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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:
SparklyGothKat · 08/04/2010 04:33

33

elastamum · 08/04/2010 05:47

41

SofaQueen · 08/04/2010 07:24

64 of them. Surprised they say most people have only read 6 as surely most schools have many of those books on their required reading lists in Senior School and Middle School.

BelleDameSansMerci · 08/04/2010 07:39

I've read 48 of them (although I like the way they've included a "series" of books ie Narnia etc).

SofaQueen - without wishing to be very rude, I think the books were required reading when I was at Middle School/Senior School but I doubt they are now... Not trying to imply that you're as aged as I am, of course

SofaQueen · 08/04/2010 08:29

No offence taken. I am probably as aged, and just have to come to terms with it.

nighbynight · 08/04/2010 08:41

Am I the only one who thinks its a very strange list, though?
There are loads of recently published, second rate books on it, and for example, no Thomas Mann, no Doris Lessing, no Orhan Pamuk - to name 3 20th/21st century Nobel Prize winners at random.

I don't see the logic of it, apart from somebody's personal prejudice.

BelleDameSansMerci · 08/04/2010 10:26

nighbynight, I think it was the 100 favourite books as voted for by the nation or something. There was an associatd TV programme (I think). It's only a year ago and I've forgotten already!!

SofaQueen, I thought after I'd posted it that, actually, I'm probably wrong! It doesn't matter what's in schools now as (hopefully) not many MNers are actually still at school!!

If you are the same age as me, I think we may have been the last of the lucky ones re education (again assuming you were in the state system).

christie2 · 08/04/2010 10:59

85 for me. I haven't got to some of the new ones and I am not going to read the pullman book or chronicles of narnia. Missed them as a kid and do not interest me now. and a few I have no interest in reading. Hitchhikers guide to the universe??? Convince me on that one!

nighbynight · 08/04/2010 12:28

thanks Belle. That figures - cant see how the Davinci code could get into any top 100 lists otherwise!

I have not read ita nd have no plans to do so...

squilly · 08/04/2010 12:40

34 only for me. And I thought that was pretty good going

mummysaurus · 08/04/2010 12:46

I've read 76

If that's the nations favourite books that means I wasted all the time i skulked down the library as a teen. There was I thinking I was something special and intellectual and misunderstood when I was just reading the same old stuff as everyone else.

mainly watch shite tv and mumsnet these days - was sad to think that most of those books i read 20 years ago.

DontCallMeBaby · 08/04/2010 12:52

It's NOT the nation's favourite books, it IS someone's personal prejudice (personal Pride & Prejudice in fact) - have a look for my username further up the thread, I've said what it is up there.

mummysaurus · 08/04/2010 13:03

oh lord, dontcallmebaby - just spent 15 mins trying and failing to find your post in the 28 pages. no wonder i don't have time to read literature.

BelleDameSansMerci · 08/04/2010 13:04
  • sorry DontCallMeBaby.
nighbynight · 09/04/2010 11:11

thanks, dontcallme - got it now. I think I will design my own top 100 list, and start a thread asking how many people have read all the books on it

Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, Jane Austen,the Brontes, George Eliot, Tolstoy, Dickens, Doris Lessing, Orhan Pamuk, Marian Keyes, Captain WE Johns, Enid Blyton, Linda Howard and Dr Suess will feature heavily on it. Well its MY list, lol.

choosyfloosy · 09/04/2010 11:26

Really MUST read Anna karenina, I've been trying to read it and failing for 23 years.

minipie · 09/04/2010 11:26

about 49.

no idea how they picked this list though.

kittyfu · 09/04/2010 11:27

27 for me

Nux · 09/04/2010 11:43

78 - why do they put the whole works of Shakespeare and then Hamlet separately? Odd! Interesting choices, Confederacy of Dunces and Prayer for Owen Meaney are both brilliant. Must read more russian literature.

Dizzymummy · 09/04/2010 11:43

Haven't read all thread but what's the list supposed to represent? Are these books that people should aim to read? If so, why is Bridget Jones's diary on it; that's absolute rubbish.

nighbynight · 09/04/2010 13:53

lol
we have just been discussing where it comes from.
Search for posts by "dontcallmebaby"

fulltimeworkingmum · 09/04/2010 14:10

61 - didn't count the Bible as have not read it from cover to cover. Ditto the Complete Works of Shakespeare.

wubblybubbly · 09/04/2010 14:23

55 for me, though I must confess that includes some I didn't finish - Moby Dick, Catch 22, Crime & Punishment. I've not neccesarily given up, will try them again some day when my brain is fully functional!

Great list though.

Rugbylovingmum · 09/04/2010 15:22

45 for me but there are a few on there I've been meaning to read so thanks for the reminder - off to the library next week I think.

LiverLou · 09/04/2010 16:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.