The Big Read

« Mission impossible | Skinny Pig »

The Big Read

by EllieGant ^Pro @ 28.03.2008 – 10:23:53

Yesterday, whilst out shopping (for me), I picked up a free magazine about the shortlisted British Book Awards 2008. It also featured Richard & Judy's Best Read of the Year, and an article entitled Richard & Judy 'on the sofa'.

The article announced the sad news that Richard & Judy are giving up their daily show after twenty years. Despite making me snort chardonnay with the phrase "There's a perception in the media that we're retiring" says Richard, squatting on a pouffe ..", despite the fact that the latter irritates me intensely and despite never having actually watched their show myself, I think it will be a great loss, thanks to their amazingly successful Book Club and the effect it has had on persuading people to read more.

The amount of reading I have done lately has dropped off - partly more time on the computer, but also partly because I have found it quite difficult to find new authors to get stuck into. But the library regularly features the Richard and Judy Book Club recommends and I have read several of them. Thanks to this magazine, I now have a list of possible books to look out for. It also reminded me of The Big Read organised by the BBC in April 2003. At the time, I printed off the top 100 hundred books and started working my way through previously unknown books. Having found the list again, I've just realised I've still got some way to go.

No-one will be able to convince me that Lord of the Rings is the best book ever. After repeated attempts to get to grips with The Hobbit, failing to remember who's who, shunning pages of long-winded hobbit songs, I went and saw the film instead. I still think number two should have won. And not just because of Colin Firth either.

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

So, are there any great books missing from that list, do you think?
Options:
Tags:
Trackback URL for "The Big Read"

Enter this code:

22 Comments on The Big Read

Hide subcomments

- blacksheep63 ^Pro
- 28.03.2008 @ 10:54:16
my goodness you have been busy! i worked for W's when the big read was on and there was much debate about the order and those included (or not). its a bit like ten top ten of music or film or goals or cakes or anything - its very artificial and everyone has an opinion. i have read 7 of the top ten (and none of the classics in there, nor the CS lewis rubbish) but further down it gets more patchy. several of my favourites are not there (murakami's 'Wind up bird chronicle' for example). as for LOTHRs, its a great book because it can be read and re-read, it can be read aloud, it can work at 10, at 25, at 40 and at 60 and it has something to say about life, relationships, love, fear, hate, struggle, loyalty, guilt - its an adventure, it has history, it has myth, and it has no religion - imagine a book about everything in life with no preaching, no god/s.

final point: i like Harry potter but none of them deserve to be in the top 100 'best' books of all time, they are not very well written.
- - EllieGant ^Pro
  - 28.03.2008 @ 19:56:16
  I'm not surprised about the debate about order and omissions - it is a very subjective thing and also depends on your mood. I don't know how the voting was organised - it is a strange mix of children's favourites, classics, literary genre and 'others'.
  
  I find some of the omissions surprising - crime writers like John Grisham or sci-fi authors like Arthur C Clark, and then there are 20th writers like Hemingway or CS Forester that don't feature at all. I suppose a lot of people would be influenced by what they were reading at the time of voting.
  
  Also I think literature and a good read aren't always the same thing. Some are too heavy going for me to relax with or empathise with!
  - Reply to comment
  - Permalink
- loiswakeman
- http://lois.co.uk
- 28.03.2008 @ 14:08:51
Thanks for making me spit my tea out! Richard and his pouffe, indeed!

I'm glad to see that Gormenghast is in there - wonderfully dark fantasy. Jane Austen and Hardy get my vote too - but although I enjoyed Dune, I'd hardly call it a great book (I concur with Mr F too - Harry Potter is fun but not great writing).

Of modern novelists, I'd like to see Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood, Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Taylor, early Iris Murdoch, Anne Tyler, Patricia Angadi, Mary Wesley, and Armistead Maupin represented, amongst others. And Fat Hen by Richard Francis; and ....
- - EllieGant ^Pro
  - 28.03.2008 @ 20:00:58
  Well! We're a fine pair, aren't we? No-one will invite us around for tea now they know we are wine-snorting and tea-spitting guests!
  
  I love Kate Atkinson and Margaret Atwood but don't know the rest. As I said to Blacksheep, I find the omission of so many modern (as in 20th century and current) authors quite strange. Maybe people thought they would be sneered at if they didn't include the classics. Personally, I admire the bravery of those who voted for Jeffrey Archer!
  - Reply to comment
  - Permalink
- MrFlighty
- 28.03.2008 @ 14:34:29
Any such list depends on who, and how many, you ask. I've read many of these books but I wouldn't call a lot of them great reads by any means.
There are lots of book sites but two I look at regularly are http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/
and
http://www.lovereading.co.uk/
Happy reading! xx
- - EllieGant ^Pro
  - 28.03.2008 @ 20:03:32
  Thanks for the links - I'll have a browse. I have been searching for Stuart Pawson since your mention, but the libraries and Waterstones don't have any of his books. It's not as if they haven't had time to realise he's around and popular!
  
  But I agree - some of those on the list I could admire as works of literature - but they weren't exactly what I would call a good read!
  - Reply to comment
  - Permalink
- tylluanpenry ^Pro
- 28.03.2008 @ 20:14:08
"Life Goes on" by Alan Sillitoe seems to be missing.... a wonderful, dirty, FUNNY read!
- - EllieGant ^Pro
  - 31.03.2008 @ 17:58:11
  Another for my list then - you don't often get all that in one book!
  - Reply to comment
  - Permalink
- jackfrost
- 28.03.2008 @ 22:34:48
well i'm sorry not one mention of the Famous five!! i'm hust!! how could you so easily forget!!
- - EllieGant ^Pro
  - 31.03.2008 @ 18:06:18
  - or the Malory Towers series or The Secret Seven or the Five Find-Outers led by Fatty or the Adventurous Four who were accompanied by Kiki the parrot - in fact, it is a wonder that I moved on to adult books at all!
  
  *hides battered copy of 'Five Go Off in a Caravan" under cushion*
  - - jackfrost
    - 31.03.2008 @ 18:09:58
    I still have all 21 FF books!!
    - - EllieGant ^Pro
      - 31.03.2008 @ 18:14:47
      I am really gutted - I carefully collected them all from a second-hand bookshop, with scrimped pocket-money - hardback copies too! - then my mum sold them to someone whilst I was away from home! I will never forgive her!
      - jackfrost
        
        31.03.2008 @ 18:36:50
        
        mine are hard back!! like this
        
        Reply to comment
        
        Permalink
        
        Show this thread
        
        EllieGant ^Pro
        
        01.04.2008 @ 10:39:01
        
        *sobs with grief and envy*
        I can go off you, you know!
        
        Reply to comment
        
        Permalink
- MissyMouse
- 29.03.2008 @ 00:11:37
Thank you for posting the list of books to read...I really must get reaquainted with some of those books!
- - EllieGant ^Pro
  - 31.03.2008 @ 18:08:14
  You're welcome! There are a lot of great books on that list I wouldn't mind re-reading, but even more that I haven't read yet!
  - Reply to comment
  - Permalink
- deana24
- 30.03.2008 @ 19:48:36
It's all very suburban, middle-class and drearily predictable isn't it. It also looks suspiciously influenced by television as well(e.g. is Brideshead really Waugh's greatest or most famous, thanks to tele adaptation?). No more than you would expect, I suppose.

And yes, I appear to have split sides as well at comment about Richard squatting on a poufe. Excellent post, Ellie.
- - EllieGant ^Pro
  - 31.03.2008 @ 18:13:04
  Yes, I agree - there are a lot of great classics in there, but it does seem a bit of a 'worthy' list at times rather than 'a really absorbing, get-stuck in, forget all about the time good read'.
  
  And you have to feel sorry for that pouffe, don't you?
  - Reply to comment
  - Permalink
- Rampage ^team
- http://the.blog.co.uk/
- 31.03.2008 @ 14:50:13
How can Frankenstein not be there? Such a marvellous book. Harry Potter there though. The world is a confusing place.
- - EllieGant ^Pro
  - 31.03.2008 @ 18:16:55
  Yes, that's another classic that is strangely omitted. I keep thinking of authors who are surely classic authors - like PG Wodehouse - and wondering why they aren't on the list!
  - Reply to comment
  - Permalink
- Moonwoman
- http://www.wisewomenspirituality.com
- 02.04.2008 @ 03:01:41
Wow! A lot of those books I read in my university days and in my 20's. I love them! Now I have to admit I'm a fan of kids books and think they should be in a class all by themselves. I want to see Babe in there! I'm also a fan of SCIFI and think they should be in a class by themselves.

I find that even though I am surrounded by a lovely sea of favorite books, I still like re-reading books of my youth and enjoy sitting and re-reading them when I cocoon in the winter!

And I adore Harry Potter books! ... and the films... and believe they will become classics since they appeal to people of all ages. Even my hubby who never reads a book was engrossed by the film!

And how about non fiction? I think I have read every James Herriot book ever written!

Then for spiritual and great every day living psychology there is every book every written by my guru, Wayne Dyer.

Bless you for this post!
- - EllieGant ^Pro
  - 03.04.2008 @ 22:18:10
  Glad you liked it. I agree - they should have had different categories. And I have to confess that I often re-read old favourites, particularly when I am not well. It is like snuggling up with a comfort blanket.
  
  I'm glad you like Harry Potter too - I was beginning to think I was the only adult in blogland that did.
  
  The worst thing about books is that if you think about all the hundreds of thousands books in the world and the amount of time you have, it is impossible to do more than a mere sampling. That's depressing!
  - Reply to comment
  - Permalink

The Big Read

22 Comments on The Big Read

Leave a comment

Recent posts of "FLOWER GIRL"

Widgets

Footer