BBC Book List Challenge
(Hope this hasn't been done here before). Here's the BBC Book List Challenge. I've read 44--not even half, but still not too bad. How 'bout you?
The BBC reckons most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. LET'S PROVE THEM WRONG 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible 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 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks 18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 19 The Time Traveler’s Wife 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot - maybe 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 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen 36 The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho 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 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 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 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 - 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 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 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78 Germinal - Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair - 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 Alborn 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad started but never finished 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 94 Watership Down - Richard Adam 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 98 A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...-bbc-challenge |
The Harry Potter series is more than one book, and the overall page count for the series is huge. I think if you read even one of them, it should count as full credit. Besides, Harry Potter is not exactly a classic deserving of inclusion with Dickens. In fact, why is Harry Potter number 4 on this list? Is the BBC seriously trying to imply that it's the 4th most important piece of literature, and should be read by all good Englishmen?
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I've read exactly six (but started and left unfinished many more) of those, I'm a huge reader but I could only pick another couple from the list that interest me.
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are they in order of anything? not sure.
I've assiduously avoided reading much of the 19 century and early 20th century "literature" as being too snoozy. Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice--none of that. Had to read Great Expectations THREE TIMES in school. Only counted it once though. |
There are several series in there.
Not quite 50%, for me. Read: 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (partial) 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 52 Dune - Frank Herbert 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 94 Watership Down - Richard Adam 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 98 A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo Haven't read: 6 The Bible 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (partial) 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks 18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 19 The Time Traveler’s Wife 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot - maybe 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen 36 The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 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 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson 75 Ulysses - James Joyce 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78 Germinal - Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair - Thackeray 80 Possession - AS Byatt 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad started but never finished 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute |
37
*I'm counting the ones that are series, but I've read most of. 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling* 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare* 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 19 The Time Traveler’s Wife 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 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 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 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 52 Dune - Frank Herbert 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo I wish I could remember them! |
24
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43, I think. Currently reading GWTW. There are several more I staerted and gave up on. I read many of them because in the 80s The Times or The Telegraph produced a list of the 100 books every high schooler (or some such) should have read and I took it as a challenge. many of those books are also on this list.
I have read much shakespeare, but not the complete works, so I didn't count that. i have read the Bible (Good News version) |
32 of them for me. If I was counting ones I'd started but never finished, or collections I'd read some/most of, such as the Complete Works of Shakespeare, it'd b closer to 40.
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43.
I won't read books about little kids running around in otherworlds, so those are out. I actually just finally read The Bell Jar. Nice to see The Kite Runner and The Life of Pi. Wonderful books! |
56
I'm counting the books I've read, the partial series I've read, and the movies I've seen. :p: |
63 for me. I'm working on listening to Ulysses as an audio book at the moment ...
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot - maybe 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 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel 52 Dune - Frank Herbert 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding 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 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 94 Watership Down - Richard Adam 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 98 A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess |
can we add the ones we've seen as movies?
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I might be wrong, but I remember this as The Big Read back when I lived in Leicester. It was nothing about a challenge, it was the Top 100 Must Reads as voted for by the British Public (who BTW have terrible taste in poetry, according to similar polls).
It also seems unlikely that the BBC would make a supposition that people had only read six - they're an inclusive rather than an exclusive broadcasting corporation. Sorry to be a pedant, but I felt the record should be set straight. If it was just a random book challenge I'd let it go, but as it has the BBC's name attached, it's worth picking up on. Anyway, if it is what I think it is, I might score quite highly, because I took it as a must-read list. Haven't managed the Russians yet. That's not boasting I am well read, that's explaining that I saw this list before and used it deliberately. Then again, I'm sure some newer books are on there... And I swear Enid Blyton wasn't, for example. Or Bridget Jones. I fear the list may at least have been tampered with, especially given some of the books have American spellings in their titles, at least one does not have an author and some have notes like "started not finished" attached.... My list for the record. 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible 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 14 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 15 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 16 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks 17 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 18 The Time Traveler’s Wife 19 Middlemarch - George Eliot 20 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 21 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 22 Bleak House - Charles Dickens 23 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 24 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 25 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 26 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 27 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 28 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 29 Persuasion - Jane Austen 30 The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho 31 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 32 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 33 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 34 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne 35 Animal Farm - George Orwell 36 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown 37 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 38 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving 39 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 40 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy 41 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood 42 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 43 Dune - Frank Herbert 44 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 45 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 46 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 47 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 48 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon 49 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 50 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 51 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 52 On The Road - Jack Kerouac 53 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 54 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding 55 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 56 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 57 Dracula - Bram Stoker 58 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 59 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson 60 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 61 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 62 Vanity Fair - Thackeray 63 Possession - AS Byatt 64 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 65 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 66 The Color Purple - Alice Walker 67 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro 68 Charlotte’s Web - EB White 69 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn 70 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 71 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton 72 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 73 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 74 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 75 Watership Down - Richard Adam 76 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 77 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 78 A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess 79 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl |
I just ganked it from FB; it was among several book list challenges.
glatt: movies don't count! |
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