The Big Read

The Big Read was a 2003 survey carried out by the BBC, with the goal of finding the "Nation's Best-loved Book" by way of a viewer vote via the Web, SMS and telephone. The show attracted controversy for adopting an allegedly sensationalist approach to literature and for being vulnerable to vote-padding - for example, the top 200 entries include 10 novels by comic fantasy author Terry Pratchett - but supporters praised it for raising the public awareness of reading.

Results

1. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
7. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
18. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
25. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
26. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch by George Eliot
28. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
29. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
31. The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
35. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion by Jane Austen
39. Dune by Frank Herbert
40. Emma by Jane Austen
41. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
42. Watership Down by Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm by George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
48. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
53. The Stand by Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
56. The BFG by Roald Dahl
57. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
60. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
63. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCollough
65. Mort by Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
67. The Magus by John Fowles
68. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
69. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Perfume by Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda by Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
77. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses by James Joyce
79. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
80. Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits by Roald Dahl
82. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
83. Holes by Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
85. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
89. Magician by Raymond E. Feist
90. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
92. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
93. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine by Anya Seton
96. Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
97. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love by Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

German version

The initiative was launched in Germany as well in 2004, under the name Das große Lesen (literal translation), where a list of 200 items was pre-selected by a committee of professionals to choose from. The results were voted by 250,000 people.

Results

1. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
2. Bible
3. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
4. Perfume by Patrick Süskind
5. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
6. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
7. The Physician by Noah Gordon
8. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
9. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
10. Pope Joan by Donna Cross
11. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
12. Cross Stitch/Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
13. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
14. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
15. Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
16. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
17. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
18. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
19. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
20. Effie Briest by Theodor Fontane
21. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
22. Der Zauberberg by Thomas Mann
23. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
24. Siddharta by Hermann Hesse
25. The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch
26. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

Source: [1], [2]

Hungarian version

The Big Read was imported into Hungary under the name A Nagy Könyv (lit. "The Big Book", [3]) and took place in 2005.

Voting for the Top 100 began in late February: one was allowed to vote for any novel published in Hungarian. It ended on April 23, when the 50 "foreign" and 50 Hungarian most popular novels were selected. 1400 libraries, 500 book shops and 1300 schools participated in the competition with various programmes. This round proved to be far more popular in Hungary (with a population of 10 million) than in the U.K. (with a population of 60 million), with 400,000 votes arriving (as opposed to 140,000 votes in the U.K. competition in the corresponding period).

On June 11, the Top 12 novels were chosen in the framework of a television show presented by cultural celebrities. In the next months, 12 short films were made from these novels and screened in television, which competed with each other in pairs. On December 15, 2005, the population selected their ultimate favourite by SMS and phone in a similar show. The winning novel, which received the title "the most liked novel of Hungary 2005", was the same book as the result of the previous round, "Stars of Eger". The other two books that participated in the final were The Paul Street Boys (2nd) and "Abigail" (3rd; see their details below). The programme A Nagy Könyv is intended to be continued.

Note: When English translations are available for Hungarian novels, usually the title of their most recent English translation is given. Literal translations, where no English translation is available, are marked with quotation marks.

The top 12 before screening the films (June 11, 2005)

1. Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Géza Gárdonyi (literal translation: "Stars of Eger")
2. The Paul Street Boys by Ferenc Molnár
3. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
4. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
5. The Little Prince by A. de Saint-Exupéry
6. "Abigail" by Magda Szabó
7. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
8. "Thorn Castle" by István Fekete
9. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
10. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
11. The man with the golden touch by Mór Jókai (other translations: Timar's Two Worlds; Modern Midas; literal title: "The Golden Man")
12. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

The final list after screening the films (December 15, 2005)

1. Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Géza Gárdonyi (literal translation: "Stars of Eger")
2. The Paul Street Boys by Ferenc Molnár
3. "Abigail" by Magda Szabó
4. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
5. The man with the golden touch by Mór Jókai (other translations: Timar's Two Worlds; Modern Midas; literal title: "The Golden Man")
6. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
7. The Little Prince by A. de Saint-Exupéry
8. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
9. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
10. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
11. "Thorn Castle" by István Fekete
12. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
13. Abel Alone by Áron Tamási
14. The Baron's sons by Mór Jókai
15. "The Railroad House about to Start" by Sándor Rideg
16. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
17. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
18. Be Faithful Unto Death by Zsigmond Móricz
19. Vuk: The Little Fox by István Fekete
20. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
21. Lottie and Lisa by Erich Kästner
22. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
23. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
24. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
25. "The Funtinel Witch" by Albert Wass
26. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
27. Fateless by Imre Kertész
28. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
29. The Treasure-Hunting Smock by Ferenc Móra
30. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
31. "Give me back my mountains" by Albert Wass
32. Embers by Sándor Márai
33. "Pansy Violet" by Zsigmond Móricz
34. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
35. St. Peter's Umbrella by Kálmán Mikszáth
36. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
37. "Dirty Fred the Captain" by Jenő Rejtő
38. Slave of the Huns by Géza Gárdonyi
39. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
40. "The Lover of the Sun" by Sándor Dallos
41. The Red and the Black by Stendhal
42. The Catcher in the Rye by Jerome David Salinger
43. Anna Édes by Dezső Kosztolányi
44. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
45. Thistle by István Fekete
46. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
47. The 14-carat Roadster by Jenő Rejtő
48. "The Golden Brush" by Sándor Dallos
49. Lassie Come Home by Eric Knight
50. Winnetou by Karl May
51. "Winter Grove" by István Fekete
52. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
53. For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
54. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
55. The Gold Coffin by Ferenc Móra
56. "The Black Town" by Kálmán Mikszáth
57. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
58. The Toth Family by István Örkény
59. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
60. "Stop Mommy Teresa!" by Zsuzsa Rácz
61. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
62. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
63. Death is my trade by Robert Merle
64. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
65. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
66. The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek
67. The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw
68. "The Sword and the Scythe" by Albert Wass
69. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
70. Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque
71. School at the Frontier by Géza Ottlik
72. A Hungarian Nabob by Mór Jókai
73. This above all by Eric Knight
74. Revulsion by László Németh
75. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
76. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
77. A Journey round my Skull by Frigyes Karinthy
78. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
79. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
80. The Book of Fathers by Miklós Vámos
81. The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb
82. "Just look at my time" by Klára Fehér
83. "Greg and the Dream-catchers" by Gyula Böszörményi
84. Malevil by Robert Merle
85. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
86. "Für Elise" by Magda Szabó
87. Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
88. Jadviga’s Pillow by Pál Závada
89. "The Novel of Ida" by Géza Gárdonyi
90. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
91. "An Old-fashioned Story" by Magda Szabó
92. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
93. The Door by Magda Szabó
94. "The Confessions of a Haut-Bourgeois" by Sándor Márai
95. The Red Lion by Mária Szepes
96. Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann
97. "Do not be afraid" by Anna Jókai
98. My Happy Days in Hell by György Faludy
99. "PetePite" by Gábor Nógrádi
100. Celestial Harmonies by Péter Esterházy

• Sources: [4], [5], [6] (Sources differ on the order of books ranked 32nd and 33rd.)

See also

• UK topics

External links

• BBC Big Read Website