# BBC Top 100 English Novels **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 25, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871 "2010-11-25T13:46:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/21 "2010-11-25T19:01:26Z")
> [@Mrs.Cake](#): > > I wonder how many people voted for “Ulysses” because they knew it was highly regarded, not because they had read it. All of them? ---
**Author:** ![kbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/22 "2010-11-25T20:20:32Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > BTW in a year or two I would put money that _Freedom_ by Jonathan Frantzen would be on that list. Or should be anyway. One of my FB friends threw this book down with 50 pages to go but didn’t explain why. Is there something aggravating about it that divides opinion? I’ve read 26. A couple I thought I’d read but turns out I’d seen the movie:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/23 "2010-11-25T20:22:59Z")
Twenty five - mostly the children’s books, which I read as a child, and some that were required reading in school, plus all the Dickens (except Christmas Carol), a bunch of the Pratchetts and a few miscellaneous. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/24 "2010-11-25T20:46:53Z")
I’ve read 40 of them. Or maybe more. I read like, five Discworld novels when my friends were insisting that they were REALLY GOOD and eventually it would click and I would not find them trite and boring. (Eventually I gave up when it became clear to me that no matter how many I read, they were never going to get funny.) I know I read at least one on the list, but I may have read more, as they all kind of melded together in my head. Overall, it is a pretty silly list. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/25 "2010-11-25T21:07:46Z")
I have read only 31. There’s not a lot that I haven’t read that I want to, however. What would be more interesting would be a list of top 100 must reads as voted by Dopers. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/26 "2010-11-25T21:15:39Z")
My score is severely hampered by the fact I spurn children’s fantasy tosh, so no Pratchett, Tolkein, Rowling. But to make up for it, my favourite book of all time is\* A Suitable Boy\*, which must count for five of the others at the very least. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/27 "2010-11-25T21:27:59Z")
1. I note that this list is a list of the nation’s _best-loved_ books, not best books. There’s some crap on that list. Also, it’s not a list of books in English - there are some translations on the list - but of books loved by the English. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/28 "2010-11-25T21:37:44Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > My score is severely hampered by the fact I spurn children’s fantasy tosh, so no Pratchett, Tolkein, Rowling. But to make up for it, my favourite book of all time is\* A Suitable Boy\*, which must count for five of the others at the very least. Gosh, you’re cool. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/29 "2010-11-25T21:45:29Z")
Finegans Wake counts for 5. Where’s Gravitys rainbow? ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/30 "2010-11-25T22:53:24Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Finegans Wake counts for 5. > Where’s Gravitys rainbow? On my nightstand, where it’s been for the last 10 years, with a bookmark at page 88. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/31 "2010-11-25T23:56:00Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > On my nightstand, where it’s been for the last 10 years, with a bookmark at page 88. I loved it and read it right away. Pynchon has not been prolific. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/32 "2010-11-26T01:17:04Z")
28, some of them multiple times. It’s a weird list. There are a lot of others you’d think would be on it. Read **War and Peace**. Life is _not_ too short – you’ve probably read the equivalent in number of words, and Tolstoy’s take on napoleon and History is worth the trouble. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/33 "2010-11-26T01:18:18Z")
54 I didn’t count anything I didn’t finish, so no Ulysses or One Hundred Years of Solitude. Hey, maybe I could combine the aborted efforts and make it 55. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/34 "2010-11-26T01:58:46Z")
In what sense is it a weird list? Everyone in the U.K. was allowed to vote (by phone, online, and texting), and three-quarters of a million of them did: > **[The Big Read](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Read)** > > The Big Read was a survey on books carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003, where over three-quarters of a million votes were received from the British public to find the nation's best-loved novel. The year-long survey was the biggest single test of public reading taste to date, and culminated with several programmes hosted by celebrities, advocating their favourite books. > The BBC started the Big Read with the goal of finding the "Nation's Best-loved Novel" by way of a viewer vote ... Given that, the choices are pretty much exactly what you would have expected. Here’s a similar poll in Germany: > **[Big Read (German)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Read_(German))** > > The Big Read initiative was launched in Germany by the public television broadcaster ZDF in 2004, under the name "Das große Lesen". Based on the BBC version of Big Read, it was designed as a game show to determine the top 50 books read and liked by the German people. > An initial list of 200 books was sent to more than 10,000 bookshops to start the survey. Supported by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels and Stiftung Lesen 60,000 votes were already cast within the first week. > Four weeks lat... Here’s the equivalent in Hungary: > **[Big Read (Hungarian)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Read_(Hungarian))** > > Big Read is the Hungarian version of the BBC Big Read. > The Big Read was imported into Hungary under the name A Nagy Könyv (lit. "The Big Book") and took place in 2005. Around 1400 libraries, 500 book shops and 1300 schools participated in the competition in various ways. It proved to be far more popular in Hungary (with a population of 10 million) than in the UK (with a population of 60 million), with 400,000 votes arriving (as opposed to 140,000 votes in the UK competition in the correspondin... And here’s one for Bulgaria: > **[Big Read (Bulgaria)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Read_(Bulgaria))** > > The Big Read (Bulgarian: Голямото четене, trans. Golyamoto chetene) was a survey initiated by the Bulgarian National Television, the goal of which was to find the favorite book of Bulgarians. Based on the BBC campaign of 2003, Golyamoto chetene started in October 2008 and finished on 25 March 2009 with the announcement of the winner. Initially Bulgarian public voted for any book they wished. Based on those votes a list of the top 100 books was drawn up. The 12 books that headed the list wer This one is for Australia: [http://www.abc.net.au/myfavouritebook/top10/100.htm](http://www.abc.net.au/myfavouritebook/top10/100.htm) This is one for France, although it appears that the books that appeared on the ballot were preselected to make it less purely a matter of popularity: > **[Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Monde%27s_100_Books_of_the_Century)** > > The 100 Books of the Century (French: Les cent livres du siècle) is a list of the one hundred most memorable books of the 20th century, according to a poll performed during the spring of 1999 by the French retailer Fnac and the Paris newspaper Le Monde. > Starting from a preliminary list of 200 titles created by bookshops and journalists, 17,000 French participants responded to the question, "Which books have remained in your memory?" (Quels livres sont restés dans votre mémoire?). > The list incl... ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/35 "2010-11-26T02:04:27Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Over [here](http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml) is the BBC’s list of the 100 most-loved novels in English. How many have you read? The average is supposedly six. Where does it say that? I’ve seen the “The BBC says most people have only read six of these books” thing going round on Facebook, but I can’t see where the BBC says any such thing. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/36 "2010-11-26T02:30:18Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > 54 > > I didn’t count anything I didn’t finish, so no Ulysses or One Hundred Years of Solitude. Hey, maybe I could combine the aborted efforts and make it 55. Hmmm, exact same number as me, and two books I’ve also bailed on. I’m with you on combining them! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/37 "2010-11-26T02:42:42Z")
You’ve never heard of His Dark Materials? Wow. It’s brand new, basically. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/38 "2010-11-26T03:10:29Z")
1. 2. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien 3. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams 5. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell 6. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis 7. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë 8. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë 9. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger 10. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame 11. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 12. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling 13. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien 14. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy 15. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll 16. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald 17. Animal Farm, George Orwell 18. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 19. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens 20. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding 21. Bleak House, Charles Dickens 22. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley 23. On The Road, Jack Kerouac ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/39 "2010-11-26T04:11:19Z")
I’ve read 27 for sure, with a couple of maybes (I don’t remember exactly which Discworld books I’ve read, for instance). I guess if I don’t remember what the book is about, it probably shouldn’t count anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/40 "2010-11-26T05:09:43Z")
I’ve read 23, started 8, never heard of 25, and proofread 4 (including _A Christmas Carol_, though not, I hasten to add, the original edition…), 5 if you count the novelization of the movie of _Great Expectations_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871.md?page=3)