This is one of those notes that spreads through Facebook, it's one of the more interesting ones so I thought I'd post it here for those who don't use FB (I put it in the Films section as it's also movie-related):-
Edit:- I hunted around for the source of this list (i.e., at the BBC), found nothing, but found this. It's interesting comparing the BBC list with the FB list. There's nothing 'classic' about either, the BBC list was originally for a "nation's best-loved novel" search hence the inclusion of contemporary popular material such as Harry Potter among the classic works. So there's certainly nothing 'authoritative' about the list.
Edit 2: Thanks to lamhasuas, it turns out that this list has nothing to do with the BBC but is a result of a poll at The Guardian for World Book Day in 2007. 2000 people took part and each nominated 10 books they could not live without.
Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety. Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or from which you've read an excerpt. Underline any where you've seen the movie or stageplay. Tag other book nerds, and tag me as well so I can see your responses!
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 Faulk 18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19. The Time Traveler�s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20. Middlemarch - George Eliot 21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 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 31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34. Emma -Jane Austen 35. Persuasion - Jane Austen 36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis 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 - A.A. 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-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. The 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 Inferno - Dante 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 - E.B. 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 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
Here's mine. No surprise that I've watched a lot more on the screen than I've 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 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 Faulk 18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19. The Time Traveler�s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20. Middlemarch - George Eliot 21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 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 31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34. Emma -Jane Austen 35. Persuasion - Jane Austen 36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis 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 - A.A. 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-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. The 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 Inferno - Dante 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 - E.B. 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 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
My stats:- 19 read, 40 watched, and two unfinished. Anyone else?
Read 36, watched 18, with a few started and stopped, mostly for being crap despite the 'classic' tag (okay, maybe that just applies to jane austin and thomas hardy!).
sean - I didn't limit the 'seen' to films where I hadn't read the books, which is what your instructions indicate. Dont think you did either (so for example, lord of the rings, which i have seen and read, gets bold and underline)
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 Faulk 18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19. The Time Traveler�s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20. Middlemarch - George Eliot 21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 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 31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34. Emma -Jane Austen 35. Persuasion - Jane Austen 36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis 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 - A.A. 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-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. The 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 Inferno - Dante 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 - E.B. 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 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
sean - I didn't limit the 'seen' to films where I hadn't read the books, which is what your instructions indicate. Dont think you did either (so for example, lord of the rings, which i have seen and read, gets bold and underline)
Good point, I'd just copied the instructions verbatim. I've fixed it now. Yep, I'd underlined any movies I've seen irrespective of whether or not I'd read the book.
Read entirely 62 Read partially 7 Seen without reading 11
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 Faulk 18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19. The Time Traveler�s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20. Middlemarch - George Eliot 21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 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 31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34. Emma -Jane Austen 35. Persuasion - Jane Austen 36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis 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 - A.A. 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-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. The 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 Inferno - Dante 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 - E.B. 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 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
guess "which have you read" is not really as interesting as "which were the best" but that's tough, there are some really great books on here (plus some completely overated jane austin crap!).
Best book of all time is Wuthering Heights, I'll take no arguments on this. Only book I've read more than 10 times, and to be honest any day I'm bored i can pick it up and read it again.
Of Mice and Men almost reaches the same level, packs an incredibly powerful wallop into a very thin volume. Very surpprised that Grapes of Wrath makes the list but Of Mice and Men doesn't
1984 and Brave New World are great to read one after the other; they beg to be 'compared and contrasted', as my english literature essays used to demand.
Remains of the Day blew me away, mostly because I thought of the film (without having seen it) as some dodgy pompous Upstairs Downstairs-type mini-series. Read Never Let Me Go on the strength of Remains of the Day, was a decent read but not in the same league
I've read pretty well everything by Iain Banks/Iain M Banks - he's a great read but not sure i'd have him up there with the list of classics, he doesn't teach me much
Cathcer in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird are two american classics i've come back to multiple times over the years. To Kill a Mockingbird has gotten less powerful with age/each reading, Catcher in the Rye has gone the other way
Read the Kite Runner and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time without knowing they were famous and/or 'classics'. Enjoyed both immensely, but wouldn't have thought to include either in a "greats" list.
I love some of the russian literature, although like all translated books it requires a good translation and i'm sure something is still lost. Particularly enjoyed Crime and Punishment and have read it twice. I have bought War and Peace, and keep planning to read it, but the sheer size of the book puts me off each time before i finish the first couple of pages
I read both the hobbit and the lord of the rings trilogy in my youth - sorry sean, couldn't stand them any more than i could the films. I enjoy fantasy/sci-fi, and was trying really hard to like them, just couldn't. Too many superlatives and one 'most amazing thing' after another. Dune is how sci-fi should be written, and i recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it.
No idea how bill bryson (entertaining) or enid blyton (entertaining for under 8s) make the list
I love reading - but looking at even a highly subjective list like this shows just how many books i havent read. There's a whole world of great authors for me still to discover!
I think Baftababe is the only one among us who can claim to have appeared in one of the movies.
I feel distinctly uncultured looking at the listings so far. I can lay claim to having read about 24, started another 8, and watched around 20. Full list will follow later.
I think Baftababe is the only one among us who can claim to have appeared in one of the movies.
I feel distinctly uncultured looking at the listings so far. I can lay claim to having read about 24, started another 8, and watched around 20. Full list will follow later.
I think that's commendable for someone who only learned to read a few months ago
Actually - I was in 3: Gatsby Hitch-hiker's Guide -- the REAL one on the telly Lion, Witch, Wardrobe -- ok, voice only
Best book of all time is Wuthering Heights, I'll take no arguments on this.
I'm afraid that I have got to agree with you, though I've only read it twice. (Can't think of any other novel that I've read more than once.) I think it's just a brilliant accomplishment on so many levels.
This wasn't a B.B.C. thing (that was what it was always listed as on Facebook, but I looked it up and the only results were blog entries saying that they could find no such B.B.C. list) but it's still a fairly good list.
I'm embarrassed to say that it has been a long while since I have been a big reader: the Internet has really been bad for my attention span. (This is one of the reasons that I much prefer seeing films on the big screen.) When I was living in the mountains in Nepal I got through one or two novels a week, which seems unimaginable now. I have a thing about not getting rid of books so I begged the check-in person to let me go way over my luggage quota so that I could bring them back. It was in Nepali so that probably helped but I cannot imagine that happening these days.
By coincidence, I recently created this accolade. It's very far from from complete: I mainly just added all the films by writers of whose books I'd read several and then removed the unread ones, as I don't know what books have adaptations in many cases and I've never kept a list of what I've read. Anyway, this thread may prompt a few more additions.
My favourite book not in the list is We Need to Talk About Kevin; Frankenstein is a close second and should definitely have been included by whoever compiled it.
In some cases, the film(s) I've seen cover(s) only part of the work. I may have seen film adaptations of some of the other classics and I may have read some of the other children's books, but I can't really remember.
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 Faulk 18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19. The Time Traveler�s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20. Middlemarch - George Eliot 21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 25. The Hitch Hiker�s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (Don't know what happened to the copy I was reading.) 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 34. Emma -Jane Austen 35. Persuasion - Jane Austen 36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis 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 - A.A. 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 (Does having seen Tamara Drewe count?!) 48. The Handmaid�s Tale - Margaret Atwood 49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding 50. Atonement - Ian McEwan 51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel (Good book but I've met Martel and he's a c*nt.) 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-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. The 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 (Currently reading this.) 76. The Inferno - Dante 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 - E.B. 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 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
Best book of all time is Wuthering Heights, I'll take no arguments on this.
I'm afraid that I have got to agree with you, though I've only read it twice. (Can't think of any other novel that I've read more than once.) I think it's just a brilliant accomplishment on so many levels.
I guess I better read this one then. (That is even though you're both wrong; best book of all time is LOTR).
BTW I've updated the topic description with some more information on the source of this list, for those interested.
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 Faulk 18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19. The Time Traveler�s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20. Middlemarch - George Eliot 21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 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 31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34. Emma -Jane Austen 35. Persuasion - Jane Austen 36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis 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 - A.A. 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 Word - 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. The 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 Inferno - Dante 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 - E.B. 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 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
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 Faulk 18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19. The Time Traveler�s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20. Middlemarch - George Eliot 21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 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 31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34. Emma -Jane Austen 35. Persuasion - Jane Austen 36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis 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 - A.A. 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-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. The 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 Inferno - Dante 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 - E.B. 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 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
Hmm, not exactly the output I had hoped for. Seems a bit sketchy for 'The Complete Works of Shakespeare' to be one entry (being anywhere between 37 and 40 plays depending on who you talk to) and then to have 'Hamlet' appear again - as well as two CS Lewis entries appearing almost simultaneously with no acknowledgement that 'The Lion the Witch' is part of the 'Chronicles of Narnia'... Add to that including things like Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' collection, 'Harry Potter''s seven and 'Lord of the Rings,' and we've got closer to two hundred books here, not one hundred. Anyway, good stuff.
And bife, Salopian - I am ashamed to say I've never read Wuthering Heights. I'll put it on the to-dos. I expect it's much like the Kate Bush song, right?
I did the book version of this on facebook a while ago, but never thought of it in terms of film adaptations.... let's see....
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 - Audrey Niffenegger 20. Middlemarch - George Eliot 21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 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 31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34. Emma -Jane Austen 35. Persuasion - Jane Austen 36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis 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 - A.A. 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-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. The 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 Inferno - Dante 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 - E.B. 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 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
Read: 40 Unfinished: 6 Seen: 50
I love to read, and wish there was more time in the day so I could watch all the films and read all the books I want to and still live an active life! It's a pretty odd list given some of the things it includes and some of the things it omits. I love Shakespeare and know most of the plays inside out - but, no, I've not read the complete works. I don't know many people that have. I definitely wouldn't have included "The Curious Case of the Dog etc." as I thought it was a utterly forgettable book with a gimmick. Too much Austen, as usual for these sorts of lists. Only one Conrad and no Lawrence seems unbalanced. The Da Vinci Code should be assigned immediately to the dustbin not a list of 100 great books. Salopian's right about Frankenstein being missing - it's the best ever horror novel and a much, much better book than Dracula.
Some of my favourite books are here though - glad to see Lolita, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Of Mice and Men, Heart of Darkness, Watership Down, Catch-22 and the Lords of the Flies and Rings. It's always a personal thing but I wouldn't put Wuthering Heights at the top of the pile; it always seemed to be about one step higher than chick-lit to me. Birdsong, as one example is much more moving and involving. Give me a Nabokov or a Conrad any day for immaculate prose or a flawless story. For the whole package - sheer wonderment and scope though it's hard to beat LOTR.
My favourite books that didn't make this list would include Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Under the Skin by Michael Faber, the science fiction of H.G. Wells (War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr Moreau etc.), Time's Arrow by Martin Amis, If This is a Man/The Truce by Primo Levi, The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge, Psalm at Journey's End by Erik Fosnes Hansen, So Long See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell, The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson, Titus Groan/Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake.
Classic/popular fiction to read/watch.
Posted - 01/22/2011 : 04:58:53
