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

59 but it's a very out of date list from 18 years ago, it should be updated or deleted.

The fatwa was for Satanic Verses

But it was against Salman Rushdie himself, so anyone bound by the fatwa wouldn't have been reading his other novels and certainly wouldn't be nominating them for a list of best-loved books.

I've read 64 and a half. I've got halfway through Midnight's Children two or three times, I just haven't managed to continue on with it, not sure why.

I studied English Literature at university but don't like Terry Pratchett and was too old when Jacqueline Wilson started writing so that knocked a few on the head.

62. I have read 41 of the first 50 but fewer of the second half.

I read a lot of classics in my teens and twenties but I wouldn’t have the patience for a lot of those books now - for example The Magus I now think is a load of pretentious twaddle. I loved it the first time around.

This list gives you a few suggested places to start with Pratchett.

The Discworld series has several sub-series. I’d suggest starting with either Wyrd Sisters (Equal Rites is technically the first Witches novel but it’s slightly off-canon and not really as good) or Guards Guards.
www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-20.jpg

Less than five percent of the voting population will have been bound by the fatwa on Rushdie. I assume that MC is relatively low on the list because only a limited number of people read literary novels which aren’t on the school curriculum.

Three but the then I always used to go into a book shop and randomly pick books that sounded ok to give them a try.

Some of them I don’t think I could commit to reading if you paid me...
Wind in the Willows - my idea of torture
Winnie the Pooh - again, torture, although I do love ‘Now we are six’ and have read that many times
Terry Pratchet - Shoot me now
Jacquline Wilson - ditto

I will try any book, classic, bestseller, literary or pulp, but if I'm not interested in it by the end of the first chapter or thereabouts, I don't carry on.

43. Only one of my favourite books of all time is on there though. I have no urge to read any on the list I haven't already read. I've been so disappointed by so many books sold as "must reads".

@LApprentiSorcier

"Nation's Best-loved Novel"

I guess this sums up what the list is. For example, I would give a different answer if asked for my favourite book than if asked for the best book I have ever read. I don't mean I'd choose something I didn't like for the latter question, but for a 'best' book I would consider its appeal to a wider audience, what it added to our understanding of human nature or a particular issue, the quality of the prose - rather than, as I'd answer for the first question, a book I've read time and time again because it resonates with me on a personal level.

Exactly this. My favourite books don't 100% overlap with what I think are the best books I've read.

25

I read a lot but only read 16 from that list. Never read Harry Potter books.

23. I read a lot but I'm not big on classics or children's books. This list is pretty out of date too. I suspect if they did this again today the list would look quite different.

Of those that I've read I would only call 1 of them among my favourite reads: The God of Small Things by Arundati Roy

84 of them. I’ve never read a Harry Potter or Jacqueline Wilson.

I’m 52 and read most of them before I was 25. I used to read a lot.

Most of the older ones that is!

Only 26. And I read a fair amount!

48 - most of the ones I hadn't were Harry Potter and most of children's 'classics' other than Tolkein or C S Lewis.

51 - agree that some of the choices are odd to make it onto this list

38. I don't understand why 'The Lord of the Rings', which is actually three books, has been lumped into one of Harry Potter gets to be separate volumes!

Harry Potter books being on there astonished me tbh.

Started 59 but not read any Jacqueline Wilson and a couple I couldn't finish. Weird mix of books.

@unmarkedbythat

Harry Potter books being on there astonished me tbh.

I get the impression a relatively high proportion of the votes must have come from children.

There are 5 on that list that I've started but couldnt finish: just not my thing. I've read about 10 books this month, and none of them are on this list.