  Does that count? 
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - Am still planning on reading this one this year.
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma- Jane Austen - Hoping to get through all of Austen's books this year, too.
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - Isn't this part of the Chronicles of Narnia?
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - A favorite!
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - I've seen the movie, but still want to read the book!
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth - Started this one when it came out...
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - Another favorite!
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce - Okay, so I probably won't read this one either.
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - I even read this in French, aren't you impressed?
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables– Victor Hugo - Can I count this even if I'm not finished.  I promise to get to the end very soon (I hope anyway).

Comments

[Jenny]

These lists always strike me as very odd. For instance, why put The Complete Works of Shakespeare and Hamlet on there separately? Or the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Anyway, the idea of being "well-read" is very subjective and if we went back to the Renaissance there isn't one person in a million today who would count as well-read. (Or then, either, considering literacy rates.) So cut yourself a break! Read what you love and keep blogging about it. That's what I count on!

[Dorothy W.]

It looks to me like you are quite well read! Having read even a quarter of those books is pretty good, I think, and most likely people may have read an author, just not the title listed here. The lists make me wonder who generated them and what the rationale was.

[Sylvia]

That's a great list! But I'm shocked that you haven't read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! It's such a delight. You really must set aside an afternoon for it, preferably with your favourite chocolate bar by your side. :)

[kristen m.]

I think this list is actually from a BBC survey to find out what book was the favorite in Britain. I've read about half of them which makes me just feel like I read a lot of classics and mainstream lit and should be a bit more adventurous!

[Danielle]

Jenny--It's interesting to think what that phrase really means--'well read' and how it changes over time. I'm mostly just thinking of all the classics I have sitting waiting for me, but as long as I'm reading books I like I can't really ask for more. The list is a little odd, but still I thought it was surprisingly good considering it was from a survey.
Dorothy--If I counted right, I've read 42, which isn't too shabby, is it?! Of course then I have to consider all the good books I've read that didn't make the list. And it is curious why so many lists are out there--I guess newspapers know lists appeal to readers perhaps (not really the best reason to make one I suppose, but I always stop and look at them).
Sylvia--I've never read any Roald Dahl--that's sort of sad, isn't it. I've seen the movie scores of times, but movies never compare to the book. Any book that requires chocolate while reading has to be good. I'd choose dark chocolate. Maybe I'll just add it to my list.
Kristen--I figured it must be something like that, though I didn't see where the list originated. I am trying to read more classics, but I also read whatever other book (new or old) piques my curiosity!

[Matt]

A very plausible list except they repeat Hamlet and Complete Shakespeare. Well, they're Brits! I can see how they give a heavier weight to classics and literature. This is very different from, say, if NPR compiles a list of 100.

I'm glad to see that major works of Russian literature make the list, but sad that Jose Saramago doesn't.

[Jessica]

Who picks these things anyway?

[litlove]

You have still read way more than I have! I'm really bad at getting through the classics. I'd love to see a list of favourite popular fiction and see whether I do better on that!

[Carl V.]

I've actually read 17, which isn't much but I was expecting even less so I'm pretty happy! :)

Unless of course you count that I've read Dracula probably a dozen or more times!

[Lisa]

I don't really worry all that much about being "well-read", but I do stress sometimes when I think about all the great books that I'll never get around to reading. I love these types of lists even though there's always room for disagreement with the selections. I think they're fun. I like to go through and see how many I've read.

[Pip]

OK, if that is the list of favourite books chosen by the Brirish public, I feel like I might be far too British. I usually get about a third to half of these lists but I have read 88 of those books.
I am a bit scared by that.

[Danielle]

Matt--It is interesting to see who is picking the books. I've read more on this list than on others, which surprised me. I still need to read Saramago...
Jessica--It sounds like this might have been a reader's poll?
Litlove--You would do well on that sort of list. I wonder how well I would do, as I read a lot of contemporary authors, but they tend to be off the beaten track. Maybe I'd do really well on a list of best historical fiction? :)
Carl--Wow, that is a lot of times to read any book! I wouldn't mind rereading it some time. I tend to read a lot of the autthors on these lists but maybe not the exact book they choose.
Lisa--I think about that too. When I see all the books on a list I haven't read, and many of them I do want to read...I know I will never get to them all. I like seeing how many I've read as well, which is why I am drawn to these lists.
Pip--I tend to read more British Lit than American. This list seems to be pretty varied in authors, though. 88 is an impressive number!!

[chihiro]

I really find these lists very interesting but what i don't like at all is how they put the Anglo-Saxon literary world in the centre. There is so many great books written in German, Italian, French, Japanese and other languages - why put a few novels by Jane Austen instead?! Honestly, not all of the books on the list are worth reading at all. I'd rather check the Literature Nobel Prize Winners' list and see there which authors I've read and which I haven't. The English are quite notorious of neglecting books published in translation and that's the reason I don't like any lists of 'books to read' being published here.

[Danielle]

Chihiro--I think you're very right about English speakers being very english-language-centric when talking about good books! I think the Observer has a list that is much more varied with works in translation. I think it is actually the same in America. There are really so few books translated here compared to how many could be given the chance. I try to look for them, but I know I don't really do a good job of reading foreign works. It is something I keep thinking about, but don't always do. It's always good to be reminded! :)