The Big Read

[David]

See www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/

As you can see, Britain's favourite 100 books were announced (though 
not the order - that will happen in the autumn) last weekend.

Note that authors did not have to be British (e.g. John Steinbeck) 
or even write in English (e.g. Fyodor Dostoyevsky).

Only one author made the list 5 times: Charles Dickens.  Terry 
Pratchett scored 4.5, as he only has half of Good Omens, the only 
collaboration on the list.  Pratchett fans will be surprised at 
presence of The Colour of Magic, but not Mort, Guards! Guards!, or 
Night Watch.

Roald Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson and JK Rowling got four each - all of 
them regarded as children's authors by the media, though I have no 
ideal of the proportion of children in the vote.  (I suspect 
Pratchett, too, is regarded as suspiciously juvenile by those with 
more degrees than sense.)

Some anomalies: Pullman appeared only once, for His Dark Materials, 
but if that's one book, why isn't Harry Potter?  Winnie the Pooh is 
there but not The House At Pooh Corner - is that a reflection of 
relative popularity, or are the two subsumed in one?  I assume The 
Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe means just that, not the entire 
Narnia series.

Whether one can take seriously a list that includes a work by 
Jeffrey Archer I leave to your judgement.

My own vote, Kim, by Rudyard Kipling, didn't make the grade, nor did 
any of his other works.

David