# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/41 "2010-11-26T08:50:29Z")
II’ve read most of the childrens and YA ones and a chunk of the adult ones. ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/42 "2010-11-26T09:05:33Z")
I’ve read 32. ETA: And 29 from the Australian list. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/43 "2010-11-26T09:09:01Z")
> [@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. Rowling wrote children’s fantasies. However, Tolkien really only wrote one children’s book, that I know of (Hobbit), and while Pratchett has written some children’s books, most of his work is for adults. Most of his books can be read by children and teens, in that there’s no overt sex in it, but he wrote for adults, and kids aren’t going to understand a great deal of what’s going on. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/44 "2010-11-26T09:15:58Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > On my nightstand, where it’s been for the last 10 years, with a bookmark at page 88. Book Nazi. 😛 I’ll never understand why _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ appears on these lists over Irving’s other works. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/45 "2010-11-26T09:37:54Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I’ll never understand why _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ appears on these lists over Irving’s other works. Personally speaking I’d read about 4 or 5 Irvings before I came to _Owen Meany_, and the latter blew them all out of the water. I’ll also mention that it was the one work of Irving’s that BBC Radio 4 (unconnected to the above poll) chose to interview him at length about a couple of months ago. ---
**Author:** ![lynne-42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lynne-42/32/3138_2.png) [@lynne-42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynne-42)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/46 "2010-11-26T13:02:11Z")
I’ve read 88 of them - but before you get terribly impressed - there is a reason. I taught gifted education at secondary schools for about 30 years, with a policy that I mostly read only what kids recommended to me. It’s a great way to establish a positive relationship quickly - ask their advice on something to read and then actually read it. Because my specialty is gifted math and science, the science fiction and fantasy scored highly. If you look at the list with that bias, it is a testimony to the kids I taught. I’m in Australia, but I didn’t do nearly so well on the Australian list. I’d probably do badly on an American list. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/47 "2010-11-26T13:35:10Z")
Thirteen for me. ---
**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, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/48 "2010-11-26T13:41:44Z")
I can’t in a quick search find any lists that were specifically voted on by Americans. This list is probably pretty close though. It’s an online poll, and it appears that it was voted on mostly by Americans: > **[Best 100 Novels | Top 100 Novels of All Time](http://www.thebest100lists.com/best100novels/)** > > Best 100 Novels. A list of the top novels of all time with reviews of each. ---
**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 26, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/49 "2010-11-26T13:52:56Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Rowling wrote children’s fantasies. However, Tolkien really only wrote one children’s book, that I know of (Hobbit), and while Pratchett has written some children’s books, most of his work is for adults. Most of his books can be read by children and teens, in that there’s no overt sex in it, but he wrote for adults, and kids aren’t going to understand a great deal of what’s going on. Oh, alright then, let’s just say I don’t like fantasy (including scifi, for the record). I love a family saga, which is why I love _A Suitable Boy_ so much (I read it on holiday in Thailand, and it’s so long that I only got half way through, ending up sawing it in half so I could carry on reading it on my commute. **I know I know** , sacrilege. You can buy it in instalments now). ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/50 "2010-11-26T15:29:20Z")
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. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier 14. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger 15. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame 16. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 17. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott 18. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell 19. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling 20. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling 21. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling 22. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien 23. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck 24. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll 25. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez 26. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens 27. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl 28. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson 29. Persuasion, Jane Austen 30. Dune, Frank Herbert 31. Emma, Jane Austen 32. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery 33. Watership Down, Richard Adams 34. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald 35. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas 36. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh 37. Animal Farm, George Orwell 38. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 39. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett 40. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck 41. The Stand, Stephen King 42. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy 43. The BFG, Roald Dahl 44. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell 45. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden 46. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens 47. Mort, Terry Pratchett 48. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 49. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett 50. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding 51. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett 52. Matilda, Roald Dahl 53. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding 54. Bleak House, Charles Dickens 55. The Twits, Roald Dahl 56. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith 57. Holes, Louis Sachar 58. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake 59. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy 60. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley 61. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons 62. Magician, Raymond E Feist 63. The Godfather, Mario Puzo 64. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett 66, I think? I’d read most of the ones I’ve heard of. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/51 "2010-11-26T15:51:55Z")
1. Or possibly 27 - I have read one (and it will stay at one) Terry Pratchett book, but I couldn’t tell you what it is called. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/52 "2010-11-26T15:55:24Z")
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien 2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams 4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling 5. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee 6. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne 7. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell 8. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis 9. Catch-22, Joseph Heller 10. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë 11. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger 12. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 13. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling 14. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling 15. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling 16. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien 17. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving 18. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck 19. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll 20. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens 21. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl 22. Watership Down, Richard Adams 23. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald 24. Animal Farm, George Orwell 25. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 26. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck 27. The Stand, Stephen King 28. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky 29. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens 30. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding 31. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy 32. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley 33. On The Road, Jack Kerouac 34. The Godfather, Mario Puzo 35. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie 36. There’s a few on that list that I will definitely get to, and a whole lot I have absolutely no interest in. By the way, if you counted all the times I re-read some of these, my “read count” would go up to over a hundred, maybe by a lot (I couldn’t even tell you how many times I’ve read some of them). A few years ago I resolved to stop re-reading the books I love so much, and start getting to some of the ones still on my “you have to get to this one” list. I violated that resolution yesterday when I read _A Christmas Carol_ again. ---
**Author:** ![Fatwater\_Fewl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@Fatwater\_Fewl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatwater_Fewl)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/53 "2010-11-26T16:49:39Z")
1. And I enjoyed the hell out of most of them. I haven’t read On the Road or Ulyssses, for the simple reason that they are two of the most boring books I’ve ever opened. I will read War and Peace someday. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bbc-top-100-english-novels/561871/54 "2010-11-26T17:28:30Z")
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