I came across this list on the blog The Book Castle, and I couldn’t resist joining in on the fun! In 2003, BBC created this list called The Big Read in an endeavor to find the most loved novel in the UK. Citizens of the UK were asked to vote in a survey for the books they loved the most, and the top 100 were compiled into this list. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how many of them I have read.
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. TolkienPride and Prejudice by Jane AustenHis Dark Materials by Philip PullmanThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas AdamsHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. RowlingTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee- Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George OrwellThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë- Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. RowlingHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. RowlingHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. RowlingThe Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien- Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll- The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson- A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Emma by Jane Austen
- Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens- Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
- Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
- The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- The Stand by Stephen King
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
The BFG by Roald Dahl- Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
- Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens- The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
- Mort by Terry Pratchett
- The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
- The Magus by John Fowles
- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
- Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Lord of the Flies by William Golding- Perfume by Patrick SĂĽskind
- The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
- Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
- Matilda by Roald Dahl
- Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
The Secret History by Donna Tartt- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- Bleak House by Charles Dickens
- Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson
- The Twits by Roald Dahl
- I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
- Magician by Raymond E. Feist
On the Road by Jack Kerouac- The Godfather by Mario Puzo
- The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
- The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- Katherine by Anya Seton
- Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez
- Girls in Love by Jacqueline Wilson
- The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
- Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
I’ve read 26 of these books! I love the diversity of genres on this list- there are some kids books, more modern literary fiction, and then some great classics. It’s a really interesting reflection of society, because these are arguably the books that have had the greatest influence on the modern culture of the United Kingdom.
How many books have you read from this list? Are there any that you think should be added? Which ones should I add to my TBR list? Let me know in the comments section below!
Yours,
HOLLY
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