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Original poster

Apparently the BBC think that most people have only read 6 of these books how far of are you?

717 replies

ByThePowerOfGreyskull · 24/02/2009 16:37

Instructions:

  1. Look at the list and put an ?x? before those you have read.

How many have you read?

  1. [x] Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
  2. [x] The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien
  3. [x] Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
  4. [x] Harry Potter series JK Rowling
  5. [x] To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
  6. [x] The Bible
  7. [x] Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
  8. [x] Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell
  9. [ ] His Dark Materials Philip Pullman
10. [x] Great Expectations Charles Dickens 11. [x] Little Women Louisa M Alcott 12. [x] Tess of the D?Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 13. [x] Catch 22 Joseph Heller 14. [] Complete Works of Shakespeare 15. [] Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier 16. [x] The Hobbit JRR Tolkien 17. [] Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 18. [x] Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger 19. [x] The Time Traveller?s Wife Audrey Niffenegger 20. [x] Middlemarch George Eliot 21. [] Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell 22. [x] The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald 23. [x] Bleak House Charles Dickens 24. [ ]War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 25. [x] The Hitch Hiker?s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 26. [ ] Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 27. [ ] Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28. [x] Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 29. [x] Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 30. [x] The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame 31. [x] Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 32. [x] David Copperfield Charles Dickens 33. [x] Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis 34. [x] Emma Jane Austen 35. [x] Persuasion Jane Austen 36. [x] The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe CS Lewis 37. [ ] The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 38. [x] Captain Corelli?s Mandolin Louis De Bernieres 39. [x] Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 40. [x] Winnie the Pooh AA Milne 41. [x] Animal Farm George Orwell 42. [x] The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 43. [ ] One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44. [x] A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving 45. [x] The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 46. [ ]Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery 47. [x] 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. [x] Life of Pi Yann Martel 52. [ ] Dune Frank Herbert 53. [x] Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 54. [x] Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 55. [ ] A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 56. [x] The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57. [x] 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. [x] Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 62. [ ] Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 63. [x] 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. [x] Bridget Jones?s Diary Helen Fielding 69. [ ] Midnight?s Children Salman Rushdie 70. [ ] Moby Dick Herman Melville 71. [x] Oliver Twist Charles Dickens 72. [x] Dracula Bram Stoker 73. [x] The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett 74. [x] Notes From A Small Island Bill Bryson 75. [ ] Ulysses James Joyce 76. [ ] The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 77. [x] Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome 78. [x] Germinal Emile Zola 79. [x] Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 80. [ ] Possession AS Byatt 81. [x] 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. [x] Charlotte?s Web EB White 88. [ ] The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Alborn 89. [x] Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90. [ ] The Faraway Tree Collection Enid Blyton 91. [ ] Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 92. [x] The Little Prince Antoine De Saint-Exupery 93. [x] The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 94. [x] Watership Down Richard Adams 95. [ ] A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 96. [x] A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute 97. [x] The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas 98. [x] Hamlet William Shakespeare 99. [x] Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 100. [ ] Les Miserables Victor Hugo

61/100 for me but others on the list that I really do want to read

OP posts:
motherducky · 06/07/2009 14:11

28, most of them before I was twenty, so not great but ok but would like to read about another 6 of them.

RoseOfTheOrient · 18/06/2009 03:29

35 for me.

one of the categories was "the Complete works of Shakespeare", I doubt many people will have read ALL of Shakepeare's works...
I have read about 4 or 5...

GothAnneGeddes · 18/06/2009 03:13

25! Am surprised as didn't think I was that well read.

DidEinsteinsMum · 18/06/2009 00:40

I thought i was well read but only read 7, started and failed to read another 6 though and there was little mention of shakespeare which would have pulled my number up (or did i just miss that?)

CountessDracula · 18/06/2009 00:21

I have read 64
I am confused by the cs lewis
surely the Lion the witch and the wardrobe is part of the chronicles of narnia?

babyignoramus · 17/06/2009 20:34

20 for me. Plus I've also read some of the Bible and Shakespeare.

NB how come the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is separate from the Chronicles of Narnia?

SleeplessinScotland · 17/06/2009 12:16

43 - book read
Does watching the film count too? Then I could add another few!

Thingiebob · 17/06/2009 12:06

50 all the way through and a few that I couldn't finish.

Heathcliffscathy · 17/06/2009 11:55

moving but very dour and hard work of doom and gloomness???

KerryMumbles · 17/06/2009 11:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Heathcliffscathy · 17/06/2009 11:45

70 read here.

am crap on steinbeck, thackaray and some classics like the bell jar.

BikeRunSki · 17/06/2009 11:38

40 - that's alright, I thought I was really going to embarras myself!

MIFLAW · 17/06/2009 11:30

Distinctly average.

KerryMumbles · 17/06/2009 11:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LittleMammaTo2 · 17/06/2009 11:17

25 but a few of them were for A-level English Lit

Goblinchild · 17/06/2009 11:14

That actually meant that I read English at uni, and so I have encountered some of those unwillingly, like James Joyce and Ulysses

Goblinchild · 17/06/2009 11:12

I haven't read 5 of them.
But in my defence, I read English, and I love books and I'm really old.

LightShinesInTheDarkness · 17/06/2009 11:04

Really! Check out the thread - quite a few of the 100 books here have defeated MNers!

Stigaloid · 17/06/2009 10:51

LSITD - really? i have read Catch 22 about 6 times!

somewhathorrified · 17/06/2009 10:47
  1. I love to read, but rarely do I read bestsellers, I read what I like, not what publishers tell me to!
LightShinesInTheDarkness · 17/06/2009 10:38

...or you could go to this thread and see how many of these 100 books have been abandoned by MN readers....
including Midnight's Children, Catch 22 and Captain Corelli's Mandolin!!

Stigaloid · 17/06/2009 10:20

PS for anyone who hasn't read it, i can really recommend Midnight's Children by Salmon Rushdie.

Stigaloid · 17/06/2009 10:18
  1. [ ] Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
  2. [ ] The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien
  3. [x] Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
  4. [x] Harry Potter series JK Rowling
  5. [x] To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
  6. [x] The Bible
  7. [ ] Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
  8. [x] Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell
  9. [ ] His Dark Materials Philip Pullman
10. [ ] Great Expectations Charles Dickens 11. [x] Little Women Louisa M Alcott 12. [ ] Tess of the D?Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 13. [x] Catch 22 Joseph Heller 14. [x] Complete Works of Shakespeare 15. [ ] Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier 16. [ ] The Hobbit JRR Tolkien 17. [x] Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 18. [x] Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger 19. [x] The Time Traveller?s Wife Audrey Niffenegger 20. [ ] Middlemarch George Eliot 21. [ ] Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell 22. [x] The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald 23. [ ] Bleak House Charles Dickens 24. [ ]War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 25. [x] The Hitch Hiker?s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 26. [ ] Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 27. [ ] Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28. [x] Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 29. [x] Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 30. [x] The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame 31. [ ] Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 32. [ ] David Copperfield Charles Dickens 33. [x] Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis 34. [ ] Emma Jane Austen 35. [ ] Persuasion Jane Austen 36. [x] The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe CS Lewis 37. [ ] The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 38. [x] Captain Corelli?s Mandolin Louis De Bernieres 39. [x] Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 40. [x] Winnie the Pooh AA Milne 41. [x] Animal Farm George Orwell 42. [x] The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 43. [ ] One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44. [ ] A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving 45. [x] The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 46. [x]Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery 47. [ ] Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 48. [x] The Handmaid?s Tale Margaret Atwood 49. [x] Lord of the Flies William Golding 50. [ ] Atonement Ian McEwan 51. [x] Life of Pi Yann Martel 52. [ ] Dune Frank Herbert 53. [ ] Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 54. [ ] Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 55. [x] A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 56. [ ] The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57. [ ] A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens 58. [x] Brave New World Aldous Huxley 59. [x] 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. [x] Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 63. [ ] The Secret History Donna Tartt 64. [x] The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 65. [x] Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 66. [x] On The Road Jack Kerouac 67. [ ] Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 68. [x] Bridget Jones?s Diary Helen Fielding 69. [x] Midnight?s Children Salman Rushdie 70. [x] Moby Dick Herman Melville 71. [x] Oliver Twist Charles Dickens 72. [x] Dracula Bram Stoker 73. [x] The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett 74. [ ] Notes From A Small Island Bill Bryson 75. [x] Ulysses James Joyce 76. [x] 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. [x] A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens 82. [ ] Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 83. [x] 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. [x] Charlotte?s Web EB White 88. [ ] The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Alborn 89. [x] 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. [x] Watership Down Richard Adams 95. [ ] A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 96. [x] A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute 97. [x] The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas 98. [x] Hamlet William Shakespeare 99. [x] Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 100. [ ] Les Miserables Victor Hugo

52 for me. I couldn't get into JRR Tolkein - but enjoyed the movies!

beckysharp · 17/06/2009 10:10
  1. And there is still stuff I will get round to. Weird list though. Funny mixture of 'canon' and 'popular' stuff. Where did it come from?

Bible essential for study of English Literature before 1800, and presumably, if you are a Christian ...

pooter · 17/06/2009 10:04

45, but possibly at the least literary end of the weird spectrum

i do OWN about 10 more of them, but they just sit on my shelves accusingly!

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