25 August 2009

100 most beloved books...

The BBC list of the most beloved books. Here's what I have read (those with an x), with notes:

x1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (7-8 times, I think.)
x2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (5-6 times)
x3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (Only the first two 0f the trilogy: lost interest when I couldn't reread and remember the earlier books.)
x4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (all of them and the Infocom game as well.)
x5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling (All of them, obviously.)
x6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (Haven't all Americans?)
x7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne (Haven't all Westerners? All of them, and to my kids as well.)
x8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell (Haven't all Anglophones?)
x9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis (All of them, of course, and without concern for the underlying Christian allegory.)
x10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (Yes.)
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
x12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (Same year as all of Austen and 10.)
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
x14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier(ditto 12.)
x15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger (ditto 6.)
x16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame (Wonderful book, although Waterbabies was better in this vein, I think.)
x17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens(Love Dickens!)
x18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott (Reread recently while reading March)
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (I have problems getting into the Russians that I need to overcome...)
x21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
x22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
x23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
x24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
x25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien(goes with 1).
x26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy(And therefore no other Hardy. Should I give him another try?)
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck (really want to read this as we languish in our own small depression.)
x30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll(and through the looking glass.)
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
x33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett (for my book club this month-which I then missed- and realized that I had read it about 10 years ago.)
x34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
x35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl (I think I have read most Dahl in print.)
x36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson(early childhood influence, with The Black Arrow)
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
x38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
x39. Dune, Frank Herbert
x40. Emma, Jane Austen
x41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
x42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
x44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas(perhaps 6-7 times, and various movies.)
x45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
x46. Animal Farm, George Orwell(Some animals are more equal than others...)
x47. 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
x51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
x52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
x53. The Stand, Stephen King (Sometimes I think the 6 hour mini-series was better. I would have liked it more without the God-Devil thing.)
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
x56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
x58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer (Loaned to me by a friend here, on the shelf TBR.)
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
x62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
x63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
x64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
x65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
x68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
x69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
x70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
x73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
x74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
x75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
x76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
x77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
x78. Ulysses, James Joyce
x79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
x81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
x82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
x83. Holes, Louis Sachar
x84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
x87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
x89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
x92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
x93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
x96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
x99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

4 comments:

Michelle said...

Well you are better read than me! Hope you don't mind if I borrow this for my blog :)

Anonymous said...

Some great ones on that list, but my gawd, number 50 - Rosamunde Pilcher??

Schlock.

jen said...

Dude, fantastic list. I have some of the ones you haven't read if you would like to borrow them.

Glad to see Good Omens on there. I thought it was hilarious and still talk about it.

G in Berlin said...

Hey Michelle- I actually have an even better one I will put up this week- this one may be most beloved (with an obvious Anglic tilt) but definitely not the most worthwile!
Ian- Germans adore Pilcher. My MIL turns the phone off to watch the TV movies of her novels.I gather they are primitive romances with fabulous scenery.
Jen- I could take you up on that sometime. I do have a few on my shelves as well, but certainly not all. Perhaps we should all look again in 3 months and post a wanted list!