The BBC Top 100 Books To Read Before You Die
The BBC first published this list of 100 books to read before you die in 2003 but I believe it has had a number of updates since then. I would love to read every book on this list … here is the progress I’ve made so far!
{As mentioned in my 50 things to do before I’m 50 post, I am aiming to read 10 more books from this list before I turn 50 at the beginning on 2022 … the books I read to meet this challenge will be highlighted in pink}
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien – read it, mehPride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – read it, it was goodHis Dark Materials by Philip Pullman – read it, loved itThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy by Douglas Adams – read it, it was goodHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling – read it, loved itTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – read- Winne the Pooh by AA Milne – not read
- 1984 by George Orwell – owned but not read
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis – readJane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – read- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – tried to read it, unlikely to try again!
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – read- Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks – not read
Rebecca by Daphne due Maurier – readThe Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger – read- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame – not read (what?!)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens – readLittle Women by Louisa May Alcott – read- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres – not read
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy – not read but owned
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell – not read
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling – readHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling – readHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling – read- The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien – not read
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy – read- Middlemarch by George Eliot – think we read this in school but no lasting impression!
- A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving – not read
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – not read
- Alices Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – not read (!)
- The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson – not read
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – not read, would rather be boiled in oil
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett – not read
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – not read
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – not read (don’t @ me!)
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson – not read
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute – read it, loved it- Persuasion by Jane Austen – not read
- Dune by Frank Herbert – not read but owned, I think
- Emma by Jane Austen – not read
- Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery – don’t think I’ve read it
- Watership Down by Richard Adams – not read
- The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald – not read but owned (just read it, woman!)
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – not read but owned
- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh – not read
Animal Farm by George Orwell – read and enjoyedA Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – read and enjoyed- Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy – not read
- Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian – not read
- The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher – not read, I don’t think …
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett – not read
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – read, it was good- The Stand by Stephen King – not read but owned
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – not read by owned
- A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth – not read
- The BFG by Roald Dahl – not read
- Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome – not read
- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell – not read
- Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer – not read
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – not read
- Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman – not read
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden – read and enjoyed- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – not read but owned
- The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCollough – think I read it as a teen …
- Mort by Terry Pratchett – not read
The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton – read as a child- The Magus by John Fowles – not read
- Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman – not read
- Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett – not read
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding – not read
- Perfume by Patrick Suskind – not read but owned
- The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell – not read
- Night Watch by Terry Pratchett – not read
- Matilda by Roald Dahl – not read
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding – read, mehThe Secret History by Donna Tarth – read, loved- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins – not read
- Ulysses by James Joyce, not read, highly unlikely to read!
- Bleak House by Charles Dickens – not read but owned
- Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson – not read
- The Twits by Roald Dahl – not read
- I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith – not read
Holes by Louis Sachar – read, it was good- Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake – not read
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy – not read by owned, I think
- Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – read, meh- Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons – not read
- Magician by Raymond E Feist – not read
On the Road by Jack Kerouac – read, enjoyed it- The Godfather by Mario Puzo – not read
- The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel – might’ve read as a teen …
- The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett – not read
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – not read
- Katherine by Anya Seton – not read
Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer – read, enjoyed it- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – not read
- Girls in Love by Jacqueline Wilson – not read
- The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot – not read
- Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie – not read
Current progress: Read 29/100
Owned but not read: 10