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.

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

    Drag me to re-order


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

    Drag me to re-order


  3. 4.
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    by Douglas Adams

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  4. 5.
    Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    by J.K. Rowling

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  5. 6.
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    by Harper Lee

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  6. 7.
    Winnie-the-Pooh
    by A. A. Milne

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  7. 8.
    Nineteen Eighty-four (Penguin Modern Classics)
    by George Orwell

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  8. 10.
    Jane Eyre (Signet Classics)
    by Charlotte Brontë

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  9. 11.
    Catch 22
    by Joseph Heller

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  10. 12.
    Wuthering Heights (Bantam Classics)
    by Emily Brontë

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  11. 13.
    Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War
    by Sebastian Faulks

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  12. 14.
    Rebecca (Longman Fiction Series)
    by Daphne du Maurier

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  13. 15.
    The Catcher in the Rye

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  14. 16.
    The Wind in the Willows
    by Kenneth Grahame

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  15. 17.
    Great Expectations (Penguin Classics)
    by Charles Dickens

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  16. 18.
    Little Women (Penguin Classics)
    by Louisa May Alcott

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  17. 19.
    Captain Corelli's Mandolin
    by Louis de Bernieres

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  18. 20.
    War and Peace (Modern Library)
    by Leo Tolstoy

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  19. 21.
    Gone With the Wind
    by Margaret Mitchell

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  20. 22.
    Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
    by J. K. Rowling

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  21. 23.
    Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)
    by J.K. Rowling; Illustrator-Mary GrandPré

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  22. 24.
    Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)
    by J.K. Rowling

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  23. 25.
    The Hobbit
    by J.R.R. Tolkien

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  24. 26.
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Dover Thrift Editions)
    by Thomas Hardy

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  25. 27.
    Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)
    by George Eliot

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  26. 28.
    A Prayer for Owen Meany
    by John Irving

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  27. 29.
    Grapes of Wrath, The (20th Century Classics)
    by John Steinbeck

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  28. 30.

  29. 31.
    The Story of Tracy Beaker
    by Jacqueline Wilson

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  30. 32.
    One Hundred Years of Solitude
    by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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  31. 33.
    The Pillars of the Earth
    by Ken Follett

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  32. 34.
    David Copperfield (Penguin Classics)
    by Charles Dickens

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  33. 35.
    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Puffin Novels)
    by Roald Dahl

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  34. 36.
    Treasure Island (Scholastic Classics)
    by Robert Louis Stevenson

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  35. 37.
    A Town Like Alice
    by Nevil Shute

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  36. 38.
    Persuasion (Cover to Cover Classics)
    by Jane Austen

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  37. 39.
    Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)
    by Frank Herbert

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  38. 40.
    Emma
    by JANE AUSTEN

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  39. 41.
    Anne of Green Gables (Signet Classics)
    by L. M. Montgomery

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  40. 42.
    Watership Down
    by Richard Adams

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  41. 43.
    The Great Gatsby (Scribner Classics)
    by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  42. 44.
    The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)
    by Alexandre Dumas pere

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  43. 45.
    Brideshead Revisited (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
    by Evelyn Waugh

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  44. 46.
    Animal Farm
    by George Orwell

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  45. 47.
    A Christmas Carol (Reissue)
    by Charles Dickens

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  46. 48.
    Far from the Madding Crowd (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
    by Thomas Hardy

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  47. 49.
    Goodnight Mister Tom (New Century Readers)
    by Michelle Magorian

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  48. 50.
    The Shell Seekers
    by Rosamunde Pilcher

    Drag me to re-order


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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

Nikki
Newcastle

Emma — 3 weeks ago

Currently reading Emma. Only managed the first chapter so far..but it’s a start!


Goblet of Fire back — 6 weeks ago

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


pineapplejelly
Manchester

??? — 11 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.


rwhitney22
Golden

I REFUSE — 38 weeks 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!!


lovely bones? — 1 year ago

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


monibon22
New York City

List source — 1 year ago

To see the correct list go to list source -then you can make your own list which only you can change! :)


pat — 1 year ago

have missed only 13 of these. shell seekers is ok, but, twinky. safe enough to send to my maiden aunt. glad someone added pillars of the earth-great book. i also suggest all over but the shouting by rick bragg. wonderful book. it’s really hard to limit to 50.


Helen8
Sydney

Moby Dick — 1 year ago

I am sure that I saw Moby Dick in the top 100 at some point. This is why I have started reading it. Oh well, I’m sure it will be worthwhile anyway, but it is keeping me from War and Peace which I know is going to take a while…


LilyLane
Innisfil

List is fixed — 1 year ago

I put back Lord of the Rings and put in the correct title of Harry Potter #1.


camis
Norwich

Missing books! — 1 year ago

Erm, someone appears to have changed the list again! Lord Of The Rings (which should be number 1) has disappeared! I’m don’t want to try and edit it in case I mess it up, so maybe comeone who knows what they are doing could do it.



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