Isn't that the way with so many novels? I guess it just depends what type of audience you are ... Sometimes I enjoy good brain candy. That's why I like hot steamy romance novels once in a while. But even some of those are soooo badly written I can't finish them. And then others are pretty darn good.
I have read 45 of those. I don't see what is so great about A Fine Balance by Rohinton Minstry. I picked it up because the cover was intriguing but the book failed to deliver anything in the end. Actually, I despised the ending because it was so damn contrived in my opinion. I get the book was meant to show a specific point, but in sending that message, I felt like all the magic the book had in the beginning was ripped away. I guess some would consider that to be another point towards the book's purpose/message... but I'm sorry I spent so much time with the book.
12 about half with school. And I've owned/own about half a dozen more but I'm not bothered reading them (like Sense and Sensibility and LotR - I didn't like the SaS film, way too sappy for me. and I don't know why, but LotR never interested me much, though I know the general plot.)
Five for me, heh. *Shuffle shuffle* Although I do own two more and plan on reading them when I finish something I'm reading at the moment. I don't read many well-known books, though. I mean, I read a lot of Stephen King, but mostly I just read whatever looks okay by the cover. I'm trying to collect a lot more of the classic literature and stuff at the moment, though.
Surprised I'd read 17, as most of the titles on that list made me gag or laugh at the prospect. I've read from some dozen others, either starting or excerpted or abridged in Lit anthologies, etc. But seriously, there's maybe 4 more on the list that I have any desire whatsoever to actually read. :/ It's a highly suspect list, and the last time this was being passed around as some sort of official study the BBC was doing, it was debunked as simply a crappy quiz-bulletin someone on myspace simply made up, I think worded exactly the same way, and also equally as useless a list. I say useless because it's all a matter of context. Say someone has only read one book from the list. It's going to be hugely different if that one book is Dan Brown, vs the Complete Works of Shakespeare, for instance. I'd love to see a reputable such study/survey, and with different contexts. Like the top 100 books all aspiring writers should be sure to read, or the top 100 classics most often taught it school (at which point it would be interesting to see how many people ACTUALLY read them, lol).
We got a new book in at the library that was something like the top 500 books that everyone needs to read...I kind of want to check that out.
Maybe the list is designed to make people feel smart? I got 13 hits, and I'm not very well-read. Since there are obvious duplicates on the list, I'm not taking it very seriously.
What, it's a valid list, I overheard this conversation just last week: "Hey Ann, have you heard about that Complete Works of Shakespeare book that came out?" "Yeah, Bob, I put it on my to-read list, as it sounds pretty good. Hoping to knock it out this weekend." "I'd read it this weekend, Ann, but I won't have the time. I'll be too immersed in Winnie the Pooh all weekend. I took a sick day on Monday, too, just in case I needed more time to finish it." "Shutup, Ann and Bob, ur both like tools, lulz, every1 knows Dan Brown is totes mad-awesome and ur smart books r dum!" "You're all going to hell! The Bible is the only book of quality literature that anyone ever needs!"
Twenty two. And a handful more were started, then put down because of lack of interest (the bible being one of them).
26. What on earth is The Da Vinci Code doing on the list? Also don't understand why the complete works of Shakespeare are listed as a single item, and then Hamlet is listed separately.
33 And I didn't count things like Harry Potter as 7 (although that would have made me sound more impressive) I'm reading Kerouac at the moment so I'm almost at 34. What is Nabakov Bleep!? I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be Lolita. So in that case 34 already!
This should be fun. And a bit embarrasing. :redface: I'll delete the ones I haven't read, to make it easy. Huh, how about that. I rock!
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien 4 Harry Potter series – 16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien 21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell 29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll 33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis 40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne 49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding 87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White 97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas 98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl Not a lot, but some of the books that I haven't read that are on the list are ones that I wish to read in the near future. ^^
1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien 5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee 6 The Bible 7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell 13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller 16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien 18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell 22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald 24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy 27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll 32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens 39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden 41 Animal Farm – George Orwell 49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding 52 Dune – Frank Herbert 57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens 61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck 65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac 70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens 72 Dracula – Bram Stoker 75 Ulysses – James Joyce 79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray 85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert 87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White 98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo 27 total, there are a few on the list I would like to read, and several on my list I wish I hadn't.
At first glance I counted 17 on that list, but I've read other books by some of the same authors. Also with writers like the Bronte Sisters I read one book which turned me off reading any others. The same can be said for JD Salinger! What a load of crap. And the Complete Works of Shakespeare not counting to poems he wrote consists of this many plays. -Comedy - 17 -Tragedy - 10 -History - 10 for a total of 37. Also you mentioned Hamlet separately and that should be included in the Complete works of Shakespeare.
4 Harry Potter series – 13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller 18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald 33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis 41 Animal Farm – George Orwell 42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown 49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon 87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl 12, sweet deal! That is if we're counting series as a single book. And haven't read the Bible cover to cover, that I still need to do (and finish LoTR). It's probably not such a good thing that I had to read quite a few of these as school set-work.
