2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 1 book toward her goal of 285 books.
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2023 Reading Challenge

2023 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 5 books toward her goal of 265 books.
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Read These or Die!

Teehee. Not really, of course. I just wanted a catchy title to talk about the concept of the “100 books you must read before you die” kind of lists… I saw a great and intriguing blog post today (Thomas Quinn: A blog about books, stories, publishing and writing – definitely worth checking out) about the latest round of Facebook notes on books you have to read and on his own challenge to develop a more reader-friendly list (seriously, go to his blog and read about this – you won’t be sorry). So that got me to thinking about these lists in general (I love to see how I perform against “required” reading) as well as about my own 100 must-reads, and I figured I’d share my rambling thoughts (and possibly brag a bit about how well-read I think I am, teehee) with you.

My Performance on BBC The Big Read List (top 100 books)
Note that the list that Thomas Quinn uses in his blog post referenced above is not the one I’m going to use. This is because he points out in his post that what is often cited on Facebook as the British Broadcasting Company or BBC list is actually poll results from a 2007 World Book Day search for the most popular novels. The most recent BBC list is from 2003 and that is what I am using here. The books I have read are bolded.

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
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
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

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

Ok – astute readers will notice that there are only fifty books listed here. That is because I wanted to take a few minutes to give my thoughts on the list and my performance, and the post got too long as a result. I will pick up with the remaining fifty books tomorrow.

As I was going to say before housekeeping notes required the above paragraph, I have read 29 of these fifty books – including all of the top ten, so hooray for me! Five of them (numbers 13, 31, 37, 49, 50) are things I have never even heard of, and five (numbers 11, 20, 27, 32, 39) are things that I have tried (occasionally repeatedly) to read but never finished (take a peak at a previous post for more on that topic, if you are interested). So if I take those ten out, I have read 29 of 40, or 72.5%. Of course, one could ask why I should take those ten out of my calculations, which puts me back at 29 of 50, or a far-less-respectable 58%. Ugh.

I hate when I perform with mediocrity in any context, but particularly with regard to reading. I read so much and enjoy (and pride myself on) reading classics, yet never seem to do that great on anyone’s top 100 list. I don’t know how or why that is, exactly. But it always and inevitably happens, regardless of whose list I’m comparing myself against.

If any of you readers have a minute or two, let me know how you fare on this list of fifty and what you think of the books contained therein. Do you agree with the BBC? I think that there are a fair number of random things on here that I would not include in a “must read” list – including a number of books that I have actually read. For example, I will give them Harry Potter book the first; it signaled a sea-change in children’s reading habits, sparked controversy in schools, and heralded a trend in mega-series with associated tie-ins. It was also a smashing story with great characters, original plot lines, and tremendous creativity. But I don’t know that every single book in the series available at the time needed to be included… And I HATED “Hitchhiker’s Guide” – I know I will take grief for saying this, but it’s true. Hated it. Thought it was stupid and pointless. Great idea, cool premise, but horrid reading. Hardly what I would call seminal literature in any way.

Then again, as I have started thinking about my own 100 must-read books, I guess that’s the point, isn’t it? They don’t have to be seminal literature – for me, a must-read has to speak to me, make me think or question or imagine. It has to change something about me and the way I view the world. And that doesn’t have to be a massive huge something, or even something that affects the world at-large.

So I still hated “Hitchhiker”, but I guess I can give it to them. After all, just wait to see what I include! 😉

7 comments to Read These or Die!

  • Not bad! All of the top ten I’m impressed 🙂 AND The Count of Monte Cristo..phew no thanks! Not right now at least. Watching my boyfriend plough through that for months was enough to make a girl sweat!

    • Thanks Lucy – I was impressed with that part too, although wait til you see how I did on the last half of the list… (teehee) I LOVED the Count of Monte Cristo – it’s crazy long but extremely well written and engaging. It’s worth the slog, seriously!

  • Michelle

    Jill – my first post to your blog!! Totally agree about the J.K. Rowling comment. Surprised you have not read Pillars. Thought I would add my own list of must reads.

    The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
    The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
    Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine
    Possession by A.S. Byatt
    Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
    The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
    Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

    • Why thank you Bimson!! It is sad for me to admit that I haven’t read Pillars yet – it’s been on my list forever now, it seems, but I just haven’t gotten to it. I of course have several of yours on my list too – I am posting my own Top 100 on Friday, so stop back and let me know what you think! Mine will include non-fiction – most lists specialize, but I am going with books that are influential/important to me not just fiction… Thanks again for commenting!!

  • Hi jill, thanks for the link – and well done on a great post. I’m impressed you’ve read so many of what I think is a very British list. Birdsong and Tracy Beaker haven’t travelled much, I don’t think. I’d be interested in seeing your own personal top ten and…. KEEP BLOGGING,
    tq

    • Thanks so much Thomas – for the comment/kind words, for taking the time to visit/read, and for the inspiration for so many posts this week! My top 100 isn’t rank ordered, but if I could pick only ten, I guess I would have to go with the following (not necessarily in 1-10 order):
      A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engel
      The Princess Bride by William Goldman
      To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
      The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
      The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
      The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
      The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
      Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
      Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
      Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer

  • I’ve read 14 of them! Yey me! LOL! I want to read the Count of Monte Cristo one of these days… haven’t gotten around to it yet! =D
    1. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
    2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
    3. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
    4. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
    5. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (I am currently reading this right now, so haven’t completed it yet.)
    6. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
    7. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
    8. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
    9. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
    10. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
    11. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
    12. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
    13. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
    14. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
    I started reading Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but hated it so much that I never finished it lol.

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