Big Read – the 100 best beloved books in Britain. Roald Dahl is on this list four times! The only authors with as many mentions are Dickens (tops with five), Pratchett, Rowling, and Jacqueline Wilson. (I’ve never heard of her; have any of you read any of her stuff?) By my count I’ve read 38 of these. I have a perverse desire to go through in alphabetical order and cross them all off. It’d probably take years. Anybody want to join me?
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I think I’ve read about 40. There were a few – like the Thomas Hardy books – that I couldn’t remember exactly which ones I’d read. And then there were the ones that I’d started but never quite finished (Watership Down, David Copperfield), and the ones that I own but have never read (War and Peace, Midnight’s Children are only a couple).
It’s a great list; there are several easy reads on it, too, that I might not even admit to loving (like the Pilcher book that I’ve reread so many times, or Bridget Jones).
I’d be interested in reading more on the list. After all, winter is coming on fast here, and it’s time to get back into reading. I’m in the middle of A Prayer for Owen Meany right now.
man, it helps to have done a lit degree as it means i have racked up 65 of those suckers.
i love 19th century lit – but i can’t stand dickens. esp bleak house, despite the fact that it was the first novel ever written to depict a character dying of spontaneous combustion!
and i have never heard of jacqueline wilson either. and sad to say i have never picked up a terry pratchett book in my life!
i’ve read about 35 of those books – most of them during high school. we have several more on the list in our bookshelves at home – mark’s books that i haven’t read yet – like Crime and Punishment, several of the Terry Pratchett books, Count of Montecristo, goodnes only knows what else. i should pull them aside and make the effort to read them before i go out and get more books!
Sixty-five? That’s impressive! I’m ashamed that most of mine were the children’s titles. I am working through Jane Austen’s novels right now so that’ll add a few. I’ve read a couple of Pratchett’s but – to be honest – I kind of had to force myself to finish them. I can see the humor but I doubt I’ll read any more of the dozens the Snook has on our bookshelf.