Bbc's "the Big Read" Competition

Supernorn · October 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">vote for your favourite book</div> Some of these books arent really worthy of being in the top 21. Harry Potter? It isnt exactly a masterpiece of english literature, JK Rowling should have an award for Marketing, not writing. I myself Voted for JRR Tolkien's The Lord Of the Rings because it took the author 15 years to write out an entire world and history (thats realism for you) and <b>is</b> an exciting masterpiece of english literature. Not because there is an Awesome Film trilogy of the book.

Vote for the book you enjoy best, and if you like inform us of why <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

<a href='http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/vote/' target='_blank'>http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/vote/</a>

Maus · October 2003

Meh - there are none there I'm especially fond of, so in a fit of sabotage I voted for Harry Potter.

Spooge · October 2003

Hmm, there are some good books in that list. Stuff I haven't read in a long time. Fortunately, my location isn't in the pulldown so I don't have to pick just one <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'>

<i>The Wind in the Willows</i> - great story I read somewhere around my elementary years

<i>The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe</i> - fantastic and creative story with religious undertones

<i>Lord of the Rings</i> - this one's a given

<i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i> - powerful moral story (with some great follow-up movies too)

Good stuff. Can't wait till I run out of new stuff to read so I can go back to the classics <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

Creepie · October 2003

In the absence of Terry Pratchett and Robert Jordan (my current authors), I'd probably go for Harper Lee. I read To Kill a Mockingbird a long time ago and it was a great book. Quiet, unassuming style like Atticus if I remember correctly but searing themes. Other "classics" I've read that stand out are Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and Forster's A Room With a View. I really do need to read a bit more widely I think.

Creepie · October 2003

I liked the first Rings, but the other two draaaagged in the quagmire. I can appreciate the fact Rings introduced a new genre, but boy oh boy was it hard going. Perhaps Rings was the ultimate in onamatepaiea - the book was as hard-going as the journey ! Jordan's world is much more complex but his style is more free flowing making the books more accessible (I believe there are 9 1000-page tomes from Jordan at moment).

Josiah_Bartlet · October 2003

Where's 1984 God Damn it?

Its those tossers from Newsnight review who think they are smarter than everyone who was fudging up this list.

Dunsby · October 2003

Only read a few books, which have been in school.

ATM we are reading to To Kill A Mocking Bird which is good. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

Spooge · October 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Josiah Bartlet @ Oct 22 2003, 12:54 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Where's 1984 God Damn it?

Its those tossers from Newsnight review who think they are smarter than everyone who was fudging up this list.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
eh?

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
<b> Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell </b>
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Josiah_Bartlet · October 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Spooge @ Oct 22 2003, 06:02 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Josiah Bartlet @ Oct 22 2003, 12:54 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Where's 1984 God Damn it?

Its those tossers from Newsnight review who think they are smarter than everyone who was fudging up this list. </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
eh?

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
<b> Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell </b>
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
That blessed font is too small for my eyes.

Still the people on Newsnight review are all tossers so my point still stands.

Liku · October 2003

Ohhh! I loved "To Kill a Mockingbird." I'll vote for that... but since I'm in California, I'm going to be in Wales for a moment. ^_^ ()

Doug_the_Head · October 2003

'Of Mice and Men' isn't on there, so I refuse to vote.

Melatonin · October 2003

yeah, putting 1984 in letters rather than numbers threw me too...

well anyway, its the only book on the list ive read, but its a good read.

I am slightly concerned by the mixture of 'adult' and childrens books...
and how did harry potter get in there, was voting conducted by 'texts'?

Epidemic · October 2003

I voted Harry potter <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

Dont kill me plez. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'>

Nemesis_Zero · October 2003

The whole thing kinda lost in credibility to me when I realized Pratchetts brilliant 'Small Gods' (quite possibly the best book about faith and its impact on humans written in the last two decades) wasn't even in the competition. Additionally, I miss Gibson (who was called "the most important English-writing novelist of our time" by no less than Guardian and Observer), and don't even get me started about my favorite 19th century authors (no Bram Stoker? Dracula influences literature and culture to this very day, for chrissake!).

Out of the presented choices, I'd be picking the Lord of the Rings, but closely followed by His Dark Materials or the Hitchhikers Guide.

NumbersNotFound · October 2003

In the abcense of Heart of Darkness I voted for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

MrMojo · October 2003

They don't have many good books I like on there, so I picked Catch-22. ( Which is good, I agree, but highly overrated as it's nothing more than a story).

I don't agree with you, Nem, Small Gods is just a "funny" book with basis on things everyone said before.

Smoke_Nova · October 2003

Oy! I'm from the "Midlands" and I voted for...His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman. I loved it the best of all the choices.

I know LoTR is better in some aspects, but it's too....lofty and high-handed for me. I like simpler reads that don't take the better part of 2 weeks to finish 500 pages.

DocterJ · October 2003

WINN3h T3H P00 j00 HAXX0rs!

Venmoch · October 2003

Bah

No Day Of The Triffids....

Hitchikers guide it is then...

Creepie · October 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (MrMojo @ Oct 22 2003, 03:51 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I don't agree with you, Nem, Small Gods is just a "funny" book with basis on things everyone said before.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
Perhaps, but Pratchett does say it very well.

Insane · October 2003

Yes, I was rather annoyed that there was no Pratchett in the top 22. At any rate, I voted for The Lord of the Rings, which is, of course, my favourite book.

Still, Terry Pratchett is an excellent writer, he really <b>should</b> be up there with the others.

Ramses · October 2003

Well, I was twisted between "Lord Of The Rings" and "His Dark Materials", in the end I chose "His Dark Materials" just to give Philip Pullman a small chance against such popular and mighty rivals like LotR and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

NemesisZero is right, Pratchett should have at least one entry in the Top 21, but I think the whole list isn't really representative. It should be divided into genres I think, you just can't compare every book with each other... A great Fantasybook may have nothing in common with a detective-story that is just as great in its own genre...

Creepie · October 2003

There's 5 Pratchett books in the top 100.

65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett

Bbc's "the Big Read" Competition

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