A survey done by the BBC in 2003 to find the nation's favourite books. Once I'd seen the top 100 I made it my intention to read them all, so that I'd have read the most famous classics.
The Top 100
- The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien - READ
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen - READ
- His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman - READ
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams - READ
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling - READ
- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee - READ
- Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell - READ
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
- Catch-22, Joseph Heller
- Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë - READ (or at least tried to)
- Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
- Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
- The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger - READ
- The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
- Great Expectations, Charles Dickens - READ
- Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
- War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
- Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
- Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, J. K. Rowling - READ
- Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, J. K. Rowling - READ
- Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling - READ
- The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien - READ
- Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy - READ
- Middlemarch, George Eliot
- A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
- The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
- 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
- David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
- Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl - READ
- Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
- A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
- Persuasion, Jane Austen
- Dune, Frank Herbert - READ
- Emma, Jane Austen
- Anne Of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery
- Watership Down, Richard Adams - READ
- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
- Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
- Animal Farm, George Orwell - READ
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
- Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
- Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian - READ
- The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
- The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
- The Stand, Stephen King - READ
- Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
- A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
- The BFG, Roald Dahl
- Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
- Black Beauty, Anna Sewell - READ
- Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
- Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
- Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden - READ
- A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
- The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
- Mort, Terry Pratchett
- The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
- The Magus, John Fowles
- Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
- Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
- Lord Of The Flies, William Golding - READ
- Perfume, Patrick Süskind
- The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
- Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
- Matilda, Roald Dahl
- Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
- The Secret History, Donna Tartt
- The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
- Ulysses, James Joyce
- Bleak House, Charles Dickens - ATTEMPTED
- Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
- The Twits, Roald Dahl - READ
- I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
- Holes, Louis Sachar
- Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
- 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 - READ
- On The Road, Jack Kerouac
- The Godfather, Mario Puzo
- The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
- The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett - READ
- 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
- Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Links and references
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml (the BBC page itself)