In 2003, the BBC went on a big quest to find Britain's best-loved novel and they posted a list of the top 200 books. Number 1 was The Lord of the Rings. Many of them are the ones you find on all of the classic book lists, but there were also quite a few surprises, including a lot of children's books, which I was pleased to see.
Here, with their ranking numbers still attached, are the ones that I've read. It's definitely a very British list, almost every book British kids/YA author Jacqueline Wilson has written was on it (except the few that I've read!) and Terry Pratchett was well-represented. There are tons of Roald Dahl books on there, but I honestly can't remember whether I've read them all, so I left them out.
And once again, I haven't read nearly enough classics. Sigh.
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (well sort of, I think it was an abridged version)
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews