The Big Read Shortlist

[Colyngbourne]

1984, George Orwell
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
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


Crikey Moses, I am deeply unimpressed (and my favourite has not made it in). On this sad selection it'll have to be To Kill a Mockingbird, followed by His Dark Materials

And how many are adult reads - perhaps eight, perhaps fourteen at most?

[John Self]

I have voted for His Dark Materials. The only books in the top 100 for which I felt any sort of genuine enthusiasm were Perfume and The Twits.

[joy]

From the top 21 the ones that gave me most pleasure where probably - Wind in the Willows and Winnie the Pooh, which says it all really.
I quite happy that half a dozen others are there but don't feel strongly enough about any of them to know what to vote for.

[amner]

Great Expectations, TKaMB and The Wind in the Willows and ... that's about it. Admittedly they are my three faves anyway - at almost any given moment - the rest just leave me cold. And we all know what's going to win don't we? Don't we?
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[pandop]

well as my original suggestion - Winne the Pooh - made it through, it will have to be that again.

My mum read an article at the weekend (unfortunately she can't remember where) where the writer was already planning to be cross if Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings won - as it would all be due to marketing and film.

I seem to recall that LOTR won when Waterstones (this is another example of the BBC not having great ideas of it's own) did this not long ago, and that was before the films ... so I wouldnt be surprised if it won again, and I wouldn't mind either, as I like it, but there will be so much vitriol if it wins.

Hazel

[pandop]

Further to my earlier comment, Roy Hatterly has done just this in the Daily Mail today - he has described the list as the viewes choice of the '21 greatest works ever writen' - when the aim was to find the nation's favourite book, not what we think is te greatest book ever written. There is a difference

Hazel

[Colyngbourne]

I'm going to vote His Dark Materials though everything in the media is saying that the Darcy factor :oops: :cry: will win the day.

[pandop]

I haven't read His Dark Materials, so I can't comment, but I do like Pride and Prejudice, although I can smugly say I read it long before Colin Firth made an appearance

Many commentators seem to think people are voting on the basis of what they have seen, not what they have read - but how do they know? The BBC covered books seem to sell quite well, people might read them :wink:

Besides, adaptations can be a good way of introducing you to a new author - I only began to read Wilkie Collins after watching The Moonstone.

Also, I have already mentioned my dislike of the long-winded bits in Dickens, I do find them a little easier to read if I have seen an adaptation - reminds me why I am bothering.

Hazel

[amner]

The commentators so far have been fairly patronising on the TV/film influence debate, agreed. The only one in that lot that I'd really allow too much consensus with them over is Gone with the Wind; has anyone ever read it?
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[idioteque]

Not a great list by any stretch of the imagination. Mind you I've never seen one of these 'nation speaks its brains' type lists that I or in fact anyone I've ever known / read / listened to has even vaguely agreed with!

Did anyone see the announcement programme on BBC2 on Saturday?

Interesting bits;

1) Dr Robert Winston stating that the characters in Whinnie th Poo are all classic psychological types and he recognises them in his colleagues (I should imagine it'll be an uncomfiortable day at the office for him today!).

2) A sudden attack on JD Sallinger as a spoilt middle class boy.

3) Er, that's it.

As the final list came out book by book (each endorsed by a 'famous' advocate for its nomination) I found it less interesting and harder to watch.

[amner]

Anyone any idea how long they get for each blast of advocacy? Not long I hope. John Humphries will be listenable, but personally I'm very disappointed with Dimbleby for GE and Oddie(!) for TWitW.

And I can't see Birdsong or Captain Corelli getting very far with their particular champions.
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[pandop]

The commentators so far have been fairly patronising on the TV/film influence debate, agreed. The only one in that lot that I'd really allow too much consensus with them over is Gone with the Wind; has anyone ever read it?
.

Never read it, or seen the film - am I culturally deprived?

Hazel

[Colyngbourne]

Certainly not deprived - I've not read it all, but seen it all.

I'm sorry Salinger got jumped on - I missed that bit due to a previous engagement on BBC1 - I have a penchant for all the self-indulgent later Salinger.

[amner]

am I culturally deprived

Nope.
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[pandop]

So I haven't missed anything then?

Hazel

[joy]

I have seen Gone With The Wind - pretty good. And then I read it - it is the worst book imaginable, you want everyone to get blown away.

[pandop]

I will bear that in mind - ta muchly

Hazel

[Lucoid]

I didn't even know it was a book until I saw the list, and perhaps now I won't bother following up on my initial reaction when I found out (ie that I should read it as I like the film).

[skanky]

Anyone any idea how long they get for each blast of advocacy? Not long I hope. John Humphries will be listenable, but personally I'm very disappointed with Dimbleby for GE and Oddie(!) for TWitW.

Don't know if he's done it yet, but I should think that you may be doing Oddie a bit of a disservice. Seems to me that TWitW is right down his street - it's a lighthearted kids book using British wildlife, and that's something he knows an awful lot about (even before he was a Goodie).

[ono no komachi]

The only books in the top 100 for which I felt any sort of genuine enthusiasm were Perfume and The Twits.

I thought you were a fellow Owen Meany fan, Mr. S?

:? I found myself looking a little foolish the other day, having a conversation about the shortlist, saying it was incredibly populist. An uninitiated colleague asked what the criteria for selection were.

'Ummm... it has to be someone's favourite book.' That made me realise how blindingly obvious my previous statement was.

I also expressed surprise that Crime and Punishment wasn't in the shortlist. Then admitted that I hadn't voted for it.

[John Self]

Oh yeah ... I forgot... :oops:

[lancs vegas]

I was sad Janet and John didn't make it. I found their bucolic tales of gathering berries a profound comment on a lost pastoral ideal.

[joy]

Crime and Punishment is an amazing book and could be classed as best written book, but could it ever be anyones favourite or most loved? Its so depressing I don't think I will be reading it twice.

[amner]

Thus far - and it's not far, admittedly - the only thing I've been tempted to look into is His Dark Materials. Not my genre at all, as the Book Group will vouchsafe, but yon explorer fella made it sound intriguing.
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[Colyngbourne]

Being poorly detained by Dr. Sam Ryan on B1, I managed to miss that one on His Dark Materials, but it's really good stuff.

[lancs vegas]

did anyone see Clare Short mopeding round Kefalonia? Nearly as painful as watching Ruby Wax bang on about what a tearaway she was as a teenager; her sanity saved only through reading Catcher. And as for Winnie the Jupitus....

[amner]

Didn't mind Phill Jupitus, to be honest (I actually got the impresion he was being genuine) but Ruby I'm mad, me Wax ... jeesh. Yes, and I bet you used to stay up until midnight sometimes, eh Rube?

Clare Short was piggin' awful. I kept think about Jan Ravens all the way through.
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[lancs vegas]

Happy to see i'm not the only one venting spleen.

Clare Short looked like she'd just watched Shirley Valentine and was up for some hot Ionian lovin', Greek-style. I pity any waiters in nearby restaurants.

[amner]

I gave up after 10 minutes. I can't imagine ever being persuaded to read the wretced thing anyway, so half an hour of pontificating in that peculiar strangled style of hers was never going to be a winner.

This weekend should be better. Well, apart from Gone with the Wind, obviously.
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[lancs vegas]

Gone With The Wind? cue clips of Clark Gable and Arabella Weir dressed as Scarlett O'Hussy.

[amner]

And there you have 30 minutes of easy, cheap and unimaginative telly for t'masses, like. TV by numbers and all that. Still, I think GwtW may enjoy the distinction of staying 21st out of 21 for the entire length of this exercise.

John Humphries and To Kill a Mockingbird looks like a much better prospect to me. What's the third one? Any idea?
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[lancs vegas]

The biggest problem is that most obvious one: reading is a hugely personal and subjective endeavour, that's why it's so precious and why the novel form works. When i read a book, i feel i have sole ownership of those words - the landscape i create with them is certainly for my eyes only.

On a purely emotional level I think i can honestly say that i like Catcher in The Rye less now - it's been tainted by another personality (and a big one at that). In a perverse way, my experience of that book now includes Ruby Wax

suitably wanky?

[amner]

I don't think that's wanky in the least.

I agree with you about the sole ownership thing, too. Even for the biggest and most populist novels in all of Christendom there's that very personal sense of how the words manifest themselves inside your own head. Let me pick something at random ... the Dalziel & Pascoe books, a handful of which I read before the TV adaptations (both Warren Clarke and, for those with long memories, Hale and Pace), are now tainted, yes, tainted is exactly the right word, by my experience of the telly re-imaginings. It's not what I expected at all, and I haven't picked one up in years. And I didn't really feel that strongly about them in the first place, I just can't see around the new version that's been plonked in front of me.
.

[joy]

:D
Never having heard of it until the list came out, I have now heard so many recommendations for it that I went out and bought His Dark Materials. Have read the first two and thoroughly enjoyed them. Only time will tell if they will be read and reread by following generations but I think they will.
I've also lined up The Pillars of the Earth which looks good.