Comments on: BBC Book Quiz – How Many have You Read?

By: BBC Book Quiz – How Many have You Read? | My 2012 Cannonball Read

BBC Book Quiz – How Many have You Read? | My 2012 Cannonball Read — Thu, 10 May 2012 02:18:41 +0000

[...] many have YOU [...]

By: Jaymee

Jaymee — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 02:21:16 +0000

I feel that a number of key works have been heinously omitted from both the BBC and the prestigious Tomas’ lists.

http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780307589880/3174904102
‘Pets who want to Kill themselves’, Duncan Birmingham

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bi=0&bx=off&ds=30&recentlyadded=all&sortby=17&sts=t&tn=Beyond+Leaf+Raking&x=0&y=0
‘Beyond Leaf Raking’, Peter Benson

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bi=0&bx=off&ds=30&recentlyadded=all&sortby=17&sts=t&tn=Squids+Will+Be+Squids&x=0&y=0
‘Squids Will be Squids’, Jon Scieszka

Thanks for your time, I would appreciate it if any accounts of personal reading achievements that follow would specify BBC, Tomas’, and Jaymee’s lists.

By: Jaymee

Jaymee — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 02:05:47 +0000

I had finished 93 of these before being conceived, and sped through the remaining 7 as a foetus. Personally I’m disgusted by the 6 year old still trying to memorise the Bible, and think that anybody over the age of 11 who hasn’t written at least 4 classic novels should take a long, hard look at themselves.

By: W303 » Northridge Book Club

W303 » Northridge Book Club — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:08:19 +0000

[...] BBC Book Quiz – Provides good ideas for selecting books for 2012. [...]

By: miriam berg

miriam berg — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 21:14:31 +0000

i have only read 30 of these titles
but i have read most of those several times, dozens of times
in Tomas’ list i had read 27 of them,
again many times
but then i pride myself on being an inveterate rereader of great works
i have read the Bible straight through at least a dozen times
and the Gospels a hundred times through or more
i have read all of Shakespeare’s plays through and through many times
i just started rereading them again (Histories, Comedies, Tragedies)
and pride myself on being able to name all 37 plays when asked
i have also read most of Shaw’s plays (first editions i have collected)
many times, many, many times but i don’t have them all
i have been reading and re-reading the Foundation Trilogy
and the subsequent novels in the Foundation universe by Azimov
since the 1960s
i read the Ring trilogy first in the 1960s
and then turned my son onto it when he was 13 years old
and he is now an aficionado as much as i am
i have reread Tale of Two Cities many times
and consider it one of the greatest novels ever written
Jules Verne’s novel “The Mysterious Island” has always been one of my
favorites but it has slipped in recent years
(that wasn’t on either of the two lists)
the most recent novel i have read is Anita Diament’s “The Red Tent”
(which also isn’t on the list)
and for a Bible reader and re-reader it was magnificent
in terms of adding to the bare Biblical narrative
but enough of my garrulousness
here are the two lists i have read:

BBC list
Lord of the Rings (at least 10 times)
Pride and Prejudice
Harry Potter (all seven 7 times)
Winnie the Pooh (at least 50 times)
1984 (three or four times)
Jane Eyre
Catch 22
Wuthering Heights
Catcher in the Rye
Wind in the Willows
Great Expectations
War and Peace
Harry Potter II
Harry Potter III
Harry Potter IV
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Treasure Island (a dozen times or more)
Dune (maybe three times)
Watership Down
Count of Monte Cristo (many times)
Animal Farm
A Christmas Carol (many times)
Anna Karenina
Black Beauty
Crime and Punishment
Tale of Two Cities (one of my favorites)
Lord of the Flies (once or twice)
Brave New World
The Clan of the Cave Bear

TOMAS’ LIST
Frankenstein
The Odyssey (and the Iliad)
Cyrano de Bergerac
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Foundation Trilogy (dozens of times)
Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feinman!
The Silmarillion
Cat in the Hat
Tarzan of the Apes (and all the rest of the Tarzan books)
Candide
The Jungle
The Hound of the Baskervilles (and all the rest of Sherlock Holmes)
Call of the Wild
Bhagavad Gita
Treasure Island(since childhood)
The Jungle Book (since childhood)
Robert Frost’s poems
The Republic — Plato
Canterbury Tales (both English and Middle English)
Don Quixote (several times)
Faust (Goethe)
Walden
The Birds
Just So Stories (since childhood)
Robinson Crusoe (since childhood)

By: Gil

Gil — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 09:36:17 +0000

Why are The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Hamlet listed twice?
Not that I don’t love them both, but it seems to me this is actually a list of 98.
I mean, if you’ve read the complete works of Shakespeare it goes without saying you’ve read Hamlet.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:11:03 +0000

I’m 15, but still have read 42 of these books, most of them in the past 2 years. Admittedly I read a lot compared to many people my age, but I think books are under rated in today’s society. Many of my favourite books are not on this list, though, which is disappointing. Frankenstein should have been on there.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:43:47 +0000

I have read 62 from the first list and 55 from Tomas’ list but my own list would be different still. Frankly I fail to see why the bible or the koran are even on this list since neither is well written or historically accurate or important as a fictional work. Including them for religious reasons only is simply wrong.

By: lilly

lilly — Fri, 13 May 2011 22:05:52 +0000

OK everyone, there are no books “missing” from this list, the list is how it is supposed to be. It is just a list of varied books, and out of these books, the BBC is estimating how many the average person has read. So don’t get your knickers in a bunch, this is not a list for the best books of all time or anything.

By: Jono

Jono — Fri, 13 May 2011 01:39:01 +0000

I’ve read 38 books from the list and also a number of those mentioned by Tomos.
Like Joanne, I’ve read much of the Bible and Shakespeare and also made an abortive attempt at reading Ulysses!
I would find a place for Marlow’s Dr Faustus and Fielding’s Tom Jones and Tennyson’s Idylls of the King.