The Jolly Good Reading Society discussion
BBC Top 100 Books - how many have you read?
I've read 17 of them but I own quite a few of the others so will get round to them one day. I'd definitely like to make my way through most of them at some point
I remember when this list came out, and I really wonder about their estimate because almost everyone I know has read more than 6 of these.
I've read 32, and started five or six more than that without finishing... never made it through The Great Gatsby, for one, and I've been stuck about two thirds of the way through Anna Karenina for six months or so.
I've read 32, and started five or six more than that without finishing... never made it through The Great Gatsby, for one, and I've been stuck about two thirds of the way through Anna Karenina for six months or so.
At first guess, I thought I would have read less than 10. But I'm shocked that I can tick off 22!If I include watching the Films and/or TV, I can make that up to 42.. if that's allowed?
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If I include watching the Films and/or TV, I can make that up to 42.. if that's allowed?"
Er...No! ;)
I'm just scanning the list to see how many I'd read, but got distracted by the number of times Harry Potter appears. I am disappointed that so many appear in one list! Probably reflects their popularity at the time; I wonder if they would appear if such a list were to be put together today
I've read 13 so far. Several more on the list 'Books I really feel I should read sometime soon'. Several on the list 'never intend to read' too, so I'll never make it to 100.
Hi Elaine! Because Potter became so popular, I find it's easy to be rather critical of them (I read, and enjoyed, them all) - but I can't get away from the fact the Philosopher's Stone reinvigorated my interest in reading. I learnt to study books throughout my education - and got stuck in that rut. It would take me months to finish one book! The simplicity of the writing in book one made me realise I was still studying and not reading for entertainment.For me, they were therefore very influential. But I also cringed each time I saw them in the list!
I've made it to 30 - I was also suprised to see so many Potters on the list (thought you mean't Beatrix at first)not to mention Jeffrey Archer !!??! (Booooo!).
Glad to see Winnie the Pooh and Dickens made it.
Glad to see Winnie the Pooh and Dickens made it.
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I tried War and Peace once - but because all the characters seem to have at least 5 variations of their first name - I got completely confused and gave up
Now thats impressive ! - I thought you were meaning the number of names each character has in War & Peace for a second!!!
Lee wrote: "Now thats impressive ! - I thought you were meaning the number of names each character has in War & Peace for a second!!!"That's what I was thinking too!
I really need to start reading more books from these lists...think I've read the least so far
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Wow I'm impressed!
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That is very good going Denise! I'm thoroughly ashamed of myself lol
I've to confess I've only read two of these, cover to cover, Winnie the Pooh and The lion the witch and the wardrobe. I've no interest in anything Harry Potter, but really must read another ten from the list before the year runs out
David wrote: "65 for me.....so far!!"Wow that is impressive! Are there any in particular you would recommend?
Birdsong is a great read. I felt absolutely bereft when I finished it,such was its power. The Wind In The Willows is surely one of the best children's books ever written yet I have always felt it was wasted on children.
David wrote: "Birdsong is a great read. I felt absolutely bereft when I finished it,such was its power. The Wind In The Willows is surely one of the best children's books ever written yet I have always felt it w..."I believe in books not having an age....just because it's aimed at children doesn't mean it can't be read by other people of different ages
You are absolutely right of course.
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That's good going Maria. Welcome to the group :)
Maria wrote: "I've read 65 of them."65 is a lot! Well done! :)
David wrote: "Birdsong is a great read. I felt absolutely bereft when I finished it,such was its power. The Wind In The Willows is surely one of the best children's books ever written yet I have always felt it w..."
Hi David,
I really liked Birdsong too - the best WW1 novel I've read. I've been a bit disappointed with other S Faulkes books I've tried - I have high hopes for A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Parts though.
Hi David,
I really liked Birdsong too - the best WW1 novel I've read. I've been a bit disappointed with other S Faulkes books I've tried - I have high hopes for A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Parts though.
I've read 31. I like the way the lord of the Rings is down as a bundle but the Harry Potters are listed individually!
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I find that slightly odd but not as bad as the Guardian list having the whole of the discworld series down as one when it's around forty books lol
40, and I have a few more to read so not too bad.
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Hi Jenna, I'm so pleased that you've joined us :)
40 is very impressive!
I'm quite impressed by the list. I'm glad to see Of Mice and Men there and also fantastic authors like Roald Dahl.
I have read 32 of them. I am especially pleased to see on of my all time favorite books is on the listKatherine by Anya Seton
I will definitely add some more to the list.
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Katherine by Anya Seton
I will definitely add some more to the list."
Hi Wanda and welcome to the group :)
Lora wrote: "34, plus 2 I started and abandoned."Wow that's really good! Any you would recommend?
Lora wrote: "17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
29. The Grapes Of Wrat..."
of those, I've read Harry Potter, A Christmas Carol and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and loved them! I own a nice copy of Great Expectations and I'm hoping to get round to that this year =)
Lora wrote: "David Copperfield and Oliver Twist are Dickens' best in my opinion, but Great Expectations would come a close third.I highly recommend all the others on my m..."
Thanks! I need to read more classics so I'll definitely pick some of these up at some point =)
Think I`ve read 34 of them. My favourites have been Rebecca, David Copperfield and To Kill a Mockingbird
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I have Rebecca on my tbr list and have earmarked it for March. I loved To Kill a Mockingbird and have read it about 6 times over many years.
A lot of my university books are on this list so I'll definitely be getting around to a lot of these. With Lord of the Rings I only have Return of the King to go so hopefully I'll finish that by the end of the year. I still own quite a few that I haven't read too so I'll definitely tackle some of them soon!
44- SO many on there I still want to read... Quite a few that I don't as well, which is fine :)Why aren't there more than 24 hours in a day? There never seems enough time to read all the books that we want to.
I read Rebecca last year and it was an insta-love for me- I hope you enjoy it, Jen!
Mel wrote: "44- SO many on there I still want to read... Quite a few that I don't as well, which is fine :)Why aren't there more than 24 hours in a day? There never seems enough time to read all the books th..."
I really want to read Rebecca as well! I've heard loads of good stuff about it =)
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Why aren't there more than 24 hours in a day? There never seems enough time to read all ..."
Maybe we should nominate it for group read!
Lora wrote: "Charlotte wrote: "Thanks! I need to read more classics so I'll definitely pick some of these up at some point =) "Oliver Twist would be a good first Dickens. It's relatively short, a good, linear..."
I've recently just bought Oliver Twist so it probably will be the first one I read
Lora wrote: "Let me know how you like it. It's a good test of whether Dickens is your cuppa tea."I will when I eventually get to it =)
I have read 43 of those...gosh! I think rather than favourite books I can pick out favourite authors; George Elliott, Philip Pullman and Sebastian Faulks for a start.
Gill wrote: "I have read 43 of those...gosh! I think rather than favourite books I can pick out favourite authors; George Elliott, Philip Pullman and Sebastian Faulks for a start."I own the His Dark Materials trilogy so it's good to know that they're someone's favourite! =)
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Books mentioned in this topic
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I thought it might be a topic to discuss and maybe work through the list at our leisure.
I've only read 22 of the books so far! How about you?
Here's the list
1.The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie