I did this on my facebook but thought I'd put it up here too, just for overkill. And also cos I don't really know why I put it on my almost completely unused facebook. Manics-inspired delirium
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I have been successfully dodging this one on Facebook so far, and happy about it too: it's so personal! I've read 47 of them, for the record, although I really object to some of the books included: I mean, The Da Vinci Code, really?!
Yeah, I didn't really get the criteria for selection. There are some trashy potboilers (Gone with the Wind, Da Vinci Code) and some schlock (Five People ...) as well as a strange mixture of children's books and some kind of weird attempt to include so-called "world literature" (Garcia Marquez) while at the same time being an incredibly white list (seriously, Alice Walker is the only black writer on the list. No Ralph Ellison? No James Baldwin? No Toni Morrison? NO FREDERICK DOUGLASS??). So, even more awkward than the usual run of these things.
I must take issue with your remark about Gone With the Wind. It's not in any way trashy or formulaic. It's filled with historical fact and cultural metaphor, and the only real romance is the Southerners' romantic notions of war.
That explains GWTW and Five People ... but not most of the classics. Maybe people were just casting about for books they thought would impress the interviewer. I mean, for example I like Middlemarch, but I kind of thought it was a minority view.
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Here's a good critical analysis - http://www.answers.com/topic/gone-with-the-wind-novel-7
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"In April 2003 the BBC's Big Read began the search for the nation's best-loved novel, and we asked you to nominate your favourite books.
Below and on the next page are all the results from number 1 to 100 in numerical order!"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml
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