How many of the BBC top 100 books have you read?

[Bluemooninmyeyes1]

I came across this list yesterday and I’m ashamed to say I’ve only read about 15 and most of them are the Roald Dhal books and Harry Potter I’ve obviously read more than 15 books in my life but they just don’t appear on this list! I’m making a conscious effort to read more classics this year.

How many have you read?

www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml

25. I’ve never read any Terry Pratchett and think I’d probably like them. Apart from that, I don’t want to read anything else from that list. Quite a few of the 25 were from school or books I thought I should read but didn’t really enjoy.

50 so half most of the ones I have read is the classic ones so the modern ones is what gets me lower usually im up high as I went through a phase of liking classical books

52 but a lot of them are bizarre choices’

15☹️

I actually like Jeffery Archer books.

I've read just fifty, too young for Jacqueline Wilson, not interested in Harry Potter, don't like Dickens, I'm an avid reader, read over 100 books last year just not many of the ones on the list.

[quote FindMeAHolidayPlz]This is interesting. It’s a list made up of other lists, and it’s pretty solid. If you read this lot I think you’d be definitively Well Read, but it would be a bit of a slog.
thegreatestbooks.org/[/quote]
I've read half that list proud

35 - and I read a lot but I wouldn't really want to read everything on that list.

I've fully read 40. Others I've started and not stuck with. I've read 2 out of 3 of His Dark Materials so didn't count that.

The list is very of its time! I'd like it if they did a new one as it's nearly 20 years old.

It's a very mixed list!😆

40 in full for definite, but I have read children's and abridged versions of some of the rest, and I've given up on a few too, such as "The Lord of the Rings" and "Treasure Island". I also read some of them very young- I was younger than 10 when I read "The Clan of the Cave Bear" and about 11 when I read the Jeffrey Archer one.

36 but most of them I read in my teens.

Most! But that list isn't a "best" or a "recommended" list, it was people nominating their favourite book- and clearly a fair few children/ schools did the survey!

47. Seen the film versions of a few others. Have heard of all of them pretty much but can't say they appeal.

And it amuses me that such a lot of people must have claimed Ullyses as their favourite book- more likely, "the most impressive sounding book I can think of"!

Wow not many! I am going to save this

74
I apparently have a Terry Pratchett shaped hole in my library

68... but honestly I can’t see how some people would have Ulysses for example as their favourite ever book... it was like torture.

I have read about 80 but I deliberately used it as a reading list when it came out so not really fair. I am not a huge fan of Dickens and there are a few kids books like artemis fowl and tracey Baker that I was too old for so skipped. There are a few I should probably try at some point but I just want easy this year vs normally something that makes you feel something.

I vaguely remember the BBC's Big Read was a general drive to encourage reading, particularly for children, so the list was fit for purpose at the time as something people might use to find books they enjoyed.

I doubt it was ever intended to be a definitive list of all time greats.

I think that while there are a few books that would be pretty much undisputed as classics, even by people who didn't enjoy them, any list of 100 'best books' is going to involve a large degree of subjectivity as well as being influenced by the period in which it came out. So while I think such lists are a good reference point for people looking to read more, beyond that they don't have much more meaning than looking at the current top 100 bestsellers.

Not many (probably about 10) and most of those are either kids books or quite obscure. I could never get into reading classics at all. Now my 13 yr old DS is a different matter. He would beat me hands down by ticking off all the Harry Potter and Ronald Dahls for a start. He is wading his way through some classics. Having just finished War and Peace 😳 he has now moved on to vanity fair. I just don't get it at all.

I’ve read one in three of the thegreatestbooks.org list which I think is pretty good going, but it is quite US-skewed I think and I’m not great on people like Faulkner and James.

81 (not Jeffrey Archer)

About 34, I think.

As others have said, this isn't meant to be a list of the best or most intellectual books, but a list of what the public nominated as their favourite books in 2003.

From what I can remember, the public were invited to submit their favourite reads, and from that the top 100 was created. And from that the public voted the top 10 after celebrities championed their own favourites.

At the time it was brilliant - prime time TV talking about how amazing books and reading are. Yes, there are some duds on that list and it is very much of its time, but it's the Nation's Best-Loved Book, not a list of what professors of Literature think is most worthy.

www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/bookchampions.shtml

74. Weird list though and very of its time.

28. I've read all the Harry Potter, Roald Dahl and Jacqueline Wilson. Plus some of the classics.