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}

1. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien – read it, meh
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – read it, it was good
3. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman – read it, loved it 
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy by Douglas Adams – read it, it was good
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling – read it, loved it
6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – read
7. Winne the Pooh by AA Milne – not read
8. 1984 by George Orwell – owned but not read
9. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis – read
10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – read
11. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – tried to read it, unlikely to try again!
12. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – read
13. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks – not read
14. Rebecca by Daphne due Maurier – read
15. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger – read
16. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame – not read (what?!)
17. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens – read
18. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – read
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres – not read
20. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy – not read but owned
21. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell – not read
22. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling – read
23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling – read
24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban  by JK Rowling – read
25. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien – not read
26. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy – read
27. Middlemarch by George Eliot – think we read this in school but no lasting impression!
28. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving – not read
29. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – not read
30. Alices Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll – not read (!)
31. The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson – not read
32. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – not read, would rather be boiled in oil
33. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett – not read
34. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – not read
35. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – not read (don’t @ me!)
36. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson – not read
37. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute – read it, loved it
38. Persuasion by Jane Austen – not read
39. Dune by Frank Herbert – not read but owned, I think
40. Emma by Jane Austen – not read
41. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery – don’t think I’ve read it
42. Watership Down by Richard Adams – not read
43. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald – not read but owned (just read it, woman!)
44. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – not read but owned
45. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh – not read
46. Animal Farm by George Orwell – read and enjoyed
47. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – read and enjoyed
48. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy – not read
49. Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian – not read
50. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher – not read, I don’t think …
51. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett – not read
52. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – read, it was good
53. The Stand by Stephen King – not read but owned
54. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – not read by owned
55. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth – not read
56. The BFG by Roald Dahl – not read
57. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome – not read
58. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell – not read
59. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer – not read
60. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – not read
61. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman – not read
62. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden – read and enjoyed
63. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – not read but owned
64. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCollough – think I read it as a teen …
65. Mort by Terry Pratchett – not read
66. The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton – read as a child
67. The Magus by John Fowles – not read
68. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman – not read
69. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett – not read
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding – not read
71. Perfume by Patrick Suskind – not read but owned
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell – not read
73. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett – not read
74. Matilda by Roald Dahl – not read
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding – read, meh
76. The Secret History by Donna Tarth – read, loved
77. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins – not read
78. Ulysses by James Joyce, not read, highly unlikely to read!
79. Bleak House by Charles Dickens – not read but owned
80. Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson – not read
81. The Twits by Roald Dahl – not read
82. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith – not read
83. Holes by Louis Sachar – read, it was good
84. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake – not read
85. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy – not read by owned, I think
86. Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – read, meh
88. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons – not read
89. Magician by Raymond E Feist – not read
90. On the Road by Jack Kerouac – read, enjoyed it
91. The Godfather by Mario Puzo – not read
92. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel – might’ve read as a teen …
93. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett – not read
94. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – not read
95. Katherine by Anya Seton – not read
96. Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer – read, enjoyed it
97. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – not read
98. Girls in Love by Jacqueline Wilson – not read
99. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot – not read
100. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie – not read

Current progress:  Read 29/100

Owned but not read:  10