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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:
Poppity · 20/04/2009 13:53

67,
but what an odd list-

ALL Shakespeare?
And the bible? What for? Purlease.....

SarahL2 · 20/04/2009 14:10
  1. Not bad I used to think but looking on here....

Didn't count it if I hadn't managed to finish it though - Far from the Madding crowd etc

Sunshinemummy · 20/04/2009 14:16

I've read 71 but have read some books that aren't on the list by the same authors, for e.g. I haven't read The Grapes of Wrath but have read East of Eden (fab book).

Pacita · 20/04/2009 14:45
  1. What is the criterion for this list though? I mean, how can you have Mme. Bovary next to Bridget Jones, or why would anybody need to read the whole of Harry Potter?
Pacita · 20/04/2009 14:53

And yes, despite the inclusion of Zafón and García Marquez, few Russians and French, the list is very Anglo-Saxon.

MrsFlittersnoop · 21/04/2009 10:18

76 for me, but I am old and have been reading about 4 books per week for the last 40 years! I also worked in libraries for many years!

A very odd selection though.

Butkin · 22/04/2009 11:59

4 for me and I got A level English!

I've read quite a lot of Shakespeare but not the complete works and I've not read the last book in the Harry Potter Series.

Books I read at school like Paradise Lost are not on the list as only seems to be novels.

Flibbertyjibbet · 22/04/2009 12:09
  1. 7 I've started and not bothered to finish if I didnt' get into it (ie the time travellers wife, madame bovary) not many that I would liek to read.

Anne of green gables was a series and I read them all [smug emoticon]

dilemma456 · 26/04/2009 18:48

Message withdrawn

Lilymaid · 26/04/2009 19:01

82/100 - there were a couple I've never heard of, a couple that I have bought but not yet read, and some like the Handmaid's Tale and the Bell Jar that I intend to read.
Some I read many years ago so can scarcely remember.

nkf · 26/04/2009 19:05
  1. And another five or so that I've started and not finished.
potatofactory · 01/05/2009 14:42

52

purepurple · 02/05/2009 07:52
  1. [x] Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
  2. [x] 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. [] Complete Works of Shakespeare 15. [x] Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier 16. [x] The Hobbit JRR Tolkien 17. [] Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 18. [x] Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger 19. [] The Time Traveller?s Wife Audrey Niffenegger 20. [] Middlemarch George Eliot 21. [] Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell 22. [] The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald 23. [x] Bleak House Charles Dickens 24. [ ]War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 25. []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. [] Persuasion Jane Austen 36. [x] The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe CS Lewis 37. [ ] The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 38. [] Captain Corelli?s Mandolin Louis De Bernieres 39. [] 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. [x] Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 48. [ ] 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. [x] Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 55. [ ] A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 56. [] 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. [ ] 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. [] The Secret History Donna Tartt 64. [x ] 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. [] Bridget Jones?s Diary Helen Fielding 69. [ ] 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. [ ] Ulysses James Joyce 76. [ ] The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 77. [x] 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. [ ] 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. [x ] 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. [x ] Les Miserables Victor Hugo

50 for me

blondissimo · 16/06/2009 10:26

The voice of the majority here - only 6 for me. However it does make me think that I would like to read some of the others..... if only I had the time....

tammybear · 16/06/2009 10:30

32 Though it lists a few I'd like to read

NoWookinFurries · 16/06/2009 22:36

30 plus some Shakespeare, some Bible and some Harry Potter...

Lucifera · 17/06/2009 09:59

44 or thereabouts. But what a weird list!

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!

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 ...

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!

Stigaloid · 17/06/2009 10:20

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

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!!

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!
Stigaloid · 17/06/2009 10:51

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

LightShinesInTheDarkness · 17/06/2009 11:04

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