Look here, BBC!

I came across this in a friend's blog today. Apparently, the BBC thinks that the average person will have read only 6 out of their Top 100 list. So let's see how my reading habits compare, shall we?

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
I have indeed. Both in English and in Norwegian.

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
I tried. Didn't work. It's a bit too slow paced for me.

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Yep.

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
So many times, it's not even funny. I think I've read the first book 5-6 times. I've also read book 1-5 in Norwegian, before deciding that I couldn't be bothered to get copies in both languages.

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Yes.

6 The Bible
The whole thing? No. Parts of it, yes. The Illustrated Children's Bible that was given to my sister for her baptism? Probably close to a hundred times. What can I say, I wasn't the cynical agnostic with atheist leanings that I am today back then. Though I suppose I was a sucker for the stories rather than the religion.

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Yep. Twice.

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
It's sitting on my bookshelf, but I haven't had the time to read it yet.

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
No.

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Yep. I found it quite entertaining.

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
Mhm.

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
No.

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
No.

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
I do have a copy, but I haven't read all of it.

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
No.

16 The Hobbit
I tried, once upon a long time ago. Does this seem to be a pattern with me and Tolkien? I can't remember if I finished it though. I might have. But if I did, it wasn't particularly memorable.

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
No

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
No, but I want too!

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Yes. I was not particularly impressed, but it was decent.

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
No

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Yep. Multiple times, both in Norwegian and English. Actually, I've only read it once in Norwegian, and it wasn't even 'proper' Norwegian, 'cause it was a copy my grandmother gave to me that had belonged to my great grandparents. It was practically Danish. Anywho. Wonderful book. I love it.

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Mhm. I read it on the plane to Las Vegas last year. Quite enjoyable.

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
No.

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
No.

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Almost ashamed to say it, but no.

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Nope.

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Yep. It's quite entertaining, though I had my work cut out for me trying to keep everyone apart. They all have a gazillion pet names.

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
No.

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Own it! Bought it a few weeks ago, but haven't read it.

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
No

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Tried. Found it incredibly boring, but I was only 16 at the time, so I think I will try again at some point.

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Yep. In Norwegian only, and it was years ago.

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
Yep. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is my favorite!

34 Emma - Jane Austen
Own it. Haven't read it.

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
Own it. Haven't read this either. It's because I bought a Jane Austen collection, at a point in time when I really didn't have time for reading. I've been meaning to set up a list of books I own but haven't read at some point, so that I can finally get through them all.

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
Hey, didn't we already cover this? I have read it!

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Yep. It's very powerful!

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
No

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Mhm!

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
I know we had a copy of it, but if I've read it, I've forgotten.

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
Twice. Once for school and once because I usually enjoy books I've been forced to read a lot better when I reread them without being forced. I did quite enjoy this the first time around too though.

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Yep. And 2-3 of his other novels. I was initially impressed with his work, but he's a one trick pony, in my opinion.

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
No

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
No

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
No

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
Isn't this a series? I know I was given a book years and years ago, called Anne & Marilla in Norwegian. I think it's part of this series.

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
Own it. Haven't read.

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
No
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Yes. For school. Must try to read it again at some point, 'cause this was one of the ones I resented being made to read.

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
Yep!

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
No.

52 Dune - Frank Herbert
No.

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
No.

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
This was the first book I read in English, actually. I think I was 13 at the time. I've read it a few times since. It's lovely.

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
No.

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
I was given this book for Christmas a few years back, but I haven't actually gotten around to reading it.

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Own it, but haven't read it.

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
No.

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
No. But it's sitting on my bookshelf, ready for consumption.

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
No.

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
No. Want to though.

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Yep. One of my favorite passages of all time is at the beginning of this book.

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
No.

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
No.

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
My father has it somewhere, but I haven't read it.

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
No.

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
Started, but I never finished it.

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
I have indeed. Many times.

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
No.

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
No, but I want to! We read Bartleby the Scrivener for school one time, and I quite enjoyed that!

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
I started this a couple of weeks ago actually, because I came across a very cheap copy and bought it. But alas, exams are screwing with me.

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
Yep! I read it while we were in Vegas last year.

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
No.

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
No.

75 Ulysses - James Joyce
No, but this is one of the books that I have vowed to read, just so that I can say that I have.

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
No.

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
No.

78 Germinal - Emile Zola
No.

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
I want to.

80 Possession - AS Byatt
No.

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
No.

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
No.

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
I've seen it at the bookstore and considered buying it, but I haven't yet.

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
No.

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
Ahem. Will you believe me if I say yes? Because I'm supposed to have read this for school, but... I haven't.

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
No.

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
No.

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
No.

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
All of them? No. But I've read a fair few. I have the complete collection.

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
Nope.
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
No. My best friend wrote her BA thesis on this though, and she loves it, so I want to.

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Nope.

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
No.

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
Nope.

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Nope.

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
Nope.

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
This was one of my favorite stories when I was younger, but I haven't actually read it, just listened to a children's version on tape. I own a copy though, so I must get around to reading it.

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Tried to, many years ago. I was too young for it at the time though, I think.

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
One of my favorite books when I was younger. My teacher read it to us at school, and I've read it many times on my own as well. It's been a while since the last time though. I must look into getting a copy, 'cause I always borrowed it from the school library before.

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
I so want to. Les Miserables is my favorite musical, so I'm very interested in reading the actual book.

Twenty seven books out of a hundred. That's not bad, I guess. That's 4-5 times the amount that the average person has supposedly read. What I really need to do though, is read all the books I own, but have never opened. It's kinda ridiculous. Especially considering the ones mentioned here are not the only ones. I have a veritable mountain of books that I've bought because I want to read them, but don't really have the time to.