That book thing is making the rounds again. You know, the one where the BBC thinks you haven’t read very many books. There’s a list of 100 books the BBC thinks you haven’t read. The game is to mark off the ones you have read and prove them wrong. I did it a couple of years ago. Lots of people did. It faded away for a time, but now it is back.<\/p>\n
For some reason I had in mind that I had read 80 books on this list. I suppose that depends on your definition of read. I’ve identified 34 books of the 100 that I haven’t read if your definition of read does not include watching the movie, reading bits and pieces, and\/or taking a test on the book. That would mean I have read 66, but that too depends on how generous your definition is.<\/p>\n
I’m claiming to have read The Bible, for example. I won’t swear I’ve read every word, but some of the words I’ve read enough times to add up to the whole thing several times over, so I’m counting it. Likewise, The Complete Works of Shakespeare.<\/p>\n
So it seems I’ve probably read somewhere between 50 and 80 of these books if we are willing to count the ones I’ve only read pieces of. I’m willing. I’m too tired right now to be all that strict with myself.<\/p>\n
Here are the ones I either haven’t read or haven’t read lately enough or closely enough to really count. Some I’m embarrassed to admit to. Some I’m working on right now. Some I’m hoping to get to soon so that the next time this list makes the rounds I’ll be better prepared.<\/p>\n
12 Tess of the D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Urbervilles \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Thomas Hardy
\n13 Catch 22 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Joseph Heller
\n17 Birdsong \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sebastian Faulks
\n21 Gone With The Wind \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Margaret Mitchell
\n23 Bleak House \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Charles Dickens
\n24 War and Peace \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Leo Tolstoy
\n27 Crime and Punishment \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Fyodor Dostoyevsky
\n32 David Copperfield \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Charles Dickens
\n38 Captain Corelli\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mandolin \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Louis De Berniere
\n39 Memoirs of a Geisha \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Arthur Golden
\n45 The Woman in White \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Wilkie Collins
\n48 The Handmaid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tale \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Margaret Atwood
\n49 Lord of the Flies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c William Golding
\n53 Cold Comfort Farm \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Stella Gibbons
\n55 A Suitable Boy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Vikram Seth
\n56 The Shadow of the Wind \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Carlos Ruiz Zafon
\n60 Love In The Time Of Cholera \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Gabriel Garcia Marquez
\n63 The Secret History \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Donna Tartt
\n64 The Lovely Bones \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Alice Sebold
\n69 Midnight\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Children \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Salman Rushdie
\n74 Notes From A Small Island \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Bill Bryson
\n77 Swallows and Amazons \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Arthur Ransome
\n78 Germinal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Emile Zola
\n79 Vanity Fair \u00e2\u20ac\u201c William Makepeace Thackeray
\n80 Possession \u00e2\u20ac\u201c AS Byatt
\n82 Cloud Atlas \u00e2\u20ac\u201c David Mitchell
\n86 A Fine Balance \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Rohinton Mistry
\n88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Mitch Albom
\n90 The Faraway Tree Collection \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Enid Blyton
\n92 The Little Prince \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Antoine De Saint-Exupery
\n93 The Wasp Factory \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Iain Banks
\n94 Watership Down \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Richard Adams
\n96 A Town Like Alice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Nevil Shute
\n99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Roald Dahl<\/p>\n