Reflecting on my experience with the BBC’s reading list

It is an awfully long time since I first decided to tackle this list. So much has changed in the time since then, but I’m pleased to report that I’m reading more than ever. Pregnancy and baby’s arrival definitely changed my reading habits, but I’ve managed to keep up reading, which has offered a quiet and calming refuge from the hectic new normal. You can read my first post about the list here.

I first decided to read this list to broaden my reading out, and although (spoiler alert!) I still haven’t finished the list, I think it achieved that goal. I tried things I wouldn’t have otherwise, and sought out authors I’d not read. This is the legacy of this attempt, and one I’m very happy with.

Reflecting on the list itself, one thing that struck me is that a lot of the books aren’t readily available in my Australian library, or even on Amazon. Perhaps that shows that these books are chosen from quite a British perspective, which isn’t surprising given it is by the BBC. It could also show that despite the publicity of being put on the list, they remain a bit niche. It’s easy to find the complete works of Shakespeare, but some of these authors are tough to find. From a completionist perspective (and I definitely count myself as one!), it’s a bit of a nightmare, with numerous series counting towards the hundred total, despite being many books in themselves. So perhaps it was unrealistic to approach this list with the aim of ‘finishing’ it. I have learned and taken a lot from the list, so that’s a victory in itself!

So without further pre-amble, let’s take a look at how many of these books I’ve now actually read.

Identity

Beloved – Toni Morrison – Completed
Days Without End – Sebastian Barry – Completed
Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels
Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi –  Completed
Small Island – Andrea Levy
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
White Teeth – Zadie Smith – Completed
Previous Total: 0/10. New total: 4/10.

Love, Sex and Romance

Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding – Read before
Forever – Judy Blume
Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin – Read before
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen – Read before
Riders – Jilly Cooper
The Far Pavilions – M. M. Kaye
The Forty Rules of Love – Elif Shafak
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
The Passion – Jeanette Winterson
The Slaves of Solitude – Patrick Hamilton
Previous Total: 3/10. New total: unchanged.

Adventure

City of Bohane – Kevin Barry
Eye of the Needle – Ken Follett
For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
His Dark Materials Trilogy – Philip Pullman – Read before
Ivanhoe – Walter Scott
Mr Steadfast – John Buchan
The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler – Completed
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins – Read before
The Jack Aubrey Novels – Patrick O’Brian
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – J.R.R. Tolkien – Read before (too many times!)
Previous total: 3/10. New total: 4/10

Life, Death and Other Worlds

A Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin – Read before
Astonishing the Gods – Ben Okri
Dune – Frank Herbert
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley – Read before
Gildead – Marilynne Robinson – Commenced but didn’t finish
The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis – Read before
The Discworld Series – Terry Pratchett – I’ve now read several Discworld books, so I’m counting this as completed!
The Earthsea Trilogy – Ursula K. Le Guin – Read before
The Road – Cormac McCarthy
The Sandman Series – Neil Gaiman
Previous total: 4/10. New total: 5/10

Politics, Power and Protest

A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie
Lord of the Flies – William Golding – Read before
Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman – Read before
Strumpet City – James Plunkett
The Color Purple – Alice Walker – Completed
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee – Read before
Unless – Carol Shields
V for Vendetta – Alan Moore
Previous total: 3/10. New total: 4/10.

Class and Society

A House for Mr Biswas – V. S. Naipaul
Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
Disgrace – J. M. Coetzee
Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens
Poor Cow – Nell Dunn
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – Alan Sillitoe
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne – Brian Moore
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys
Previous total: 0/10. New total: unchanged.

Coming of Age

Emily of New Moon – L. M. Montgomery – Completed
Golden Child – Claire Adam
Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood
So Long, See You Tomorrow – William Maxwell
Swami and Friends – R. K. Narayan
The Country Girls – Edna O’Brien
The Harry Potter series – J. K. Rowling – Read before
The Outsiders – S. E. Hinton
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 – Sue Townsend – Completed
The Twilight Saga – Stephanie Meyer
Previous total: 1/10. New total: 3/10.

Family and Friendship

A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
Ballet Shoes – Noel Streatfeild
Cloudstreet – Tim Winton – Completed
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons – Read before
I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith – Read before
Middlemarch – George Eliot – Completed
Tales of the City – Armistead Maupin
The Shipping News – E. Annie Proulx
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë
The Witches – Roald Dahl- Completed
Previous total: 2/10. New total: 5/10.

Crime and Conflict

American Tabloid – James Ellroy
American War – Omar El Akkad
Ice Candy Man – Bapsi Sidhwa
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier – Completed
Regeneration – Pat Barker – Read before
The Children of Men – P. D. James – Completed
The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle – Completed
The Quiet American – Graham Greene
The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
The Talented Mr Ripley – Patricia Highsmith – Completed
Previous total: 2/10. New total: 5/10.

Rule Breakers

A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
Bartleby, the Scrivener – Herman Melville
Habibi – Craig Thompson
How to be Both – Ali Smith
Nights at the Circus – Angela Carter
Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
Orlando – Virginia Woolf
Psmith, Journalist – P. G. Wodehouse
The Moor’s Last Sigh – Salman Rushdie
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name – Audre Lord
Previous total: 0/10. New total: unchanged.

Total read previously: 21. New total: 33.

Reflecting on the ones I read, I don’t think there were any that I really disliked! They all brought something, and I enjoyed the variety I got from the list. Having said that, it’s clear that I stuck to my ‘usual’ genre a bit! Perhaps I’ll have to have another crack at the list? I still turn to it when I’m running out of ideas, although more often my reading choices these days are led by what I can find on my library app. Overall I think this was a great exercise, and an interesting list, even if it does have its imperfections.

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Have you ever attempted a big reading challenge like this? What do you make of the BBC’s list? Are there any gaping holes, or choices you can’t agree with? Looking at it now, I don’t think its quite as comprehensive, canon- breaking, or diverse as they might have thought. How do you find inspiration for what to read next? Please feel free to share your experiences and thoughts in a comment!