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Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:58 am
by jones jones
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed.

I am ashamed to say I have only read 32 of the 100!

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 Faulks

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 – 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 – 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 Mitchel

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

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 8:50 am
by LarsMac
Interesting collection.

I've read quite few. but not even half of them.

I am curious about how they made the choices on the list.

Some are obvious, of course, but others are not.

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 8:51 am
by tabby
43 for me. What were the criteria for a book to be on the list? Since so many of them are classics, you would think the average person would have read more than 6 of them just to have gotten through 12 years of education if not for pleasure reading.

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 9:07 am
by LarsMac
tabby;1380169 wrote: 43 for me. What were the criteria for a book to be on the list? Since so many of them are classics, you would think the average person would have read more than 6 of them just to have gotten through 12 years of education if not for pleasure reading.


Good point.

I had read nine of them just in High School.

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 9:09 am
by jones jones
tabby;1380169 wrote: 43 for me. What were the criteria for a book to be on the list? Since so many of them are classics, you would think the average person would have read more than 6 of them just to have gotten through 12 years of education if not for pleasure reading.


Since the advent of the Internet kids don't read books. Sad but true!

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:44 pm
by along-for-the-ride
I have read several of them and many more that are not on that list.

"A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend." ~Author Unknow

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:39 pm
by YZGI
Quite a few of them. Some in school but more later in life after I had heard of them for whatever reasons. A lot of them you can find free to read over the net.

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:50 am
by Bez
I have read 6 of these books and have seen quite a few TV and Film adaptations of the others.

I have read many more not on the list though

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:24 am
by jones jones
Whilst I have respect for the BBC ... it's is my third favorite broadcaster after CNN & Sky ... I do question them including these rather mediocre offerings ...

Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

... which should not be mentioned in the same breath as these classics ...



Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

Complete Works of Shakespeare

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 1:29 pm
by Bryn Mawr
jones jones;1380343 wrote: Whilst I have respect for the BBC ... it's is my third favorite broadcaster after CNN & Sky ... I do question them including these rather mediocre offerings ...

Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

... which should not be mentioned in the same breath as these classics ...



Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

Complete Works of Shakespeare


I've read a goodly percentage of them but I do question including the Complete works of Shakespeare as a single work - I've read several but by no means all of his plays.

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 6:02 am
by Vaishali
Hey friend..

It's an amazing collection of very special books. I have read some books but not all. I love reading books. It's my favorite past time. By reading books, I get a huge amount of knowledge as well as it gives a new point of view to see life and other people. They say books are your best friends and I agree with it. Mostly I like to read love stories. Nut the books related to psychology are also my favorite. I always buy online as it's the most time saving option. In this way I get all the books at a single place. Online shopping has always been my favorite. Now I will read these books too.

Have You Read More Than Six of These Books?

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:36 am
by jones jones
Vaishali;1435422 wrote: Hey friend..

It's an amazing collection of very special books. I have read some books but not all. I love reading books. It's my favorite past time. By reading books, I get a huge amount of knowledge as well as it gives a new point of view to see life and other people. They say books are your best friends and I agree with it. Mostly I like to read love stories. Nut the books related to psychology are also my favorite. I always buy online as it's the most time saving option. In this way I get all the books at a single place. Online shopping has always been my favorite. Now I will read these books too.


Good for you! Nothing better than a good book, especially one you actually still hold in your hand. I can think of nothing worse than lying in bed reading a novel on a tablet ... yuk?