Just looking for more things to read and decided to check online for popular books and came across the BBC list (I remember seeing it before, but completely forgot about it for some reason). Since there's a top 100 I thought It'd be interesting to see how many other people have read. Keep in mind this list is based on a "popularity" vote (from 2003) and doesn't really take into account literary merit ! Full list can be found here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml

Here's my list of the 43 entries I've read in recent memory:

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
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
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
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez (no idea how this one made it on - it took forever to read as i kept falling asleep while reading it!)
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
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
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

Not a bad list. A fair selection of the classics. Have 48 of the 100 in my collection.

Have you tried Matthew Reilly? Aussie writer, I'm waiting for his next novel in the "Jack West Jnr" series due on 2nd Nov. 1st 2 were: - The Six Sacred Stones & Seven Ancient Wonders.

I hate it when a good writer leaves one waiting for the conclusion (Hint - they're similar to the Da Vinci Code, only a lot better with plenty of action & suspense).

Tom Clancy seems to be slackning on the "Ryan" series.

Just finished reading Clive Cussler's latest "Medusa". Another excellent read from the maritime master.

Unfortunately, have only recently found out that my favourite modern series will no longer be written as Colin Forbes passed away shortly after submitting the manuscript of his last book "The Savage gorge". No more "Tweed, Paula, Harry, Marley,Newman, Butler, Neild & Monica"

Haven't heard of him - maybe I'll check him out after I get through my current "stack":

1. The Fionavar Tapestries (Guy Gavriel Kay)
2. Speaker for the Dead (Orson Scott Card - sequal to "Enders Game")
3. Xenocide (Orson Scott Card - book 3!)
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
5. The Book of Negroes (Lawrence Hill)
6. The Golden Notebook (Doris Lessing)
7. Off With His Head (Ngaio Marsh)
8. I've also been meaning to re-read James Clavell's Asain saga again (Shogun, Tai Pan, Gai-jin, King Rat, Nobel House, and Whirlwind) - I just never seem to have that much time to devote to it!



Never was a big fan of his. I've read a couple of them and they're OK for a quick read, it's just I never fully got into them as they remind me of so many other books I've already read (i.e. a little formulaic). My wife has a stack of them somewhere and I've been meaning to give them another shot, but so many other good books keep popping up.



More authors to look up on - I'm going to have to start going to the library soon as my bank account is feeling the pinch!

I love this thread!! I'm always looking for new stuff to read.

A few of my favorites are:

The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix. (they are awesome!! it's a fantasy novel with zombies)
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The Road by Cormac Mcarthy (very gruesome but good)
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Really I could write this list for days ....lol!

Welcome to the forums!



I haven't read Memoirs of a Geisha for a few years (I've read it 3 times though!) - I was eyeing it the other day for a potential re-read, but my reading pile seems to be rather large at the moment. Never heard of "The Road" before - I might have to look that one up. A few other good books I've read in the last little while (not on the above list) are:

Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Three Day Road - Joseph Boyden
Small Island - Andrea Levy
The In-Between World of Vikram Lall - MG Vassanji
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

If you've got more good suggestions, please post them as I'm always looking for new reading material!