16 if i'm remembering correctly and we read A Christmas Carol at some point in school. pretty much all 16 except Treasure Island i think were required school reading. and where is Robinson Crusoe? what makes something "classic" though? i mean it's the most successful series of books ever and i'm guessing they will be read in classrooms for a long time to come. i've never read one because i just don't think it's my cup of tea, but i don't see the problem with it being called classic.
That's kind of my argument though: insane popularity doesn't and shouldn't equal "classic." Should Big Brother and the Kardashian (sp?) Show [-insert favorite reality tripe here-] be considered classic television just because they're insanely popular? I've got my guilty pleasure, sword-and-sorcery favorites too, but I wouldn't consider them classics as this list implies. I've never read a Potter book, though I know that they're excellent examples of imagination....but does that equal "classic?" Should Rowling really be on the same list as Tolkien, Carroll, Stevenson, Dickens, et al? Kafka isn't even on this list.... Don't mean to derail, but still....
Books ive read that i can remember. scratching my head on a few 2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee 63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens Movies ive seen 1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien 2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 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 17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott 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 30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll 34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens 35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl 36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson 40. Emma, Jane Austen 41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery 43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald 47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett 58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell 63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens 74. Matilda, Roald Dahl 83. Holes, Louis Sachar 91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo 99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
well kardashian and big brother are just sort of popular and will be quickly forgotten. from reality shows, i'd go with american idol. that's insane popularity over an extended period of time and it will be talked about for an even longer time. do i watch it? no, not my thing. but at this point i'd say it's a classic tv program. i'm guessing a lot of classic books were quite popular for their time and that's why we all read them in schools today. harry potter has been read very widely and by nearly every demographic, has already started to be read in schools, and will be around for a very long time. i'd say it's a classic story at this point. and what makes anything a classic? is it writing a 12000 word sentence in Ulysses? a great myster like agatha christie? a great fantasy like harry potter?
Eh....fair enough, I suppose. I'd give it a bit more time, though. As it pertains to this list, Rowling is mentioned several times. I'd give her one mention for the first book in the series for now. I think it's a shame though that a writer like Kafka was omitted. Just my opinion, of course.
I was actually getting ready to do this on facebook the other day... I will just keep the ones I have read. 1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien 2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman 4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling 5. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee 6. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne 7. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell 8. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis 9. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë 10. Catch-22, Joseph Heller 11. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë 12. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger 13. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame 14. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 15. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott 16. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy 17. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell 18. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling 19. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling 20. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling 21. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien 22. Middlemarch, George Eliot 23. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck 24. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll 25. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens 26. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl 27. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson 28. Persuasion, Jane Austen 29. Dune, Frank Herbert 30. Emma, Jane Austen 31. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery 32. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald 33. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas 34. Animal Farm, George Orwell 35. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 36. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher 37. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett 38. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck 39. The Stand, Stephen King 40. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy 41. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell 42. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky 43. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden (Reading now) 44. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens 45. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough 46. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding 47. Matilda, Roald Dahl 48. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding 49. Ulysses, James Joyce 50. Bleak House, Charles Dickens 51. On The Road, Jack Kerouac 52. The Godfather, Mario Puzo 53. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel 54. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho 55. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson 56. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot Edit: darn it I clicked the wrong number on the poll.. oh well.
I think this list has more to with popularity than anything else. 3/5 of the books listed are either kids, teens, or high school text.
Well it probably has to do with the fact that this BBC book list IS a popularity contest. It was a list compiled by the BBC based on a public votes. See site for details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/ Incidentally, lynus should be glad that they didn't do this poll in 2007 or later because then Harry Potter would've taken up 7 slots on the list.
that was one of my new years resolutions. i'm on my 10th book now, but i got sidetracked by computer games again...
