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The Big Read

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Survey on books carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003 For the United States communal reading program, see One City One Book.

The Big Read was a survey on books carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003, where over three-quarters of a million votes were received from the British public to find the nation's best-loved novel. The year-long survey was the biggest single test of public reading taste to date, and culminated with several programmes hosted by celebrities, advocating their favourite books.

Purpose

The BBC started the Big Read with the goal of finding the "Nation's Best-loved Novel" by way of a viewer vote via the Web, SMS, and telephone. The show attracted controversy for adopting an allegedly sensationalist approach to literature, but supporters praised it for raising the public awareness of reading. The British public voted originally for any novel that they wished. From this, a list of 200 was drawn up, with the highest 21 then put forward for further voting, on the provision that only one book per author was permitted in the top 21. As the poll was based on novels, the plays of William Shakespeare were not part of the survey.

Partial list

  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 Bernières
  20. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Authors with multiple novels on the list

Multiple novels in the Top 25

In the first stage, all four extant Harry Potter novels by J. K. Rowling were among the 25 leaders. So were both Middle-earth novels by J. R. R. Tolkien. The second stage featured 21 books by distinct authors: the top 25 with Rowling represented only by her fourth volume, Goblet of Fire, and Tolkien only by The Lord of the Rings. Those two novels finally placed fifth and first; the other preliminary leaders by Rowling and Tolkien nominally led the also-rans in ranks 22–25.

Multiple novels in the Top 50
Multiple novels in the Top 100
Multiple novels in the Top 200

Similar contests

Contests similar to the Big Read were conducted in other countries:

Other lists:

References

  1. The BBC's Big Read BBC - The Big Read April 2003, Retrieved 9 December 2008
  2. Penguin Dominates The Big Read Top 100 Penguin Press Office
  3. John Ezard (15 December 2003) Tolkien runs rings round Big Read rivals. The Guardian
  4. Boyd Tonkin (24 October 2003) A Week in Books: The Big Read aims to reflect mass taste. The Independent
  5. ^ Book awards: BBC's Big Read - LibraryThing Retrieved 28 November 2010
  6. My Favourite Book - The Top 100 ABC Retrieved 6 December 2010
  7. "Lielā Lasīšana". Archived from the original on 31 October 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  8. "The Great American Read". PBS. Retrieved 3 August 2024.

External links

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