Has anyone else questioned why Bridget Jones' Diary is on this list?? Bizarre.

At least 42 for me

64; I used to read a lot

Anonymous wrote:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/mar/01/news

There is the link to the list.

And this is the link to the article that created it

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6405737.stm

OP, where did you read about the 6 books thing? I know this made the blog rounds some time ago and no one could find that info either, and concluded that it was "made up".

And, here is a website also trying to get to the bottom of it;

http://www.purplecar.net/2009/03/how-do-memes-start-a-case-study-100-books-in-facebook/

PP, thanks for the links, especially the purple car one.

I have read 32 (many of the classics back when I wa in school). I thought it was appropriate for some newer best sellers to be listed as well as "classics".

61. I want to go read Dune again now!

Weird list. Why is the complete works of Shakespeare one book? Why are both the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Lion and the Witch and the Wardrobe on there?

I'm well past 6, although my personal list would be heavy on the children's lit.

50..and I really did not enjoy any of them except the ones I read in elementary school (Gone with the Wind, Narnia, Lion, Witch Wardrobe, Chocolate Factory etc). I have enjoyed reading the kid ones to my children. I did enjoy Dante's Inferno, a few of the Shakespeare plays and Faust (didn't make the list but its based on the Inferno). I liked The Jungle by Sinclair.In college, I liked ancient Greek and Roman literature.

The majority of English literature is incredibly boring and so wrapped in the time period that the themes and universal ideas buried always seemed less impactful. I never felt that they opened my eyes, it was more of feeling of "oh, so that's the point".

21

15

35 here...but that's only because I'm not much of a fan for classics. There were many classics that I wish I had read, but I tend not to pick them up on my own, so I've mostly read the classics that were assigned in school.

These days I read predominantly science fiction/fantasy, plays, and non-fiction biographies. If you add plays, I've read at least 5 more of these titles as play adaptations (and seen productions of them). But it amazes me some of the titles on this list and some of the excluded authors. Really? No Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Agatha Christie, Isaac Asimov, Oscar Wilde, but you include Dan Brown? Huh.

Anonymous wrote:49. (Thank you, excellent boarding school education!) And yes, some of them are so random - The Five People You Meet in Heaven? The DaVinci Code? Not really on a par with the others.

55. I guess I should thank my public school (in Eastern Europe)

I read at least 18 but possibly more. I discounted some of the Austen books because I was not sure if I read them all. I also did not count Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm, but of which I felt that I was tortured with in eighth grade Civics.

Anonymous wrote:I think a haven't read six. (I was an English major. And my mother and English teacher.)

You were an English major with an English teacher as a mother. But you made two mistakes just in your brief response. Yikes!

I think a haven't read six. (I was an English major. And my mother and English teacher.)