The BBC's Big Read -- BOOK LIST

THE BBC'S BIG READ

Starting in April 2003, BBC began a search for Britain’s best-loved novel. Viewers voted for their favorite book and the top 100 books were compiled in a list called the BBC's Big Read. The books ranked 101 - 200 are sometimes referred to as the Bigger Read. 

The Top 100 list is below. This is definitely a people’s choice list. There are some excellent books here, but the list reflects the popular tastes of the early 2000s as much as literary merit.

So far, I've read 66 of the 100. I doubt I will finish all these because I don't see myself reading Harry Potter (with apologies to fans) and I am not a fan of sci-fi or fantasy. Now that I have grandkids, I may read some of the kids' books I didn't originally think I would. So never say never. 

See any of your own favorites on here? What about personal clunkers, books you didn't like?

Here's the list, with notes about whether I've read it, it's on my TBR shelf, or it is available as an audiobook from my library. Not many of these are on my TBR shelves because if I haven't read it it is most likely not my cup of tea. But I might give it a go as an audiobook.  

1. The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien FINISHED

2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen FINISHED

3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman ON OVERDRIVE

4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (reviewed here) FINISHED

5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling ON OVERDRIVE

6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee FINISHED

7. Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne FINISHED

8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell FINISHED

9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis FINISHED

10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë FINISHED

11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller FINISHED

12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë FINISHED

13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks FINISHED

14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (reviewed here) FINISHED

15. The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger FINISHED

16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame (reviewed here) FINISHED

17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (reviewed here) FINISHED

18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott FINISHED

19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres FINISHED

20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy TBR SHELF

21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell FINISHED

22. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J. K. Rowling ON OVERDRIVE

23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J. K. Rowling ON OVERDRIVE

24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling ON OVERDRIVE

25. The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien FINISHED

26. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy FINISHED

27. Middlemarch, George Eliot FINISHED

28. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving FINISHED

29. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck FINISHED

30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll FINISHED

31. The Story of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson

32. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez FINISHED

33. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett FINISHED

34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens FINISHED

35. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl FINISHED

36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson FINISHED

37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute FINISHED

38. Persuasion, Jane Austen FINISHED

39. Dune, Frank Herbert ON OVERDRIVE

40. Emma, Jane Austen FINISHED

41. Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery FINISHED

42. Watership Down, Richard Adams ON OVERDRIVE

43. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald FINISHED

44. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas FINISHED

45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh FINISHED

46. Animal Farm, George Orwell FINISHED

47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens FINISHED

48. Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy FINISHED

49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian

50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher (reviewed here) FINISHED

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett FINISHED

52. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck FINISHED

53. The Stand, Stephen King ON OVERDRIVE

54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy TBR SHELF

55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth ON OVERDRIVE

56. The BFG, Roald Dahl ON OVERDRIVE

57. Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome

58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell FINISHED

59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer ON OVERDRIVE

60. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky FINISHED

61. Noughts and Crosses, Malorie Blackman ON OVERDRIVE

62. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden FINISHED

63. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens FINISHED

64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough FINISHED

65. Mort, Terry Pratchett

66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

67. The Magus, John Fowles FINISHED

68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman ON OVERDRIVE

69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

70. Lord of the Flies, William Golding FINISHED

71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind ON OVERDRIVE

72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell ON OVERDRIVE

73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

74. Matilda, Roald Dahl ON OVERDRIVE

75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding FINISHED

76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt FINISHED

77. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins FINISHED

78. Ulysses, James Joyce FINISHED

79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens FINISHED

80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson

81. The Twits, Roald Dahl ON OVERDRIVE

82. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith FINISHED

83. Holes, Louis Sachar ON OVERDRIVE

84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake (reviewed here) FINISHED

85. The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy FINISHED

86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson

87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley FINISHED

88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons (reviewed here) FINISHED

89. Magician, Raymond E Feist ON OVERDRIVE

90. On the Road, Jack Kerouac FINISHED

91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo FINISHED

92. The Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

93. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett

94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho FINISHED

95. Katherine, Anya Seton FINISHED

96. Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer FINISHED

97. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez FINISHED

98. Girls in Love, Jacqueline Wilson

99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot ON OVERDRIVE

100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie (reviewed here) FINISHED


NOTES

Updated as of December 28, 2022.