BBC's "The Big Read - Books 1-100"

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The Big Read series was broadcast on BBC Two from 18 October to 13 December 2003.

Web, SMS, phone and interactive voting ended on 11 December and only the phone vote was opened briefly for the duration of the final programme on 13 December.

Here is the final ranking 1-100. See also "BBC The Next 100" list for 101-200.

DEAR READER: Please do not change this list in any way. If you do not agree with any of the entries on this list feel free to create your own, but please bear in mind that others are also working on this list. Thank you for your consideration and happy reading.

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  1. 1.
    The Lord of the Rings
    by J.R.R. Tolkien

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  2. 2.
    Pride and Prejudice (Penguin Classics)
    by Jane Austen

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  3. 3.
    His Dark Materials
    by Philip Pullman

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  4. 4.
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    by Douglas Adams

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  5. 5.
    Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    by J.K. Rowling

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  6. 6.
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    by Harper Lee

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  7. 7.
    Winnie-the-Pooh
    by A. A. Milne

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  8. 8.
    Nineteen Eighty-four (Penguin Modern Classics)
    by George Orwell

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  10. 10.
    Jane Eyre (Signet Classics)
    by Charlotte Brontë

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  11. 11.
    Catch 22
    by Joseph Heller

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  12. 12.
    Wuthering Heights (Norton Critical Editions)
    by Emily Bronte

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  13. 13.
    Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War
    by Sebastian Faulks

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  14. 14.
    Rebecca (Longman Fiction Series)
    by Daphne du Maurier

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  15. 15.
    The Catcher in the Rye

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  16. 16.
    The Wind in the Willows
    by Kenneth Grahame

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  17. 17.
    Great Expectations (Penguin Classics)
    by Charles Dickens

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  18. 18.
    Little Women (Signet Classics)
    by Louisa May Alcott

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  19. 19.
    Captain Corelli's Mandolin
    by Louis de Bernieres

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  20. 20.
    War and Peace (Modern Library)
    by Leo Tolstoy

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  21. 21.
    Gone with the Wind
    by Margaret Mitchell

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  22. 22.
    Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
    by J. K. Rowling

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  23. 23.
    Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)
    by J.K. Rowling; Illustrator-Mary GrandPré

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  24. 24.
    Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)
    by J.K. Rowling

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  25. 25.
    The Hobbit
    by J.R.R. Tolkien

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  26. 26.
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Dover Thrift Editions)
    by Thomas Hardy

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  27. 27.
    Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)
    by George Eliot

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  28. 28.
    A Prayer for Owen Meany
    by John Irving

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  29. 29.
    Grapes of Wrath, The (20th Century Classics)
    by John Steinbeck

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  30. 30.
  31. 31.
    The Story of Tracy Beaker
    by Jacqueline Wilson

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  32. 32.
    One Hundred Years of Solitude
    by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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  33. 33.
    The Pillars of the Earth
    by Ken Follett

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  34. 34.
    David Copperfield (Penguin Classics)
    by Charles Dickens

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  35. 35.
    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Puffin Novels)
    by Roald Dahl

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  36. 36.
    Treasure Island (Scholastic Classics)
    by Robert Louis Stevenson

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  37. 37.
    A Town Like Alice
    by Nevil Shute

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  38. 38.
    Persuasion (Cover to Cover Classics)
    by Jane Austen

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  39. 39.
    Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)
    by Frank Herbert

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  40. 40.
    Emma
    by JANE AUSTEN

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  41. 41.
    Watership Down
    by Richard Adams

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  42. 42.
    Anne of Green Gables (Signet Classics)
    by L. M. Montgomery

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  43. 43.
    The Great Gatsby (Scribner Classics)
    by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  44. 44.
    The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)
    by Alexandre Dumas pere

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  45. 45.
    Brideshead Revisited (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
    by Evelyn Waugh

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  46. 46.
    Animal Farm
    by George Orwell

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  47. 47.
    A Christmas Carol (Reissue)
    by Charles Dickens

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  48. 48.
    Far from the Madding Crowd (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
    by Thomas Hardy

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  49. 49.
    Goodnight Mister Tom (New Century Readers)
    by Michelle Magorian

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  50. 50.
    The Shell Seekers
    by Rosamunde Pilcher

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This is a community list. You can contribute, edit, or help maintain it by adding it to your lists.
Created by Robot Co-op on Nov 30, 2005.
 

Comments

Pages: Pages: 1 3 4

SweetartZ28

Added # 31 back in — 5 days ago

The Story of Tracy Beaker was missing. I put it back in, at #31 where the original list has it.

Jun 28, 04:00PM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Ninja Neko
Borsbeek

Gone with the Wind — 3 weeks ago

I’ve replaced the ‘home-made’ entry for Gone with the Wind with an ‘official’ one, the one most people had selected (I’m pretty sure it used to be on here too, must have gotten altered along the way).

Jun 10, 10:32PM | 0 comments | Reply to this

apartmentcat
Melbourne

More Fixing *sighs* — 9 weeks ago

Someone had deleted His Dark Materials, Little Women and Gone With the Wind, so I added them back to their correct places.
I also took the liberty of adding a note to the description at the top, as I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets very frustrated when one person changes a definitive list that many people are working on. I don’t know if it will help. We’ll see.

Apr 26, 05:51PM | 1 comment | Reply to this

easilydistracted_sk
Melbourne

missing...again! — 10 weeks ago

where have the last 3 books gone???

Apr 21, 12:43AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

sofia79
Lisboa

yilingba: — 31 weeks ago

Being a BBC list (British broadcasting corporation), which was created by audience voting, it’s only natural the books are mainly english, leaving litte room for others. It’s natural the books in this list aren’t German. Or Spanish. Or French. Or Portuguese. Or (I could go on and on).

Nov 28, 08:33AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

yilingba

GERMAN WRITERS?...................JUST ONE?? — 35 weeks ago

well, the bbc listener….........do they never read a book from germany? besides PERFUME (which is nice, but not a really classic….) u really can not find even one classic novel from germany…..................ups.

Oct 26, 10:23AM | 1 comment | Reply to this

zoebme

Goblet of Fire back — 44 weeks ago

I put the missing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire back at no. 5. It is in the list, after all!

Aug 29, 03:13AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

pineapplejelly
Manchester

??? — 49 weeks ago

Why can’t we edit the books themselves? Good Omens is by Gaiman and Pratchett, not just Gaiman, much as I prefer him.

Jul 25, 08:16AM | 1 comment | Reply to this

rwhitney22
Golden

I REFUSE — 1 year ago

to read Lord of the Rings OR Harry Potter. Not my thing. But, Crime and Punishment, and Holes, and Watership Down and War and Peace and anything Dostoyevsky or Rushdie- absolutly worthwhile!!

Jan 20, 02:25PM | 1 comment | Reply to this

booked

lovely bones? — 1 year ago

why is this book tacked on to the end twice???

Sep 30, 10:25AM | 0 comments | Reply to this


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