Book meme

[confection]

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see

Comments

[kailara]

I think it's wholly unfair of them to list entire series...what if I've read one of three (eg Lord of the Rings) or most but not all of the "Complete Works of Shakespeare"? Who ever came up with this list wasn't thinking very carefully...

That said, I've read a helluva lot more than 6 books on that list, and that's just outside the ones I read because I _had_ to. =) And I'll give them points for variety of genres!

[confection]

Yeah, the variety threw me, like seeing both His Dark Materials and Memoirs of a Geisha on there. I didn't realize they merited being lumped in with like, Hamlet and The Grapes of Wrath.

[kailara]

I suspect that whoever created the list (and I've got someone else on my f-list who is quite convinced it didn't come from the commonly cited source) did so by taking a number of "classic" works and one or more bestseller lists from the last few years. I believe "His Dark Materials" became popular when advertising started for the movie adaptation of the first book. Probably the same with "Memoirs".

[triscuitzop]

11 here. You haven't heard of Watership Down?? Talking rabbits attacking each other! (I haven't read it either...)

[confection]

I've heard of it, and I've heard of others like Les Miserables, The Bell Jar, War and Peace, Wind in the Willows... but I couldn't tell you what they were really about or name any of the characters, so.

[kaindl]

I can't help but think when i look at that: how many of those that I would bold wouldn't I have read if I didn't read them in school.

[lairian]

Too lazy to use the proper format. Just listing has reads.

2, 5, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 39, 40, 41, 46, 49, 52, 58, 61, 65, 67, 70, 71, 72, 73, 81, 87, 89, 92, 94, 97, 98, 99, 100.

[confection]

I <3 you, but eff that.