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 68 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 FINISHED

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 FINISHED

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 on July 3, 2025. 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Passages to the Past is hosting in April. Please visit Amy's entertaining and comprehensive blog devoted to historical fiction.

I went to Idaho last week for work and came back with a suitcase full of books.

First, the waiter at my dinner restaurant in Sandpoint turned out to be an author named Sandy Compton who has self-published several books. We had an interesting conversation about self-publishing and he gave me copies of his books:

Side Trips from Cowboy (his most recent book, a collection of personal essays, which looks very interesting)

Archer MacClehan & the Hungry Now (an earlier novel, sort of a contemporary Western adventure)

Jason's Passage: From the Blascomb Family Chronicles (his first book, a collection of three related short stories)

Second, I went to the main library in Coeur d'Alene where they had a great library book store:

The Group by Mary McCarthy (on Erica Jong's list of Top 100 novels by women)




The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (on the BBC Big Read list)



Overdrive by William F. Buckley, Jr. (an early memoir)




Corridors of Power by C. P. Snow (one of the Strangers and Brothers series)

Review of the Day: Titus Alone

Titus Alone is the final volume of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast Trilogy about the 77th Earl of Gormenghast. In Titus Groan, the eponymous first volume, Peake created the elaborate world inside castle of Gormenghast and introduced readers to the extended Groan family and their court of retainers and hangers-on. Volume two, Gormenghast, picked up when Titus was a schoolboy, allowing Peake to focus on the antics of a mangy band of professors responsible for Titus’s education.

This last volume is not really an extension of the glorious saga of the first two books, but its own story of Titus’s adventures after he leaves Gormenghast. It is much shorter than the first two, giving Peake less room to develop the intricate descriptions and side stories that make the others so seductive.

The plot moves forward in fits and starts as Titus tries to find his way back to Gormenghast, or at least back to surefooted sanity. There are gaps in the narrative and some characters disappear quite abruptly.  And the story is emotionally ragged as Titus and several other characters are, for no clear reason, quick to anger and violence.  Scenes go instantly from potentially humorous to disastrous, and then the story moves off in a different direction, leaving the reader struggling to catch up.   

Overall, Titus Alone lacks the polish and delightful detail of the first volumes, which makes it a letdown.

OTHER REVIEWS

Bibliofreak

See also, The Voice of the Heart: The Working of Mervyn Peake's Imagination
by G. Peter Winnington

Judging from other reviews I’ve read, I’m not alone in my assessment. But there are some fans who very much enjoyed the third volume and make a case for its literary and entertainment value.

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

My review of Titus Groan is here. My review of Gormenghast is here.

The Gormenghast Trilogy shows up, in whole or in part, on Anthony Burgess's list of his favorite 99 novels and on the BBC's Big Read list.

List of the Day: The BBC's Big Read

In April 2003, the BBC's Big Read began the search for Britain’s best-loved novel. Viewers voted for their favorite book until December 13, 2003, when the final list was complete.

The Top 100 list is below. The contest tallied the top 200 vote-getters, with the books ranked 101 to 200 sometimes referred to as the Bigger Read. This is definitely a people’s choice list that, while it includes many very good books, reflects popular tastes as much as literary merits.

I have read 51 of the 100. I may never get through all of these because the list includes four Harry Potter books, too many kids books, and a lot of sci-fi. There are at least 29 that I do not plan to read. Those I have read are in red. Those currently on my TBR shelf are in blue.

If anyone else is tracking this list, please feel free to leave comment with a link to your progress report and I will add it to this post.

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 (reviewed here)

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. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (reviewed here)

15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

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

17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (reviewed here)

18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

22. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling

23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, JK Rowling

24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, JK Rowling

25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

26. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

27. Middlemarch, George Eliot

28. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving

29. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

31. The Story of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson

32. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

33. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett

34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

35. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

38. Persuasion, Jane Austen

39. Dune, Frank Herbert

40. Emma, Jane Austen

41. Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

42. Watership Down, Richard Adams

43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

44. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

46. Animal Farm, George Orwell

47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

48. Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian

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

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

52. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

53. The Stand, Stephen King

54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

56. The BFG, Roald Dahl

57. Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome

58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

60. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

61. Noughts and Crosses, Malorie Blackman

62. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden

63. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough

65. Mort, Terry Pratchett

66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

67. The Magus, John Fowles (notes here)

68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

70. Lord of the Flies, William Golding

71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind

72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell

73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

74. Matilda, Roald Dahl

75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding

76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt

77. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins

78. Ulysses, James Joyce

79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens

80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson

81. The Twits, Roald Dahl

82. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

83. Holes, Louis Sachar

84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake (reviewed here)

85. The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson

87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

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

89. Magician, Raymond E Feist

90. On the Road, Jack Kerouac

91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

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

93. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett

94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

95. Katherine, Anya Seton

96. Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer

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

98. Girls in Love, Jacqueline Wilson

99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot

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


NOTES
 
List updated on January 4, 2019.

OTHERS READING THESE BOOKS

(If you would like to be listed here, please leave a comment with your links to any progress reports or reviews and I will add them here.) .

Review: The Shell Seekers

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher is a plot-driven family saga centered around Penelope Sterne, daughter of an artist and mother of three unlikable adult children (well, two are outright unlikable; one is supposed to be admirable but is singularly off-putting). Penelope, now 64 and suffering from a weak ticker, putters in her English garden, ponders her past, and considers how and when to dispose of the few of her father’s now-valuable art works in her possession.

The story moves right along at a bracing clip, through lengthy detours into Penelope’s childhood in Cornwall, Britain’s WWII home front, and the younger daughter’s sojourn in Ibiza. It is an enjoyable read, well-deserving of its decades of popularity.

Only in retrospect does the novel disappoint. The main weakness is a lack of character development. The characters spring fully-formed onto the page. The “good” people are all generous, hard-working, independent, and bluntly forthright. (They are also startlingly unsentimental.) The “bad” folks are greedy, vain, self-centered, and silly. None of them change, either individually or in relation to the others. When the narrative reaches its chronologically natural ending, resolution of the various threads is brusquely efficient, but not convincing or satisfying.

Overall, it is an entertaining but unfulfilling read.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

The Shell Seekers is on the BBC's Big Read list.