I really can’t. I like to think I’m an avid reader and then I meet people like my friend, Courtney, and my sister, Katie. It’s then I realize I’m really just a person who likes reading. But when I saw this list on (faithful follower and commenter) Rapunzel’s blog, I couldn’t help myself. I had to know how many of the books I’d read. And then, I needed to know how many you’ve read. So I put the list and instructions below. If you have a blog and want to share what you’ve read, link up with Mr. Linky below. If you don’t have a blog, email me your list! Or, copy only the ones you’ve read and started and put them in the comment section. Let’s see how many of us are readers!
And as a side note, I’m not sure why the BBC chose this list. Maybe to prove more people watch movies than read books?
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read an excerpt.
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 Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
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
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 Berniere
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-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 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 – 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 – EB 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
I’ve read 26. Started or read excerpts of 9. Question if I’ve read at least 5 more, but can’t remember if I saw the movie or read the book or both! So didn’t mark them out of fairness.
Comments (10)
I am happily surprised that I have read 35! A few more I started but didn’t finish for whatever reason. Some I never heard of…
I’ve read a few.
1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible (75%)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
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
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
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
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
I created a post and linked to Mr Linky…I need to get reading!
I haven’t read many of those 🙁 But I did read Memoirs of a Geisha. PLEASE finish reading that book! It was a little slow to start with all the excessive descriptions but after you get through all that the book is impossible to put down! It’s my all-time favorite book! The movie was terrible, but the book is amazing 🙂
I’m linky-ed in! I’m with you, I wonder what criteria there were…
I’m not nearly as familiar with the modern writers. There are some books/ authors that are not on this list at all and I wonder why. For instance, even though American writers are included they didn’t include one work by Twain or Hawthorn. I wonder why they would have Charlotte’s Web on the list, but not Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn?
Carlyn,
I wondered the same thing, which makes me think it’s more about movies than classics. Because we all know Bridget Jones’ Diary is not a classic.
1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (probably more than half of his plays)
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
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
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
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
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
Well, I am trying to pick the 5 that I have commited to reading, and here is the preliminary list…I reserve the right to change my mind if I don’t like them 🙂
1) Watership Down
2) The Wind and the Willows
3) Anne of Green Gables
4) The Five People you Meet in Heaven
5) Jane Eyre
New to your blog, and had a lot of fun reading the list.
I’ve read 44 and started 15, largely not finishing them because I didn’t like them. However, I’m ashamed to realize that I’ve never read any Dickens!