100 books to read before you die. What's your score?

[CeceIsMyFave]

I got a nice round 50 and I'm slightly freaked out- if I don't read the other 50 can I still alive longer?!

www.listchallenges.com/bbcs-top-100-books-you-need-to-read-before-you-die

I did cheat slightly and tick both the Bible and Shakespeare.... I've read the greatest hits, as it were.

41 and yes there are definitely some weird choices on there! There were quite a few that I couldn't remember if I'd actually read the book or just heard so much about it.

In fact I've remembered that I've read Lolita so make that 42. I also counted the Harry potter series but I've only read to halfway through book 4 and couldn't stick it anymore. I didn't include the complete Shakespeare, I've only read about 4 of those and none through choice!

70, more if you can count part books. I do not like Dickens so that eliminates a few. I’ll never read the bible or the complete works of Shakespeare either. One or two I’m not sure about and I counted War and Peace even though I skipped swathes of it.

41 not counting ones that I've started but not finished.

54 for me, worryingly there were quite a few more that I couldn’t remember whether I’d actually read, or just meant to read one day!

I did better than i thought i would 57 with 3 on my reading pile

I have read the bible fully and a bloody good chunk of the complete works of shakespeare

59, but don't fancy some of those. Who makes up these lists anyway?

There are probably another 10 or so ive attempted to read

67

There's a few on there I'll read eventually but I've no intention of ever reading any Hardy again beyond the few chapters I made it through and all Ian McEwan books feel like a punishment. So how many I really liked or would read again would be much lower.

(I just went through it again and only ticked the ones I actually enjoyed...24! )

There are a lot of books missing from that list. I would put Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum on it.

40, and 7 halves (as in ones I've abandoned, or a series that I've read some of ... I bet not that many people have actually read all of Shakespeare.)

There are a few odd ones on that list. The Da Vinci Code?? Really? And that awful thing about all the people you meet in heaven ...

2

And as for Ulysses, I passed my eyes over all the words in the right order, but can’t say I properly took them in or understood them. So have I read it, or not?!?

There are a few odd ones on that list. The Da Vinci Code?? Really? And that awful thing about all the people you meet in heaven ...

I thought that. I mean I've read 'em but...😶

I've read forty. But I've read others by the same authors. For example, I've read about five Zola's, but never got around to Germinal.

79 Actually quite impressed. Would have been a round 80 but Midnights Children was so arduous I never got past the first chapter

64 but there are some very questionable entries on that last! Dan Brown? The Lovely Bones? And the sodding Alchemist, one of the worst books of all time IMHO? There are a few good ones I've missed like Anna Karenina, but life is too short to read any more Dickens. I have a decent Eng. Lit Degree and I am getting on a bit.

41. Surprised I've read that many but there were quite a few I'd not heard of. Must read more again.

Only 33 and there's a good proportion of those that I never waded through or I read so many decades ago that I can't remember a thing about them.

56 and cannot see myself reading many of the ones I have not.

69, plus a good dozen I started but think I may have abandoned – a skill I learnt late in life, after believing in my yoof you HAD to finish any book you started.

Also, like a PP, I really can't get on with Thomas Hardy.

Interesting list but not sure they’re all worthy of a place.

There are 10 that I’ve tried to read and gave up on and five that I’d never heard of. I’ve read the others (not that I can remember them all well).

Intrigued to read the David Mitchell book - ashamed to say i didn’t know he is a writer.

80. I’m 46. But I have bugger all intention of reading the vast majority of the ones I haven’t read, because glancing inside them or reading reviews makes it perfectly plain they are tosh — I’m happy to die without reading The Shadow of the Wind or any sickly Mitch Alborn. And I don’t get why anyone thinks reading Bridget Jones’s Diary, Dune, The Lovely Bones, the hilariously bad Time Traveller’s Wife, or The Da Vinci Code (all of which I have read) is Important.

Ulysses is a wonderful novel!

55 can’t believe no Henry James or Edith Wharton on list

25. Some of them I have read more than once though. Fucking hate the great gatsby and would never put it on a list of important books to read

It’s a different David Mitchell Izzy

Some of the listings are questionable. Why the Faraway Tree series and not Famous five? I agree with a prior poster that the Alchemist was pure shite

I got 43, which is a bit shabby considering I'm in my 50s & have a degree in English. I agree it's a very odd list. I will definitely read some of them - we have a good few at home, but I can't imagine I'll willingly pick up Dickens again & others just don't appeal. Perhaps I should spend less time on MN & start reading a bit more again.