Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

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:
Gingerbear · 01/03/2009 22:09

20, but I have seen the film/TV series of 70 arf.

Yurtgirl · 01/03/2009 22:11

34

janeite · 01/03/2009 22:12

Agree re "Ullyses" - I did try once but didn't get much beyond about page six iirc. Another English teacher here!

HappyCrappy · 01/03/2009 22:17

Only 36, but it would be more interesting to ask which ones were actually enjoyed? I enjoyed most of the ones I read, mainly because I only read the ones I knew I would like. Does this make sense?

Earthymama · 01/03/2009 22:18

85 for me but I am ancient , I'm a grandmother as well as a mum. I worked in libraries for ages so I had access to lots of books and I'm addicted to reading. I am also a really fast reader, I read probably 3 or 4 books every week.

What's the story about the list, who compiled it and to what end?

HappyCrappy · 01/03/2009 22:21

janeite - page 6 of Ulysses is good going! Heavy going.

cariboo · 01/03/2009 22:22
  1. [x] Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
  2. [ ] The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien
  3. [x] Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
  4. [ ] 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. [x] Complete Works of Shakespeare 15. [x] Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier 16. [ ] 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. [x] 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. [x] Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 27. [x] 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. [x] The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 38. [ ] 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. [x] One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44. [x] A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving 45. [ ] The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 46. [x]Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery 47. [x] Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 48. [x] The Handmaid?s Tale Margaret Atwood 49. [x] Lord of the Flies William Golding 50. [x] 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. [x] A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 56. [x] 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. [x] Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 62. [x] Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 63. [x] The Secret History Donna Tartt 64. [x] The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 65. [ ] Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 66. [x] On The Road Jack Kerouac 67. [x] 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. [x] The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 77. [ ] Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome 78. [x] 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. [x] The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 85. [x] Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 86. [x] A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 87. [x] Charlotte?s Web EB White 88. [ ] The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Alborn 89. [ ] 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. [ ] 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. [ ] The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas 98. [x] Hamlet William Shakespeare 99. [x] Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 100. [x] Les Miserables Victor Hugo

A few embarrassing gaps.

dragonbutter · 01/03/2009 22:23

only 16 but many more i started and never finished.

i read one in french, do i get extra points?

Earthymama · 01/03/2009 22:27

I thought there was only one page of responses so foolishly asked about the list!! I'm sorry

KiwiKat · 01/03/2009 22:27

40, and another 10 books in the list are in my bookcase, waiting to be read. Not likely to be read for a little while though, with the amount of reading I need to do for work.

A Prayer for Owen Meaney, Little Women and Gone With the Wind are amongst my favourites of all time.

HappyCrappy · 01/03/2009 22:34

dragonbutter - I bet it was Le Petit Prince by St Exupery - Oui? nul points - c'etait un necessaire d'education secondaire. If it was something else, my most humble apologies.

HappyCrappy · 01/03/2009 22:39

Kiwikat - I like all of those as well, especially Owen Meaney (Christmas Play !!!)

KiwiKat · 01/03/2009 22:43

Happy Crappy, you have excellent taste! Tell me - I loved A Secret History, but HATED The Little Friend, in fact, didn't even finish it, which is unusual for me. What did you think?

HappyCrappy · 01/03/2009 23:03

Kiwikat - love and hate Donna Tartt IYKWIM? Am reading the Forsyte Saga (Galsworthy) atm. Am loving and hating that as well. Serious detail there ( a bit DT?), but a great social history, and quite a joke as well - the middle classes who think they are aristicratic. Only about 1/8 of huge book read so far, but think I will persist.

HappyCrappy · 01/03/2009 23:08

That would be aristocratic,

Shitemum · 01/03/2009 23:12

I have read 56 of them

LoveBeingAMummy · 02/03/2009 06:35

Have to say I thought I wasn't even going to make it to the six but got 10 - very suprised the wasp factory is on there had no idea it would be in a list with the bible!!!!

Blackduck · 02/03/2009 06:50

85 - but then I am an english graduate.....and isn't Ulysses unreadable!

tatt · 02/03/2009 07:02

If you count the ones where I've read part - 65. Haven't read all the complete works of Shakespeare or all the old testament and I don't get Gabriel Garcia Marquez. If you count seeing the films a few more . But I am addicted to reading.

janeite · 02/03/2009 18:27

I think that anybody who claims to have read "Ullyses" may well be stretching the truth a bit - probably stretching it by at least 300 pages!

LyraSilvertongue · 02/03/2009 19:04

How can such an unreadable book become a 'classic'?

mumnosbest · 02/03/2009 19:15

I'm only on 12 (double what the gov says). I haven't counted the bible or works of shakespeare as I haven't read ALL of them and there are a lot on the list I've started but couldn't get into.

TweetleBeetle · 02/03/2009 19:29

16 for me

I hate lists like this though - who made the list maker god of what books you should read!

Read what you like

womblingalong · 02/03/2009 19:35
  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. [ ] The Bible
  7. [x] Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
  8. [x] Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell
  9. [x] 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. [x] Complete Works of Shakespeare 15. [x] Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier 16. [x] 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. [x] Middlemarch George Eliot 21. [x] 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. [ ] 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. [x] 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. [x]Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery 47. [x] Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 48. [x 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. [x] 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. [x] Brave New World Aldous Huxley 59. [x] The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon 60. [x] 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. [x] The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 65. [ ] Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 66. [x] On The Road Jack Kerouac 67. [x] 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. [x] 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. [x] Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 80. [ ] Possession AS Byatt 81. [x] A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens 82. [x] Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 83. [x] The Color Purple Alice Walker 84. [x] 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. [x] The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Alborn 89. [x] Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90. [x] The Faraway Tree Collection Enid Blyton 91. [x] Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 92. [x] 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. [ ] The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas 98. [x] Hamlet William Shakespeare 99. [x] Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 100. [ ] Les Miserables Victor Hugo

80/100 for me, seem to have big gap in terms of russian authors, must put them on my list

dragonbutter · 02/03/2009 22:49

No happy crappy, in fact it was crime and punishment!

(not really, you got me )