Via Loth (who I came to via her comment in XUP‘s blog), I came across the BBC’s top 100 books, a survey from April 2003 to determine the nation’s best-loved novel (the nation being the UK, of course). The initial survey resulted in a top 200 list, a top 100 list, a top 21 list, and a final single winner, The Lord of the Rings. A total of approximately 750,000 votes were received over the course of the search for the top book. (Note: this survey is not to be mistaken for the Guardian’s Top 100 Books of All Time from 2002 or subsequent surveys by other groups.)
The list below comes directly from the BBC page — some of the entries vary slightly from those in Loth’s post and the books are in a slightly different order, but otherwise are essentially the same. She says (quoting the post that inspired hers) that “The BBC say the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list.” but I haven’t yet come across a news article that actually says that. The original BBC page linked to above certainly doesn’t mention it and none of the people perpetuating this meme link to any source page. Unless otherwise corrected, I’m going to presume that the originator of the meme made up the statistic out of whole cloth, as it reads like your typical email meme.
Anyhoo, the idea is to put an “x” next to books that you’ve actually read. Thought I’d play along as well.
- x The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
- x Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (own but haven’t yet found the time to read; liked the movie The Golden Compass, despite the fact that it featured Nicole Kidman)
- x The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling (saw the movie, though)
- x To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
- x Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
- x The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
- x Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
- x Catch-22, Joseph Heller
- x Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
- Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
- x Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
- x The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
- The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
- Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
- x Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
- War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
- Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
- x Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
- Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
- Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
- x The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
- Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
- Middlemarch, George Eliot
- A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
- The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck (I really don’t like Steinbeck despite being forced to read some of his other stuff in high school — have no desire to read this one)
- x Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
- The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
- One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
- The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
- x David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
- x Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
- x Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
- A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute (I own and have watched the movie, though)
- Persuasion, Jane Austen
- Dune, Frank Herbert (started to read it, got about 2/3 of the way through and was so absolutely bored out of my skull that I put it down and never finished it. It’s still around here, though)
- x Emma, Jane Austen
- x Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
- x Watership Down, Richard Adams (also loved the animated movie, and Art Garfunkel’s “Bright Eyes” remains one of my favourite songs of all time)
- The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
- The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
- Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
- Animal Farm, George Orwell
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (I’ve seen the various movies several times, does that count?)
- Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
- Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
- The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
- The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett (again, I’ve seen the movies but haven’t read the book)
- Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck (ick, poo, John Steinbeck)
- x The Stand, Stephen King
- Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
- A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
- The BFG, Roald Dahl
- Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
- Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
- Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
- Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
- Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden (saw the movie, though)
- x A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
- The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough (have seen parts of the mini-series)
- Mort, Terry Pratchett
- The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
- The Magus, John Fowles
- x Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
- Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
- Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
- Perfume, Patrick Süskind
- The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
- Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
- Matilda, Roald Dahl (saw the movie)
- Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding (saw the movie)
- The Secret History, Donna Tartt
- The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
- Ulysses, James Joyce
- Bleak House, Charles Dickens
- Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
- The Twits, Roald Dahl
- I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
- Holes, Louis Sachar
- Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake (want to read)
- The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
- Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
- Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
- Magician, Raymond E Feist
- On The Road, Jack Kerouac
- The Godfather, Mario Puzo
- x The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
- The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
- The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
- Katherine, Anya Seton
- Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
- Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
- Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
- The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot (saw the movie)
- Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
So, I guess I’ve only read 25 of the 100 all the way through. Many of the others I feel no particular urge to read. Others I’ve read parts of and/or have a copy around somewhere (which may or may not be noted above) and so should really get around to reading. (Hey, reading all the books that I own is on my Bucket List.)
Life Begins at 41...or maybe 43 
As you already know if you’ve read Loth’s post, I’ve read exactly half of these and have some serious issues with some others of these even being on any book list, let alone this one – DaVinci code tops that group
Any “best” or “favourite” book list is going to be subjective. Some of my favourite books are downright trashy and, since I know I’m not that unusual, that is how you end up with books like The DaVinci Code in the list. Hey, at least it was an actual vote/survey instead of a list compiled by one lone BBC staffer in some dark backroom office. Still subjective but more broadly inclusive than a list generated by a much smaller sampling or single person would be.
In any case, The DaVinci Code never made it to the real list. There are quite a few differences between the actual BBC list above and the one being used in the various recent posts by people perpetuating the meme.
I loved your comment against Of Mice and Men, my all time hated book. I studied it at school and hated it, studied it with my son and then again with my daughter and, guess what, next year my younger one does it at school too. How much punishment can one woman take? I’ve been well and truly Steinbecked!
However, you’ve missed some cracking reads on that list. Shell Seekers, Prayer For Owen Meany, Persuasion and The Secret History are all fantastic books in completely different ways. All feature very highly in my list of best reads ever. I also recommend the film version of Persuasion with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds which is one of those rare adaptations that can never be improved upon.
Happy reading
Laura Essendine
The Accidental Guru Blog
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