Sunday, January 05, 2014

BBC Big Read - only ten years behind the times

Browsing through some of the comments on SFT's sealed pot challenge I came across In My Playroom and one of the pages on this blog is for the BBC Big Read Top 200 books. I googled that and it seems to come from a survey they did in 2003 to find the UK's best-loved books (see here). We all know I can't resist a good book list, so I decided I'd copy that one too and maybe try and incorporate some of these books into my reading this year, too. I might choose a couple of books from the Rory Gilmore list, too. 


Red = read, not likely to re-read
Blue = previously read, would re-read
Black = never read
Green = never read but already on unread shelf to read soon


  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 
  101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
  102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
  103. The Beach, Alex Garland
  104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
  105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
  106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
  107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
  108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
  109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
  110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
  111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
  112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
  113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
  114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
  115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
  116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
  117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
  118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
  119. Shogun, James Clavell
  120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
  121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
  122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
  123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy (although only the first part)
  124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
  125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
  126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
  127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
  128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
  129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
  130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
  131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
  132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
  133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
  134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
  135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
  136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
  137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
  138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
  139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
  140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
  141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
  142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
  143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
  144. It, Stephen King
  145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
  146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
  147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
  148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
  149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
  150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
  151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
  152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
  153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
  154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
  155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
  156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
  157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
  158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
  159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
  160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
  161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
  162. River God, Wilbur Smith
  163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
  164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
  165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
  166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
  167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
  168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
  169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
  170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
  171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
  172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
  173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
  174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
  175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
  176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
  177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl
  178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
  179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
  180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
  181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
  182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
  183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
  184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
  185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
  186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
  187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
  188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
  189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
  190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
  191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
  192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
  193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
  194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
  195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
  196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
  197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
  198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
  199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
  200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrew

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