The BIG Read

9 July 2014

There are so many books out there that people say that 'you just have to read this'.  Books like Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and more.  So I have decided that I will try to make my way through them a book at a time whilst still reading all my review books and personal reads.  Quite the challenge!!

This is not a speed project, but rather a slow and steady plod as I will try to get through at least one of the books a month. 


In 2003, the BBC ran a series of programmes about books. People talked about books they loved, and nominations were opened for Britain’s best-loved book. Votes were cast and Lord of the Rings won.
Over ten years on, I think the BBC Big Read Top 200 is still the best pick for ‘books to read before you die’. So I’m going to try to read AND review every book on the list over the next few years. 
I know full well that I have already read some of them but for the sake of this challenge it only seems fitting that I start with a blank page and re-read them.
I will link to the review once the books have been read.
  1. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
  2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  3. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
  4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
  6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  7. Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
  8. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
  9. The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
  10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  11. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
  12. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  13. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
  14. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
  15. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
  16. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
  17. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  18. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
  20. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
  21. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  22. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
  23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
  24. Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
  25. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
  26. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
  27. Middlemarch by George Eliot
  28. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
  29. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  31. The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson
  32. One hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  33. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
  34. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  35. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
  36. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
  37. A Town like Alice by Nevil Shute
  38. Persuasion by Jane Austen
  39. Dune by Frank Herbert
  40. Emma by Jane Austen
  41. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
  42. Watership Down by Richard Adams
  43. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerals
  44. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
  45. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
  46. Animal Farm by George Orwell
  47. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  48. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
  49. Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
  50. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
  51. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
  52. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  53. The Stand by Stephen King
  54. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  55. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
  56. The BFG by Roald Dahl
  57. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
  58. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
  59. Artimis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
  60. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  61. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
  62. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
  63. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  64. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCollough
  65. Mort by Terry Pratchett
  66. The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
  67. The Magus by John Fowles
  68. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
  69. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
  70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  71. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
  72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
  73. Night watch by Terry Pratchett
  74. Matilda by Roald Dahl
  75. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
  76. The Secret history by Donna Tartt
  77. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
  78. Ulysses by James Joyce
  79. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
  80. Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson
  81. The Twits by Roald Dahl
  82. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
  83. Holes by Louis Sachar
  84. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
  85. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
  86. Vicky angel by Jacqueline Wilson
  87. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  88. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
  89. Magician by Raymond E Feist
  90. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
  91. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
  92. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel
  93. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
  94. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  95. Katherine by Anya Seton
  96. Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
  97. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  98. Girls in Love by Jacqueline Wilson
  99. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
  100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
  101. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
  102. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
  103. The Beach by Alex Garland
  104. Dracula by Bram Stoker
  105. Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz
  106. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
  107. Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
  108. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
  109. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
  110. The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson
  111. Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy
  112. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
  113. The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat
  114. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
  115. The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
  116. The Dare Game by Jacqueline Wilson
  117. Bad Girls by Jacqueline Wilson
  118. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
  119. Shogun by James Clavell
  120. The day of The Triffids by John Wyndham
  121. Lola Rose by Jacqueline Wilson
  122. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
  123. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
  124. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
  125. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
  126. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
  127. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
  128. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
  129. Possession by A. S. Byatt
  130. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  131. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
  132. Danny The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
  133. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
  134. George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl
  135. Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
  136. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  137. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
  138. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
  139. Girls in Tears by Jacqueline Wilson
  140. Sleepovers by Jacqueline Wilson
  141. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
  142. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
  143. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
  144. It by Stephen King
  145. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
  146. The Green Mile by Stephen King
  147. Papillon by Henri Charriere
  148. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
  149. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
  150. Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz
  151. Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
  152. Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
  153. The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
  154. Atonement by Ian McEwan
  155. Secrets by Jacqueline Wilson
  156. The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailler
  157. One Flew over the Cockoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
  158. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
  159. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
  160. Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
  161. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
  162. River God by Wilbur Smith
  163. Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
  164. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
  165. The World According to Garp by John Irving
  166. Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
  167. Girls Out Late by Jacqueline Wilson
  168. The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
  169. The Witches by Roald Dahl
  170. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
  171. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
  172. The Used to Play on Grass by Terry Pratchett
  173. The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemmingway
  174. The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco
  175. Sohpie's World by Jostein Gaarder
  176. Dustbin Baby by Jacqueline Wilson
  177. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
  178. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
  179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach
  180. The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
  181. The suitcase Kid by Jacqueline Wilson
  182. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
  183. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
  184. Silas Marner by George Eliot
  185. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
  186. The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
  187. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
  188. Goosebumps by R. L. Stine
  189. Heidi by Johanna Spyri
  190. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawence
  191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
  192. Man and Boy by Tony Parsons
  193. The Truth by Terry Pratchett
  194. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
  195. The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
  196. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
  197. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
  198. The Once and Future King by T. H. White
  199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
  200. Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews

No comments:

Post a Comment