I'm over 60 on the BBC 100 but I've done so badly this year! I'm just reading Catcher in the Rye but I get absurdly put off books and then end up enjoying them......

How you doing?

Any interesting list challenges?

Not me - but well done with your 60 :woot:

I've only read 32 of the BBC Top 100 - have several more on Mount TBR and must get round to them sometime soon!

I'm also working on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die list and have read 42 of those (thankfully a lot of the BBC books are also on the 1001 Books list!)

Whilst I accept I am never likely to read all the 1001 Books, I would like to finish the BBC Top 100 - maybe I need to concentrate on those next year?!

Well...I don't really have any specific goal related to these lists, but I always look over them, particularly for suggestions of classics that I somehow "missed" during school. I find it's particularly difficult to figure out which of these will be entertaining without a guidebook (e.g., I read Ulysses by James Joyce in school, and I don't think I would have enjoyed it at all without a guidebook, the help of the professor and recent familiarity with Odysseus et. al).

I think I've read about half of the books on the BBC list. I'm also reading more books from the 1001 list -- partly encouraged by the VBB.

where can I find the list for BBC 100

Here is the BBC 100 List.

The first 50 are on the first page, then the second 50 are on the next page.

Not doing any of those challenges. :blush: It's too much pressure for me to read things I might not want to read. :P

I think the thing about this challenge for me is that I am utterly lazy in my reading habits as with all else in life :giggle: and it's a way of trying to expand my horizons. And it HAS made me read things I never would have done and I've REALLY enjoyed some of them.

Catcher in the Rye I have to say is not top of that list.... :erm: I am finding myself agreeing with zzz and finding Holden Caulfield MOST irritating. But some of the books - Memoirs of a Geisha, the Potter books - I am truly glad to have read.

And I have just checked - this will be no 64 on the list for me - I aimed to read 10 of them this year, I've managed 5.... ho hum!

I keep meaning to look at the 1001 books but it just seems so many!

Ooohh I'm doing this!!

I have read 37 of the BBC books and have 42 others in my possession. Sadly, I've only managed to read 5 BBC books this year - one was a re-read, and one I couldn't even get through (Tess of the D'Ubervilles).

My favourite BBC books that I've read specifically for this challenge (so that doesn't include the BBC books I read before I started the challenge, like Harry Potter and Catch 22, which I love!) are:
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Any of the Roald Dahl books!
Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Perfume - Patrick Süskind
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Holes - Louis Sacher

There have been a couple of horrible ones too though :sick:

Wow, just checked and I have at least read 37 books of this list without knowing it.
hahahahaha :bananadance:
Finall a list where I am doing pretty good.

Book I read this year of this list is:
The Pillars of the Earth which I absolutel loved!!!

Most of the others I read back in the days. Before bookcrossing.
a lot when I was much younger.

Like the books by Charles Dickens,Austen sisters, Little Women, The Stand,

Hey I see another one I did read and really enjoyed.

The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
bleh I have to reduct one. Night Watch. I hought it was the one by Sarah Waters. :rolleyes:

I need to count again, see how many I have read, more carefully.

See Pillars of Earth is one I've not yet read although I do have it....

but seeing you loved it Marleney has made me more.... well likely to read it :)

I love lists - I have a few of them on my computer and I enjoy finding books & readding them & crossing them off the list - it is fun and has introduced me to books that I may not have thought of reading :)

I am not really doing a list.... but I love kids books, so I am reading all the Newbery Medal Winners. I'm doing okay with that....

I go back and forth on whether or not I want to attempt the BBC Top 100. My favourite book is on the list though.... I think it's number 66.

Ah! Pillars of the Earth is an AWESOME book!

What? My opinion doesn't matter? :nono:

I thought we suffered through Gods of Small Things together Gizzy!!! :lol:

Did you love it Lauren? Sorry love :hug: wasn't ignoring ya!

God of small RUBBISH more like - lord I'd forgotten that one! *shudder* that was horrid wasn't it? Worse than flipping Catcher cos it went on so damn long!

I think I will read Winnie the Pooh next cos that's got to be short :giggle:

See I totally missed you post Lauren! :doh: sorry honey

Secret History I'd already read I agree it was fab
I HATED Artemis Foul I thought it was repulsive :lol:
Perfume I really was unsure of - I can't say I loved it as such but it was interenting

Roald Dahl - can do no wrong although I read some of them as a child

I keep looking at Holes..... I will try it soon, but I am so encouraged about Pillars of the Earth two loving it is great!

I read Good Omens on sunlight's recommendation and I thought it was ok - I don't really like Terry Pratchett but I do like Neil Gaiman..... and as a combination I found it a bit..... smug.

Was God of Small Things the worst you think?

I *really* hated Artemis Fowl. I read the entire book, thinking it was going to get better. While the plot wasn't all that bad, I *hated* the character. That may have been the author's intent, but it wasn't a comfortable feeling at all.

Now Holes is another matter. While it isn't the most fluid text I've ever read, the story is *great*. These are characters that you *can* like and cheer their exploits.

I just use these lists more as guidelines myself. I wouldn't set myself a challenge to read all of them, because I am sure that I would truly hate at least a few on the list.

Strange, I loved Artemis Fowl. It got me reading the rest of the Artemis Fowl books, and now I am looking forward to reading The Lost Colony :shrug:

Is God Of Small Things that bad :unsure: I have it on Mount TBR...maybe it needs to stay there a bit longer :lol:

I thought Atremis Fowlwas good

I absolutley loved The Pillars of the Earth and it weren't so much money would already have bought the next one

Some people absolutely loved it and were horrified when I revealed it in the crap book swap :giggle:

Actually we should have another crap book swap that was fun!

One woman's crap is another's fertilizer ... or something to that effect!

I figured there had to be plenty of people who liked Artemis Fowl since the author kept publishing sequels. Actually it's a funny story how I happened to read the first one. The Lemony Snicket movie had just come out and I decided I wanted to read the book before going to the movie, so I headed in to my local library. Of course, I had a senior moment in the stacks and picked up Artemis Fowl instead! He was such a loathsome character that I felt itchy when I finished the book.

TAKE IT OFF!! TAKE IT OFF!!! :giggle:


I was only kidding with you Giz :lol:

I'm not sure if God of Small Things was the worst. I also couldn't get through Tess of the D'ubervilles. I read 1984 for class and couldn't stand it. Could be because I read it in school though. Good Omens went over my head. I don't much get Terry Pratchett so I don't know how I'm going to get through the rest of his books on that list.


Aww I liked Artemis Fowl. I thought it was lots of fun! And I've read some of the others in the series and enjoyed them :)

No I agree the character in Artemis made my teeth itch!

:ditto:

I think what you say about reading books, you might not read otherwise is a good point.

I've had a lot of the BBC100 TBR since before joining Bxing - and can I say, you're not persuading me to bump up either Catcher in the Rye or God of Small Things!!

I also wasn't mad on Artemis, but I'm determined to give it another go.

Can't go wrong with Winnie the Pooh, though.. My fav charcater has always been Eeyore!

Tess of the Durbervilles IMHO is one of the biggest wastes of time I have ever turned the pages of..Hated it, and it's put me off Thomas Hardy for life.

Loved Good Omens.

I loved the first half of Secret History, but I felt it was just too long..I do want to reread it though.

I said to zzz I'd have to ask you about Catcher :giggle: you might LOVE it! But I have only one more chapter to go and am irritated by it - I really cannot see the point at all. I know it's all hyper clever and subtle and hidden and stuff but I would prefer it to be less annoying!

God of Small things - some people had it as a fave book :o so what do Lauren and I know? :wink:

I'm not aiming to finish any particular list this year, but I've been steadily working my way through the BBC top 200 list (glutton for punishment obviously).

I've read 84 of the top 100 and 74 of 100-200, so 158 in total. I have another 26 on the TBR pile, which leaves 16 to track down at some point.

Favourite new ones of the last couple of years include Noughts & Crosses (M Blackman, went on to read the whole series), Pillars of the Earth (will definitely be reading the second at some point) & the Thornbirds. Absolutely detested Master & Commander & Moby Dick.

I didn't overly hate God of Small Things, but didn't love it either. I think I read Catcher in the Rye too late, I probably would have found it profoundly deep or something as a teenager!

I read Catcher in the Rye as a teenager and all I found it to be was anticlimactic :giggle:

I'm using it more as an opportunity to read stuff I otherwise may not have read. It's very easy for me to just sit down with a pile of chick lit and never read anything else, so this does make me stretch my reading matter a bit further!

I do realise that I'm never going to finish the list though!! :giggle:

Me too. I downloaded the top 100 books, marked those I had already read and posted to my LiveJournal. I thought it was unfair that all 3 volumes of "His Dark Materials" took up a single slot in the list, yet other series such as Harry Potter got separate slots for each book.

It's the first time I see this list and I have only read 8 of them. :wacko:

I have other 9 in my TBR pile, most of them still unregistered! Maybe I could use this as a guide next year. :coolwink:

I didn't think they deserved ANY place!!!! But I realise I am in the minority :)

Giz :whip:

:rofl:

I must agree with Elsi though..I don't really undestand how that works :shrug:

Soz but I hated them a LOT and it took me an age to plough through them and no WAY would I have read them if it wasn't for the sake of the list.

Wow! I'm only at 42. Good job.