100 books in 7 years

Sometime around the summer of 2004, I resolved that I would read all of the BBC’s Big Read 100 Top Books. They had run a comprehensive reader poll, paired with tv programmes shown on BBC 2, to collate the nation’s favourite 200 books, narrowing them down to the top 100 and then the top 21. A couple of friends (Pete and Kat) were already attempting the Top 21, and spurred on by my comments provoking his competitive nature, Pete joined me on the quest for the whole 100. He, of course, left me standing years ago and completed his final book sometime in 2008 or 2009, I think.

I soldiered on, and I have just finished the final book. To celebrate and record my achievement, I write this blog entry to give some comment on the challenge, the books, and my experience of reading them. I tackled them in a random order, dictated by whether I owned the book, could borrow it, take it out of a library or buy it, or use some other slightly unorthodox methods. I purchased a Kindle in September last year, and three of the final books on the journey were read using that.

[Warning: the following content contains derogatory and flippant remarks about fantasy books. You have been warned.]

I had read about 25 of the books before. Other than To Kill a Mockingbird, I generally didn’t re-read them. Many of them were children’s books - The Hobbit (I am speculating provoking comment about whether this is a children’s book), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, The Magic Faraway Tree, Matilda, and The Twits.

There were a number of other children’s books which I had missed in my obviously misspent youth (I missed many films I should have seen too…). A few of them (The Story of Treacy Beaker, Double Act, Vicky Angel, Girls in Love, Noughts and Crosses and the Princess Diaries) were new to me in that they had been published after I was the relevant age, and they gave me an interesting insight into youth/ teen fiction. I finished Winnie the Pooh in one sunny lunchtime session in St. James’ Park, dispensed with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe over a snowy weekend, and galloped through The Wind in the Willows, Swallows and Amazons and Black Beauty. I felt remiss that I hadn’t previously read Little Women, but soon corrected that.

Tracking down a copy of Anne of Green Gables was a bit of a challenge, Watership Down bought a tear to my eye, as did Goodnight Mister Tom. Treasure Island and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland were printed off from open sources on the internet and hidden in my work folder, for surreptitious reading during boring meetings and long train journeys.

Then there were the four Harry Potter’s on the list (Goblet of Fire, Philosopher’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban). I didn’t re-read them either. I’d also read Animal Farm, 1984 and Brave New World (courtesy of an English Literature GCSE teacher who had a thing about them. Had a thing about war poetry and short stories about cliffs too, if I recall correctly). Bridget Jones's Diary didn't merit a re-read, and I have seen the film many, many times. Neither did The Shell Seekers.

One of the great pleasures of the challenge was discovering and enjoying books that I otherwise wouldn’t have read. Birdsong was my top favourite surprise book. I loved it, and more Sebastian Faulks will be appearing on my bookshelf (or virtual bookshelf) in the future. Surprisingly, Catch 22 is also in this category. I’m glad I read it, although it was hard going, because I wouldn’t have done without this challenge. Rebecca was much more captivating than expected, lifting it out of the group of Classics described below. Katherine was also far more interesting than expected. The Godfather was a worthwhile read as I never stay awake during films, and Pillars of the Earth was most enjoyable. The follow on, World Without End, is ready to go on my Kindle once I have had a suitable break from long books.

One of the downsides was struggling through books I wasn’t enjoying. Many a time I was tempted to give up, to cheat and read a synopsis or to watch the film. But I battled the temptations and read every word of every book. I particularly struggled with the Dickens. Great Expectations, David Copperfield, and Bleak House were hard work and uninteresting. I didn’t want to pick them up and read them. A Christmas Carol was mercifully short and familiar and therefore less painful.

Many of the books are in the broad female author and/or character Classics range – Pride and Prejudice (second on the list, which was published not long after the BBC dramatisation of it: see Lord of the Rings re impact of films), Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Tess of the D’Urbervilles (which I had attempted at school and given up on), Middlemarch, Persuasion, Emma, Far From the Madding Crowd and The Women in White.

There were also a few which could be loosely grouped as ‘American’ and of a certain period – The Catcher in the Rye, Gone with the Wind (long, but enjoyable), The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men.

India featured a number of times (A Suitable Boy, The God of Small Things), as did Latin America (One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera) and a little bit of Oz (Cold Comfort Farm and A Town Like Alice)

Some of the books are extremely well travelled. The Alchemist was read on a plane (business class) from Bali to Singapore. Memoirs of a Geisha in Lombok and Bali, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin on a beach somewhere, but it escapes me, The Secret Garden on a plane, The Tale of Two Cities in San Francisco and Las Vegas, On the Road on a lilo in a Portuguese swimming pool, and Midnight’s Children in Australia (notably at Fifteen in Melbourne). War and Peace is by far the most travelled book, having accompanied me to South Africa, Las Vegas, Thailand, New Zealand, Cambodia, San Francisco, Australia and France, and taking 4 1/2 years in total to read, making it top of the monster (in length and/or complexity) books.

A number of the other monster books surprised me. Anna Karenina was a lovely read, much more engaging than Tolstoy’s other contribution to the list. Crime and Punishment was much more interesting than expected, given I had assumed it would be Dickens-esque. The Secret History was haunting and in places, beautifully written. The Count of Monte Cristo was my penultimate book, and was much improved by being read on the Kindle. The Stand was much more engaging than I expected it to be, although I did manage to get the extended edition, which probably wasn't strictly necessary for the challenge.

The ultimate monster on the list has to be Ulysses. I had a copy on the shelf ready to go for years before I picked it up. I read the first half in print, and then the second half on Kindle, on holiday in Spain where the main daytime activity was reading books and dozing in the sun. It’s possible I read some words in a sun induced haze, but read them I did. Understand them, not so much.

Some don’t sit in a group, and a few of these I have to confess at the time of writing, I can remember nothing about. The details of Brideshead Revisited, The Thorn Birds and I Capture the Castle escape me. Perfume was just weird, and Lord of the Flies was a little odd too.

A Prayer for Owen Meany was very different to what I was expecting, but nonetheless readable and enjoyable. Holes was read in a single session on a Saturday morning, and I’m not sure that improved it. Kane and Abel was an epic saga which would have read differently before Jeffery Archer’s downfall. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists was slightly hard going but reminded me of my 18 year old self studying Sociology A-Level.

That just leaves the fantasy books. I’d obviously had a good look at the list before I started the challenge, and was clear that it had a heavy representation of fantasy. It’s just not my thing. I hated The Hobbit when I had to read it at school, and was convinced that the Lord of the Rings had really only got to the top of the list because of the influence of the films, the final one of which had been launched around the time of the vote.

I struggled through every single word of each of the three books. We had had various debates about whether the entry meant just the first book, or the trilogy. For the sake of completeness, I read all three, and hated them. 100 pages just to walk up one hill? I mean really.

I also read all three His Dark Materials. Now these were better, and certainly my favourite by some way of all the fantasy books. Hitchhiker’s Guide was secretly better than I was willing to let on, and my ‘I hate fantasy’ façade was cracked when I was caught laughing out loud at something in the third book.

The Terry Pratchett’s were commended to me by very good friends and those whose opinions I respect – but I still didn’t enjoy them. Nightwatch, Guards Guards, Mort, Good Omens and The Colour of Magic represent a fair sample of Pratchett’s writing, but they still didn’t inspire me to read more. I admire the author and the man, but the books will only be read by one of the two people in our house in the future.

Dune passed in a haze of strange rocks and alternative worlds, as did Gormenghast. At the youth end of the fantasy genre, The Clan of the Cave Bear and Artemis Fowl weren't too bad.

Magician was my very final book, and I rather regret leaving myself a fantasy to conclude on. It wasn’t too bad, it read quicker than I was expecting for a book of its size, and I was relieved to be finished.

I doubt I will ever read a fantasy book again. The original BBC list was 200, so numbers 101 to 200 sit on the list unticked (apart from the 24 I’ve read anyway). I think I’ll leave it like that, especially as one of them is They Used To Play On Grass by Terry Venables and Gordon Williams.

Trouble is, what to read next? John and I have just put together 2 shelves in our lounge containing 41 books one of us thinks I should read. So that will keep me quiet for a while!