Victorians! discussion
Conversations in the Parlor
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BBC List: How many have you read?
47. With Les Mis on the go, and having read a fair chunk of Shakespeare and most of the Bible.
Twenty, but a couple I have on the go.
26 With another 5 on my immediate TBR pile.
33. There's also 2 from that list that are on my TBR pile =)
44, with another 25 on my TBR pile. It's an interesting list. For example, I proudly display Vanity Fair on my bookshelf, both because I love it and slightly for bragging rights. Yet, Bridget Jones's Diary will forever be relegated to my Kindle because I'm not sure how much I want to admit having read that book...
Paula wrote: "44, with another 25 on my TBR pile. It's an interesting list. For example, I proudly display Vanity Fair on my bookshelf, both because I love it and slightly for bragging rights. Yet, Bridget Jones..."
You must just remind yourself that Salman Rushdie deemed it "a brilliant comic creation." *nods*
You must just remind yourself that Salman Rushdie deemed it "a brilliant comic creation." *nods*
I've read 26, with another 7 on my TBR shelf, plus fair bit of Shakespeare and some bible.
I saw this list awhile ago, and I think it's deliberately snobby in an attempt to get people riled up and talk about it, at least the statement about "reading only 6," because come on, that's ridiculous. Most people read more than 6 of these just for school.ahem, anyway, I've read 52 of them.
61. Did the authors mention why they thought people would have read fewer than 6? That seems a bit cynical to me. The Harry Potter books alone will get you to seven ;)I liked the first Bridget Jones. Parts of it were laugh out loud funny. The second one . . . not so much.
I have read 36 of these, but since reading is mostly about preference anyway, I don't know that the list proves anything necessarily about the reading public. I just prefer the classics and off-the-beaten path novels. Ask me how many Best Sellers I have read in the past couple of years and the number will be slim! Paula, I don't mind topics that steer from Victoriana. I am sure it keeps the discussions varied and interesting.
I've read 25, but there's a few that I'll be reading in the next few months for my classes and I'm half way through Catch-22.
I've read 35 of them, plus bits from the Bible. Going through Les Mis right now.
I've read 37 whole ones and about 5 more abandonned ones (I used to perservere with a book even if I didn't like it, until a few years ago when I reaslied that life is too short and there are far too many books to read). I also have at lease 20 more on my TBR list.Great thread, Paula.
Its only recent;y that I've started thinking that way - if I can't get into a book there are far too many TBR to waste time on a book I don't like.
Elizabeth wrote: "36 but the complete works of Shakespeare only count for one! I've missed Henry VI and King John but I've read or seen all the others so I'm counting it as read!"Agree - that counts! I've only gotten through a few from Shakespeare; would love to get through more. Some of his sonnets are among my all-time favorite pieces of writing.
Boof wrote: "I've read 37 whole ones and about 5 more abandonned ones (I used to perservere with a book even if I didn't like it, until a few years ago when I reaslied that life is too short and there are far t..."That begs the question - which ones were abandoned?
Kelly wrote: "I saw this list awhile ago, and I think it's deliberately snobby in an attempt to get people riled up and talk about it, at least the statement about "reading only 6," because come on, that's ridiculous..."I wondered if I just tend to surround myself with readers, and the "6" assumption included people who never read, but I put this list in front of several of my friends with small results. They spend a lot of time reading, but of the 6 people I asked, only 3 of them had actually read more than 6! Their tastes just don't align with the list, and while I can't keep up with their Jodi Picoult(sic) conversations, they can't comprehend why I'm reading something written 200 years ago.
My favorite line from a friend: "You only read one book this month? (Bleak House) I thought you considered yourself a reader; I read 4 books this week!"
:)
Forty, but some were so long ago, they need a reread.
Well, I've only read 15. *hangs head in shame...* (But that's counting the HP's as 1). It took me a very long time to find the joy in reading, and it's been recently that I've discovered how much more I prefer classics to anything else. There are about 27 of these that are or will be on my to-read list.
I find more and more, I'm sticking to the classics. They just don't let me down the way many contemporary books do.
64, counting Les Miserables which I'm in the middle of for the Western Canon reading group, with a few more in my TBR pile (Ulysses and Madam Bovary are both high on the pile).I notice they have both the Complete Works of Shakespeare (I was in a reading group which read all of the plays through; I wonder whether they include King Edward III in their complete works?) and Hamlet. If you've done the complete, you get to count Hamlet again, presumably.
It's a weird list, though.
Only 8 but I am working on it. That is not good when compared out of 100 titles but, I do think of those who have never read any or have not dared or had a chance to.
Darcy wrote: "61. Did the authors mention why they thought people would have read fewer than 6? That seems a bit cynical to me."I've read 44... but when I saw this list on facebook, I looked into its origin, since it was stirring up so much controversy and nearly everyone felt the list was flawed in some way (which is, by itself, quite interesting imo!).
In 2003, the BBC came up with The Big Read list based on votes that constituted "the nation's best-loved novel" ... but according to some, the list morphed a lot, and there was never a BBC "most people have read fewer than 6" type of judgement (which is a nice relief):
Analysis 1 (http://bit.ly/lO8Q7)
Analysis 2 (http://bit.ly/SeU1t)
Analysis 3 (http://bit.ly/Iwklz)
Penguin recently released The Ten Essential Penguin Classics (which ends with "Buy all ten for $99!! -- lol):
- Of Mice and Men
- Jane Eyre
- Pride and Prejudice
- The Odyssey
- Hamlet
- Moby-Dick
- Metamorphosis and Other Stories
- The Three Theban Plays
- Walden and Civil Disobedience
- Inferno
Such fun stuff; really good for conversation, huh!?
Hi Heather-Good stuff! Thanks for clearing the BBC of blame regarding this list. I agree; interesting conversation item.
Personally, I think any list or allegation that makes people respond with "Give me that list, I bet I've read more than 6!" is a good thing :) If people want to read more to prove someone else wrong, I'm all for it.
Sharing this list with some non-GR friends prompted several to go to the book store right away and pick up a few so that they could get to 7 read. I won't say I encouraged them, I just told them which bookstore was closest, that's all.
I don't know who edited the BBC list to get to the Facebook list that was posted here, but I did better on the Facebook book (64 titles) than on the BBC one (only 56). For what that's worth, which is probably about the value of a swallow of cold three day old coffee.
I've read 35, and like others, a lot of Shakespeare and a good deal of the Bible. There are quite a few on my bookshelf that i've not got to yet. P.S. I love lists of books.
Kate wrote: "P.S. I love lists of books. "LOL :)
Here's the BBC Best Loved Novel list:http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top...
And here's a Canadian one:
http://www.canada.com/topics/lifestyl...
Kate wrote: "P.S. I love lists of books. "Oh - me, too! Have you visited listsofbests.com? I have about 12 working lists right now, which I compiled into a consolidated spreadsheet. The total list now includes roughly 1,750 books that I want to read, complete with formatting so the colors change when I move it to "read" status, and a formula that tells me how many I need to read per year if I want to finish by the time I'm 80.
What can I say - I love books, I love lists - put the two together, I'm in my bliss. Plus, I work on spreadsheets all day at work so I couldn't help myself.
A friend sent me this list on Facebook some time ago. I was shocked that I could only count to about 40-45 (don;t remember exactly) because i thought I was so well-read!
I've read 21 of them. I never read any of the children's books although I bought several of them for my daughter. I avoided reading The Secret Garden because I had loved the movie as a child. All black and white until they opened the door to the garden and went in at the end. It was amazing how many of the classics I've read, and how many of the "book club" books I've avoided. Looking at the list was a lot of fun. There was a time when I would have enjoyed actually doing the list, but I've outgrown that kind of thing.
Paula wrote: "Kelly wrote: "I saw this list awhile ago, and I think it's deliberately snobby in an attempt to get people riled up and talk about it, at least the statement about "reading only 6," because come on..."Paula, I spent months reading Bleak House, so I totally relate. That is another thing that makes me different -- I usually don't like rushing through a good dense novel! ha ha
Amen! It always seems like the difference between McDonald's and a 5-star gourmet meal. True, sometimes you just want the greasy fries, or only have 5 minutes, but the gourmet meal leaves you feeling much more satisfied.
I never read any of the children's books although I bought several of them for my daughter. One children's book on the list that is well known in England but not well known in this country is Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons. It is a fantastic book (as is the rest of the series) for children ages about 8 and up -- I still re-read them in adulthood. I highly recommend S&A (read it first -- it introduces the children) and the others.
What is great about the books is that they are completely believable adventures (no Nancy Drew or Harry Potter unbelievable stuff here) about completely believable and likable children. One really can think that these adventures really could happen to oneself. They are based on Ransome's own childhood vacations in the Lake Country and elsewhere in England; the locations are real (one can track the adventures of Secret Water, the Big Six, and others on Google maps).
Highly recommended; if you have children, or even if you don't, get a copy of Swallows and Amazons and enjoy.
Everyman wrote: "I never read any of the children's books although I bought several of them for my daughter. One children's book on the list that is well known in England but not well known in this country is Art..."
Everyman I think you were made for the OU! - There is a new course on Children's Literature that includes Swallows and Amazons on its reading list (...and Harry potter too unfortunately!):
http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergra...#
- I have it on my study plan to start in October 2010 straight after I've finished this years course on the 19th Century novel.
Ally
Paula wrote: "I came across this on-line; supposedly it's a BBC list and the authors believe most people haven't read even 6 of the below. I'm curious about the numbers with this highly accomplished group. Apolo..."24 for sure I have read. Several in the list I want to read... I am reading His Dark Materials currently.
47, and quite an several on my TBR list
Scott wrote: I am reading His Dark Materials currently"I just read this trilogy earlier this year - what do you think of it? I had a hard time putting it down.
30 read, 1 reading now, and many want to reads....
Sue wrote: "30 read, 1 reading now, and many want to reads...."Ooooh... "want to reads."
Imagine you had 2 free days - free of work, free of kids, the house is clean, no errands to run, all is right with the world.
Which of these books would you sink into? (Feel free to extend the 2 days if you choose something like Complete Shakespeare :)
Paula wrote: "Scott wrote: I am reading His Dark Materials currently"I just read this trilogy earlier this year - what do you think of it? I had a hard time putting it down.
"
I am partly through The Golden Compass and am hooked. I was reading the commentaries about it and the controversies as well. Some say it is a direct anti-thesis to Chronicles of Narnia. I can understand why they would say that and I am probably highly satisfied if it is. So far though it is far better then Chronicles of Narnia which i had read twice over when i was younger.
Paula wrote: "Sue wrote: "30 read, 1 reading now, and many want to reads...."Ooooh... "want to reads."
Imagine you had 2 free days - free of work, free of kids, the house is clean, no errands to run, al..."
I would probably pick One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez as i havnt read it yet and have it in my bookcase.
Scott wrote: "Paula wrote: "Scott wrote: I am reading His Dark Materials currently"I just read this trilogy earlier this year - what do you think of it? I had a hard time putting it down.
"
I am partly..."
Like Chronicles of Narnia for adults? Or CofN for the next generation?
Paula wrote: Imagine you had 2 free days - free of work, free of kids, the house is clean, no errands to run, al..."Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. I picked it up from the library just today.
Ally wrote: "Everyman I think you were made for the OU! - There is a new course on Children's Literature that includes Swallows and Amazons on its reading list (...and Harry potter too unfortunately!): "Thanks for mentioning it.
Unfortunately, at the moment that course doesn't seem to be available for the US.
I've looked into the OU in the past, but it has seemed very expensive. The fee for this course wasn't listed (even if it were available in the US), so I don't know about this one.
Paula wrote: "Imagine you had 2 free days - free of work, free of kids, the house is clean, no errands to run, all is right with the world.Which of these books would you sink into?"
If I'm limited to that list, probably Ulysses. But if I could extend the two days long enough, I would go with either Proust's Remembrance, or Gibbons's Decline and Fall. I'm wanting to get to both of them, but somehow I never believe I'll have the time for either.
I`ve only read 52 but many of them are on my TBR.You have to love a list that has "Swallows and Amazons"on it!!!
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
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’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
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
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 - CS Lewis
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 -
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 Nighttime - 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 Inferno – Dante
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