Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Books => Topic started by: Entsuropi on December 14, 2003, 08:38:57 PM
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So...
from a list of 6k nominated novels, the final list is:
1) LOTR, JRR Tolkien
2) Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austin
3) His dark ___, Philip Pullman
4) Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy
5) Harry Potter, J.K. Rolling
6) To Kill a mocking Bird
9) Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Louis
Sorry for gaps, haven't got enough energy to hunt the full list down. But, nifty! LOTR! W00t!
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I believe that Pullman's is "His Dark Materials" which is a series. The series is made up of The Golden Compass, The Amber Spyglass, and The Subtle Knife.
Not to sound like a cynic, but if you don't even know anything about the series, and didn't bother to find the sourse for this list, how on earth can we trust it?
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So is LOTR. I guess we are not particularly picky about singular/plural.
And i think another "great britons" is happening. Been things about Nelson, Shakespeare and Issac Newton on UKHistory today.
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That's fine, but where did you get this?
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Parental unit 2 watched it on TV, told me.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/05_may/17/big_read.shtml
There.
Lazy men...
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So is this a list of favorites of the British people, no matter who written by, or favorites of books written by British authors? Because To Kill a Mockingbird was written by an American.
His Dark Materials is okay, but I couldn't read the 3rd book when I figured out where Pullman was going. It just made me uncomfortable. However, Entropy, if you want to know what it's all about, just jaunt on down to the National Theatre, where they're producing a play of the trilogy right now. Apparently it's quite popular. Quite a few of the American children's lit people on a list I'm on are dying to see it, and one is even flying to London in March just to see the play.
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Look at the site first, then post. This should be my mantra. I looked and now realize that not all the books are British, just quite a few.
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Just jaunt on down? Right. London, especially at this time of year, is very expensive. Don't have any relatives i can crash with either.
Never read it, but i might. I have wierd ideas on religion myself, although from the sound of some BBC program on them i guess different ones. You can tell its by an atheist author because the BBC was all for the series.
Guess i might grab it from the library. But since i have this (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1582369518/026-5601022-9309222) and this (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618126996/026-5601022-9309222) arriving tomorrow or tuesday... maybe not. Too many books! Many trees die!
[/stream of consciousness]
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Strange. I would have thought that the lit geeks on this forum would have been all over this topic.
The top 21 winners, in order, were:
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Interesting. Quite a lot of pure fantasy up the top, but a lot more romantic stuff in the rest of the list. But i fail to recognize 60% of that list.
Before i forget, it's worth noting that the last best brition competition was won by Winston Churchill (surprise) followed by diana. Quite a gap as well.
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Ok, I don't understand why Neil Gaiman isn't up there, yet J.K. Rowling is. Is there something with long drawn out novels that gets to brits? And no less the book of hers that is up there isn't just the whole damn series but the third or fourth book. Boy that sure makes me upset.
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i think we're not all over it because there are some silly choices. Winnie the Pooh, for example, while magnificently written, is NOT a novel. For one thing, the word count is too low. For another thing, it's a collection of loosely connected short stories.
Actually, not so many of them are very silly. But still.