The BBC's Big Read project is an incentive to try and make the people of Britain more interested in reading books. The voting and publication of the list happened in 2003, which may explain the prevalence of Harry Potter books. As a part of the project, the BBC has created a list of the "top 100" books, as voted by the BBC radio listeners and TV viewers. IMHO, the list does not necessarily contain the BEST books around, but certainly books that are accessible to the average reader, and definitely to be worth reading if you don't know what book to pick up next.
Personally, I have read 41 of the books on this list, and have made it a target to read them all: If the other 59 books are as good as the 41 I have read, this is certainly a good list to use to guide me through the world of literature.
A few points worth noting: That the voting was done by the British public. As such, 62 of the writers featured in the list are british. Roald Dahl, Charles Dickens, Terry Pratchett, Jaqueline Wilson and JK Rowling all have 4 or more books in the list.
The books are also split into categories by the BBC. The different categories are:
- GB/GM: Great Book Great Movie? - "You've seen the movie, now read the book and compare."
- DS: The Dark Side - "Tortured souls, inner demons and haunted corridors... These books travel to the darker reaches of the unconscious."
- GE: The Great Escape - "Take a journey through time and place. Books for readers who enjoy intrigue and adventure."
- OW: Other Worlds - "Let your imagination travel from far-flung galaxies to fantasy tea parties."
- SW: Shattered Worlds - "When worlds are blown apart by war and catastrophe, how do you keep your sanity?"
- GP: Grand Passions - "Explore the obsession that is born out of extreme passion. With a series of books in which emotions go unchecked..."
- FA: Family Affairs - "Families - can't live with them, can't live without them.."
- FF: Forever Friends - "Making friends and losing friends -the trials and tribulations of friendship."
- GD: The Great Divice - "How do we overcome the divisions in society. In these books our heros and heroines cross the bridges that divide their worlds from others."
- CA: Coming of Age - "Stories that deal with finding yourself and your place in the world."
- Adams, Douglas - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy GE
- Adams, Richard - Watership Down GB/GM
- Archer, Jeffrey - Kane and Abel GD
- Austen, Jane - Emma CA
- Austen, Jane - Persuasion GP
- Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice GP
- Blackman, Malorie - Noughts and Crosses GD
- Blyton, Enid - The Magic Faraway Tree GE
- Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre FA
- Bronte, Emily - Wuthering Heights GP
- Cabot, Meg - The Princess Diaries FA
- Carroll, Lewis - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland OW
- Coelho, Paul - The Alchemist GE
- Colfer, Eoin - Artemis Fowl DS
- Collins, Wilkie - The Woman in White DS
- Dahl, Roald - The BFG FF
- Dahl, Roald - Charlie & Chocolate Factory CA
- Dahl, Roald - Matilda CA
- Dahl, Roald - The Twits FA
- de Bernieres, Louis - Captain Corelli's Mandolin GB/GM
- Dickens, Charles - Bleak House DS
- Dickens, Charles - A Christmas Carol GD
- Dickens, Charles - David Copperfield FA
- Dickens, Charles - Great Expectations GD
- Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities SW
- Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment DS
- du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca GB/GM
- Dumas, Alexander - The Count of Monte Cristo GE
- E Feist, Raymond - Magician OW
- Elliot, George - Middlemarch GD
- Faulks, Sebastian - Birdsong SW
- Fielding, Helen - Bridget Jones' Diary GB/GM
- Follett, Ken - The Pillars of the Earth GP
- Fowles, John - The Magus DS
- Garcia Marquez, Gabriel - Love in the time of Cholera GP
- Garcia Marquez, Gabriel - One Hundred Years of Solitude FA
- Gibbons, Stella - Cold Comfort Farm FA
- Golden, Arthur - Memoirs of a Geisha OW
- Golding, William - Lord of the Flies GD
- Grahame, Kenneth - The Wind in the Willows FF
- Hardy, Thomas - Far From the Madding Crowd GD
- Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the D'Ubervilles DS
- Herbert, Frank - Dune GB/GM
- Hodgson Burnett, Frances - The Secret Garden GE
- Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World OW
- Irving, John - A Prayer for Owen Meaney FF
- Joyce, James - Ulysses FA
- Kerouac, Jack - On the Road GE
- King, Stephen - The Stand SW
- L Heller, Joseph - Catch 22 SW
- Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird GD
- Lewis, CS - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- Louis Stevenson, Robert - Treasure Island GE
- M Auel, Jean - The Clan of the Cave Bear CA
- Magorian, Michelle - Goodnight Mr Tom GE
- May Alcott, Louisa - Little Women CA
- McCollough, Colleen - The Thorn Birds SW
- Milne, AA - Winnie the Pooh FF
- Mitchell, Margaret - Gone with the Wind GB/GM
- Montgomery, LM - Anne of Green Gables
- Orwell, George - Animal Farm GD
- Orwell, George - 1984 GB/GM
- Peake, Mervyn - Gormenghast OW
- Pilcher, Rosamund - The Shell Seekers FA
- Pratchett & Gaiman - Good Omens DS
- Pratchett, Terry - The Colour of Magic OW
- Pratchett, Terry - Guards! Guards! OW
- Pratchett, Terry - Mort DS
- Pratchett, Terry - Nightwatch SW
- Pullman, Philip - His Dark Materials OW
- Puzo, Mario - The Godfather GB/GM
- Ransome, Arthur - Swallows and Amazons GE
- Rowling, JK - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Rowling, JK - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire DS
- Rowling, JK - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone GB/GM
- Rowling, JK - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban FF
- Roy, Arundhati - The God of Small Things SW
- Rushdie, Salman - Midnight's Children CA
- Sacher, Louis - Holes GE
- Salinger, JD - The Catcher in the Rye CA
- Scott Fitzgerald, F - The Great Gatsby DS
- Seth, Vikram - A Suitable Boy FA
- Seton, Anya - Katherine GP
- Sewell, Anna - Black Beauty FF
- Shute, Nevil - A Town Like Alice SW
- Smith, Dodie - I Capture the Castle CA
- Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath SW
- Steinbeck, John - Of Mice and Men FF
- Suskind, Patrick - Perfume GP
- Tartt, Donna - The Secret History FF
- Tolkien, JRR - The Hobbit CA
- Tolkien, JRR - The Lord of the Rings GB/GM
- Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina GP
- Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace SW
- Tressell, Robert - The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists GD
- Waugh, Evelyn - Brideshead Revisited GP
- Wilson, Jacqueline - Double Act FF
- Wilson, Jacqueline - Girls in Love GP
- Wilson, Jacqueline - The Story of Tracy Beaker FA
- Wilson, Jacqueline - Vicky Angel FF
More information? www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread