BBC 100 Books

[Melanie]

Copy this and leave only the ones you have read.

The BBC apparently believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here:

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - read some, but not others...
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 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 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 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 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 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth.
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 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 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 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 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 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 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 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 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 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 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

[Melanie]

I have read:

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

Several more are on my to read list. There are a few I need to re-read.

[Mike]

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
52 Dune - Frank Herbert

[Bill]

I've read about a quarter of these, though most of them were years ago in high school or college, ad some I don't recall plots. But technically they were still read. I have reread several of these over the years, and some I hope to at some point. One of them I consider the best work I've ever read.

2 Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
4 Harry Potter Series - Rowling
6 The Bible
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - Orwell
10 Great Expectations - Dickens
13 Catch 22 - Heller
14 Works of Sheakespeare (some, not all)
16 The Hobbit - Tolkien
18 Catcher in the Rye - Salinger
21 Gone With the Wind - Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - FitzGerald
26 Brideshead Revisited - Waugh
29 Alice in Wonderland - Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Grahame
37 The Kite Runner - Hosseini
41 Animal Farm - Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Brown
49 The Lord of the Flies - Golding
52 Dune - Herbert
58 Brave New World - Huxley
70 Moby Dick - Melville
81 A Christmas Carol - Dickens
94 Watership Down - Adams
98 Hamlet - Shakespeare
100 Les Miserables - Hugo

[Ronald]

Anyone know if this is the correct list? Some of those books are new, not just new but new crap. Anyway I'll read and post my list later.

[Ronald]

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - read some, but not others...
(I have read all that have been published)
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

Ok, not as good as I first thought. But the full lord of the rings is 6 books. Some of these are way way to new to be considered classics and the Time Travellers Wife? Or the Da Vinci Code? Really?

[Melanie]

I saw the list on Facebook. Noticed #12 was missing so I found it on a website.

Time Traveler's Wife is one that people either love or hate. I'm glad I saw the movie before reading the book.

[Ronald]

as for this list I consider such books to new to know if they are classic or not. Number of copies sold is never the true sign of a classic.

[Kristin]

Some of these are redundant, like #36 being the first in #33, and #98 is part of #14. I'm ahead of the average, but of those books, the ones I actually liked are pretty close to 6.

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (read the 1st 5, waiting for my cousin to return the last 2 to me. Like them all thus far)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (read for 11th grade, not bad)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (read for 12th grade, also not bad)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (read on my own in elementary school and liked it)
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (Read in elementary school, don't remember if I finished the whole set. Liked the earlier ones [like #36] more than the later ones)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (See #33)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (read during middle school, liked it but the political overtones went right over my head)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (on my 'To Read' list)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon (got it free at a book exchange this year, thought it was rather dumb, no idea what makes it one of the Top 100)
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (read a couple years ago and hated it, like #59, don't know what the fuss is about)
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (read in elementary school and liked it)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (read during either high school or college and liked it)
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (read it twice, for 12th grade and for college, hated it the first time and it was no better the 2nd time around)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (read for 12th grade. Never have, never will like Shakespeare, thank goodness the teacher showed us the movie)

[Jocelyn]

A lot of these I read in high school and barely remember, like 1984 & Great Expectations....
Some I've just read in the last few months after Mel posted this list.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible-->HALF
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - READ SOME
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

[Mike]

Ronald wrote:
Ok, not as good as I first thought. But the full lord of the rings is 6 books.

What are you talking about? LOTR is a trilogy. The Hobbit and Silmarillion aren't part of the series, if you're including them just cause they happen in the same setting. And even then, that'd be only five books.

[Ronald]

Mike wrote: "Ronald wrote:
Ok, not as good as I first thought. But the full lord of the rings is 6 books.

What are you talking about? LOTR is a trilogy. The Hobbit and Silmarillion aren't part of the series, ..."


If you have read the LoTR books you will note that each one is broken into two books. Aparently the series was ment to be six books but publishers had other ideas.

[Melanie]

I have added to the list!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery