BBC's Big Read...

[nikkinaz]

I thought I would put up the list of the nation's favourite reads. This was a programme made by the BBC to find the top most popular 100 books voted by viewers, way back in 2003. How many have you read and would like to read?


1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
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
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
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
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
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
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
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
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
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
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
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
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
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
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
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
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
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
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

[dudette]

32 for me. I'm pleased to note that I have read 9 of the top 10 though... My favourite of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird though. So charming yet touches on really ugly issues.

[Pronkertjie]

Haven't read half as many as Dudette but then there is no Afrikaans books on the list

Very interesting list - thanks Nikkinaz

[Ade]

I've read about 9 from the entire list!
I must say classics are not my favourite
There's no Frederick Forsythe, Robert Ludlum, Wilbur Smith or Alistair Maclean in there

[Jangar]

I've managed to read about 10 of those on my own, as opposed to having to study them at school :haha:

I wonder how this list compares to the list of most sold books and the list of most borrowed library books )I think those lists would be a more accurate description of people's reading taste).

[mcamp999]

I must say classics are not my favourite
There's no Frederick Forsythe, Robert Ludlum, Wilbur Smith or Alistair Maclean in there

Agree with your sentiments, I have read 16, some as school books. (as an aside, Alistair MacLean is a distant cousin of ours (a first cousin of my Granmothers for a bit of useless information)

[dudette]

12 of them at least are children's books... Jacqueline Wilson may be a favourite of my daughter's but not mine! :haha:

[Ade]

Agree with your sentiments, I have read 16, some as school books. (as an aside, Alistair MacLean is a distant cousin of ours (a first cousin of my Granmothers for a bit of useless information)

fame at last :cloud9:

[gwasi]

Not a good as Dudette, but I've read 31. Ok so four of them are Harry Potter, and some were forced upon at school.

Wonder whether Lord of the Rings owes its No. 1 spot due to the movies being released shortly before this list?

Good to see Philip Pullman up there. Have heard that a first edition of Hi Dark Materials went for £1000. Must take a look in my boxes.

Mcamp I'm not :worthy:

[Pampered]

I have read 31 of those.... I read Catcher in the Rye, and to Kill a Mockingbird recently. Both great books!

One of my all time bests is one I first read when I was about 11 or so: 'The Thorn Birds'