Reading Corner: BBC Big Read
Reading time has always been one of my favorite pastimes, relaxing and comforting more than any other activity on earth. More eloquent voices than mine have described the beauty of reading and the value of the written word.
I will read anything I can get my hands on. And knowing that I have, over my lifetime, had the opportunity to become statistically rather well read, I still wonder sometimes if I have read enough, if that makes sense.
Have you heard BBC Big Read?
Well, in 2003 whilst we were living in London, the BBC ran a contest to determine the 100 (well, 200 actually, but I am only dealing with the first 100 here) most popular books around. The idea caught on so well that I remember everywhere I turned, I heard people discussing the Big Read. What should be on it. How they voted. Why certain books should and should not be included on the Big Read.
The general consensus was that these 100 books represented what well read aficionados of the written word were devouring without a doubt during the course of their lifetimes.
And as I reread my old standby favorites for the thousandth time, I realized that even with our cases upon cases of books here, there were still others that I had not yet cracked.
I thought it would be enlightening as well as entertaining to take some time and review the list and work my way through the BBC Big Read list of top 100 books. I know there are other recommended lists to be followed and fortunately, at the speed I read, I can hit those as soon as I am done here. So, as a result, occasionally, I am going to start inviting you to visit my reading corner. As I finish an entry on the BBC Big Read list, if I am particularly moved, I’ll make a recommendation here.
I’m torn about actually re-reading each book. As I review the list, I see that I have already read a significant number of the books, some so many times over that reading them yet again seems past redundant. Since I’m doing it for pleasure anyway, I’ll just take it as it comes. If I hit a book that I’ve read, if I can find it in the bookcases here and feel like doing it again, I will. If I feel like I know it inside and out already, I will mark it as done and move to the next.
I hope you will join me in this adventure. Over time, I would be happy to start an online discussion area where we can talk about our impressions of each book. A mini-book club if you wish. Nothing pretentious, as I’m not interested in dissecting the world. Just fellow bibliophiles sharing some of the things we love.
As a last note, the Big Read homepage includes a listing for associated webpages that offer these books as audio books for those people who might in need of that type of assistance.
So, I give you the BBC’s Big Read list of 100 Books:
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
via BBC Big Read
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October 13th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Thanks for the link and the list. Many of my favorite books are on this list, and that makes me think I should read the ones that I haven’t already. So many of these best of lists are full of books that I SHOULD read, and really don’t WANT to read. I also like that there is a lot of young adult fiction here. I really enjoy a good kids book. And they put His Dark Materials above the Potters, too.
October 14th, 2007 at 1:33 am
Rowena: that is the very reason why I was first so drawn to the list; the fact that the books I read first and fully admit that I love most (YA) are listed there, front and center, proud as proud can be. And by golly, I may be officially quite too old to admit, but number seven on the list is still my number one and very most favorite first book I ever owned (I remember clutching it with pride and carrying it, dog-eared and crumpled to first grade with me. I still have that book too). Any list that considers it a must read is tops in my book.
Did you know that Golden Compass is coming out as a movie sometime soon? I just don’t see how they are going to capture that magic world, but I’ve been surprised before. - Kat