17% read!
This meme is from kimz. Thanks for the idea.The "Big Read" reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read. (on this list: limited to ones I've started and did not finish)
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated. (not doing this step)
5) Gray out those you are unfamiliar with. (not doing this step)
6) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them ;-)
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 -- haven't completely read all of it.
7 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte -- a long time ago, and I don't even remember much of it
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 William 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 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
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 Bernières
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 -- a long time ago. I've forgotten about it, too. :(
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 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 Misérables Victor Hugo
Great research done on the Big Read claim on this post: Where did that figure come from? What is Big Read? Edit: Spcoleman comments on the Big Read organization and the origin of this list. See comment #1.
Still, the list is interesting. I didn't realize the extent of my literacy/illiteracy.


Actually, this book list is from the U.K. and compiled by the BBC and has been mixed up with the NEA’s Big Read. The NEA provides grants to communities across the U.S. for “one book, one community” programs. Communities choose from a few dozen (not the 100 in the BBC list) books and distributes guides and other resources for book groups and classroom discussions.
spcoleman said...
July 14, 2008 6:34 AM
You've read a lot of 'em! Thanks for the tips too!!
kimz said...
July 14, 2008 1:31 PM
Gelay,
I highly discourage you from reading:
3. Jane Eyre
49. Lord of the Flies William Golding -- similar to George Orwell's "Animal Farm", only that in animal farm the characters are animals and in this one, they're children
85. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
I recommend you read:
18. Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
73. The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett -i loved this! :D
92. The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupery- i love!
============
books and movies:
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams -- I didnt know there was a book. I didnt like the movie, even a little bit to spark some interest in reading the book. ^^
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières -- again, i didnt know there was a book. but the movie was GREAT so now I wanna read the book ;)
okay, will post my own in my blog. later! (here comes the great procrastinator)
madz said...
July 18, 2008 11:01 PM
hi madz! i'll keep that in mind when I'm stuck for a book to read. :D how ya doin?
Gail T. said...
July 19, 2008 12:55 PM
This is interesting, indeed! Will do my list, too. :)
Gracey said...
July 21, 2008 2:45 AM
Oh, I am stealing it for a post. I will link back to you!
iPost said...
July 24, 2008 6:37 PM
I found it really interesting to go through the list for myself and whether or not I was an 'average adult'. Turns out I'm not - and proud of it! :-)
Café Chick said...
July 25, 2008 10:03 PM
wow, that's a loooong list!
caryn said...
July 25, 2008 10:46 PM
hi all! i'm never surprised to find out that bloggers are big readers. ^_^
Gail T. said...
July 26, 2008 12:48 AM