World Book Day

Today is the 10th annual World Book Day. Although mainly aimed at kids, to celebrate the 10th anniversary, there’s been a special feature this year for adults who have been invited to nominate the 10 books that they could not do without. The full results are published today with a top 100 list analysed by age and region.
The number 1 spot goes to “Pride And Prejudice” by Jane Austen which I’ve nver read. In fact, I’ve only read 21 of the top 100. What about you?
One of the three works in the top 10 that I have read is the wonderful “His Dark Materials” by Philip Pullman which is actually a trilogy totalling 1,300 pages. You can read my reviews of “Northern Lights”, “The Subtle Knife” and “The Amber Spyglass”.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 9:16 am and is filed under Cultural issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Comments

  • Janet
    March 1st, 2007 at 1:37 pm

    I’ve read all or part of 34 of the 100 (Not the whole of Shakespeare), and interestingly only 5 of the most popular 10 of my age group. As a neat link with yesterday’s blog, I’m actually currently reading Colin Thuberon’s “In Siberia”.

  • Sharon
    March 1st, 2007 at 7:39 pm

    Well, I have read 8 of the top 10 overall, 7 of the top 10 (men) and 8 of the top 10 (women) and 8 of the top 10 in my age group. I have also read 44 of the top 100. Does that make me a prolific reader? Or just one who selects well?

  • Philip
    March 2nd, 2007 at 10:54 am

    I’ve read 47 of ’em. Like all these lists though they are very wide ranging. Don’t think I’d want to read too many of those I’ve missed as they don’t catch my interest. I’d have to put Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban, in there. Not as my favourite but certainly in my top 10.

  • Roger Darlington
    March 2nd, 2007 at 5:29 pm

    So that’s me 21, Janet 34, Sharon 44, Philip 47.
    Can anyone beat that?

  • Janet
    March 12th, 2007 at 2:39 pm

    A related topic has come up for discussion today in a daily Telegraph article on abandoned books. Which books have you started to read and never finished? I am thinking ….
    See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=BLOGDETAIL&grid=F11&blog=yourview&xml=/news/2007/03/12/ublview12a.xml

  • Roger Darlington
    March 12th, 2007 at 2:58 pm

    Yes, I saw this, Janet – although in the “Guardian” rather than the “Daily Telegraph” (which perhaps reflects our diffrent politics). I’ll bog about it in a new posting tomorrow.