From Pete Jones, the BBC's top 100 books. You're supposed to see how many you have read--I'm guessing Kat and Gustav are going to crush me here...unless I get to count extra points for having read the Lord of the Rings more than ten times. My addition is a one-word adjective describing how worthwhile I felt the reading experience to have been.
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (X) excellent
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (X) muddled, boring, and pointless
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman ( )
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (X) brilliant and hilarious
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling ( )
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee ( ) liked the movie? :)
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne (X) cool
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell ( ) But I have read, with awe, Brave New World
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis (X) excellent
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë ( ) loathed the movie?
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller ( )
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë ( ) seriously?
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks ( ) never heard of it.
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier ( ) I'm guessing this is in the Bronte vein...
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger ( ) no, but Franny + Zooey was awesome!
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame (X) "there is nothing quite so worth doing as simply messing about in boats."
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (x) abridged version with pictures was pretty cool as a kid....
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott (X) blechh. thanks, mom...
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 ( ) seriously? JRR only gets on of his trilogy? Where's the Silmarillion, huh?
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling ( )
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien (X) whatever, Rowling, Tolkein should totally be the top five.
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 (X)
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 (x) abridged--pretty cool
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl (X) pretty cool
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (X) great childhood memory!
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute ( )
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen ( )
39. Dune, Frank Herbert (X) I'm so glad this is on here...great book!
40. Emma, Jane Austen ( )
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery (X) unfortunately, yes, I have read this.
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams ( )
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald (X) didn't really get it...well written, though.
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas (x) abridged with pictures was awesome as a child!
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh ( )
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell (X) vaguely remember it being pretty cool.
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (X) great book...but the Muppets do it better :)
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 (X) This book was awesome as a kid. And really sad...
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer ( )
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky ( )
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman ( )
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden (X) was rather good, until it ended abruptly and uncharacteristically fairy-talish.
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (X) absolutely loved it. best ending line ever: "It is a better thing I do, than I have ever done before...It is a better rest I go to, than any I have ever known."
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough ( )
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett ( ) I so need to buy more Pratchett...
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton ( )
67. The Magus, John Fowles ( )
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman ( ) have to buy this one soon...
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett ( ) so glad he's on here!
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding ( )
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind ( )
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell ( )
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett (X) the man's a genius.
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 (X) was incredible...my introduction to all things distopian and apocalyptic. as a child. which might explain how messed up I am...
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons ( )
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist ( )
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac ( )
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo ( ) the movie is amazing...
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel ( )
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett (X) An excellent disciple of Douglass Adams
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 ( )
Yeah, that one word adjective thing didn't last very long. If anybody has any Tolstsoy or Dostoevsky, I'll loan you Pratchett for 'em. :) I also have to mention number 101, one of my all time favorite books: Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome. And then, by corollary, one that should have made the list: To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis. And, of course, if the entire world had more hardcore Christians in it, The Poisonwood Bible would have been up there as well.
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11 comments:
I TRIPLE DOG DARE you to read the Harry Potter series. Not in the same league as Tolkien... what is?!? But still worth a good read. Thanks for posting the list. I have a LOT of reading to do.
Personally, I have read most of the ones you've read (except for Pratchett...I've taken one of his books out of the library, but stopped after that).
I somewhat liked Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Tess of the D'Ubervilles.
I re-read the Count of Monte-Cristo in unabridged/translated form a couple of years ago, and really liked it.
War and Peace seemed to take forever to find its point, but after I learned how to read (translations of) Tolstoy, I read Anna Karenina. I still don't know which I liked more.
Of course, I haven't touched "serious" literature in the last year or two. Too much fun stuff from S.M. Stirling and Tim Zahn, with dabblings in Orson Scott Card.
Is it sad that I've only read 2 from the list? Both of them were in high school and were mandatory reading.
They are:
The Grapes of Wrath
To Kill a Mocking Bird.
I actually didn't really like either.
Am I a bad person?
I don't know, Ben, I never read them myself. You can gain a bit of solace by the knowledge that this list was created via a BBC popularity poll, so it's not entirely applicable to an American audience...
You should totally read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's great fun.
If anyone wants to send me a book that I haven't read from the list, I'll happily read it :)
I guess I'll take solace in that then.
Currently enjoying Exuberance - the passion for life by Kay Jamison. Written by a shrink who acknowledges they don't often study the positive emotions. "We were created for joy..."
Dad
yes, ben. you ARE a bad person.
Wow. I can't believe how well I did on that list...never thought Terry Pratchett would help me out on a "top books" list.
Admit it. You've read Bridget Jones Diary. It's ok. It's better to be honest and get it out there.
A fellow (Brit) teacher here hooked me on Pratchett. I'll have to check out the Colour of Magin though...
Yo bro
And learn how to spell aparintly.
How have you not read any Roald Dahl? Is that not something that American's read?
Also fork out the cash and buy Good Omens, as far as I can recall, it is my favourite book.
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