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12-15-2003, 05:42 AM
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#1 |
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Elf Lord
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Durham, England
Posts: 694
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LOTR wins the BBC Big Read
The BBC's latest Big Read event ended on the weekend, with the voting confined to the Top 21 books from the previous Big Read Top 100.
The winner (having led throughout) was Lord of the Rings. The Top 5 was: 1. Lord of the Rings 2. Pride and Prejudice 3. His Dark Materials 4. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy 5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
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12-17-2003, 06:30 AM
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#2 |
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Enting
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: The Last Homely House
Posts: 52
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How could LOTR not have won? It was voted The greatest book of the 20th century. THe main question is: without the films would it still have won?
Note: I must have good tastes. I've read 4 out of the 5 in the top 5. (not Pride and Prejudice)
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12-17-2003, 09:28 AM
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#3 |
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Death of Mooters and [Entmoot] Internal Affairs
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Oslo, Norway
Posts: 2,870
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Those are my favorite books as well (with the exception of Pride and Prejustice, which I haven't read, and the Silmarillion missing), in that order!
 Of course LotR won, it's best. 
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Fëanor - Innocence incarnated Still, Aikanáro 'till the Last battle. Last edited by Falagar : 12-17-2003 at 10:31 AM. |
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12-17-2003, 11:48 AM
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#4 | |
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Alasailon
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: college
Posts: 861
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Quote:
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12-17-2003, 06:27 PM
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#5 |
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Elven Warrior
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Tolkien's England where the tale grew in the telling...
Posts: 330
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The BBC Big Read started well and then went to pieces. They over did the hype and then chose the weirdest way to introduce the books. Yes, of course, LoTR's came first, and Pride and Prejudice really is a fantastic book (those of you who haven't read it should do so), but His Dark Materials the third greatest book ever?!?!?!?
 only in a very small dank universe - surely some mistake Ed? |
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12-18-2003, 12:21 AM
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Co-President of Entmoot
Super Moderator 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Canada
Posts: 8,397
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Quote:
Of course it would have won without the movies!  
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12-18-2003, 07:24 AM
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#7 | |
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Elf Lord
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Durham, England
Posts: 694
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Quote:
Best of the ones I saw was Sanjeev Bhaskar doing Hitchikers - a very good comedy writer explaining comedy writing, it worked well. As to the final finishing places...I think it shows that interest in reading is really being rekindled among the younger generation in the UK - and just how fantastic is that?
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12-18-2003, 08:52 AM
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#8 |
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Elf Lord
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Tring, Herts, England
Posts: 582
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What I found hilarious was that apparently since the Big Read programmes started, sales of books hardly rose at all, but sales of audio books and film/tv adaptations rose substantially!
All top five books are amazing reads. Pride and Predjudice is my favourite book that isn't fantasy/science fiction, and is definitely a good book to start with if you want to read Jane Austen. And yes, I would put it above the Silmarillion. While I was fascinated by the Sil, reading it was work! It's more like reading ancient history and mythology than a novel, not really a story at all. His Dark Materials is... interesting. The first two are pretty much straightforward, but the Amber Spyglass turns a lot of things upside down. And it made me cry. And yay for Douglas Adams!!! I love Hitchhiker's Guide, and am desperate for a copy. But so far, all of my money seems to be going on collecting the History of Middle Earth. :O
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12-18-2003, 10:36 AM
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Death of Mooters and [Entmoot] Internal Affairs
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Oslo, Norway
Posts: 2,870
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Quote:
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You should visit Norway once.
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Fëanor - Innocence incarnated Still, Aikanáro 'till the Last battle. Last edited by Falagar : 12-18-2003 at 10:41 AM. |
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12-18-2003, 04:49 PM
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#10 |
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The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium)
Posts: 14,363
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LoTR just has to be number one obviously.
I do wonder , just as Bilbo, what the influences of the movies were on the vote. Though personally I think LoTR is strong enough as a book to deserve number one without really needing the movies to remain top-book.His dark materials surprised me somewhat to be found at number 3. I heard a lot of good critic of it, even here one the Entmoot. But personally I wasn't so blown away by it and I thought it had some loose ends.
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12-18-2003, 04:52 PM
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#11 |
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Tea Bag Queen
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Mirkwood
Posts: 973
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yay! I watched, i cheered! lol
I knew they would win but i still voted everyday  well whenever i was online i voted on the website!Well Done LOTR!!!!!!!! Yay and Harry Potter made it into Top 5!!!!! |
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12-18-2003, 04:53 PM
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#12 |
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Elf Lord
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Israel
Posts: 6,975
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When did LoTR won in the greatest book in the 20th century? Was it before the first movie?
Last edited by Radagast The Brown : 12-18-2003 at 04:54 PM. |
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12-18-2003, 07:35 PM
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#13 |
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Master of Orchestration President Emeritus of Entmoot 2004-2008
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Lost in the Opera House
Posts: 9,328
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i knew lotr would win
.haha harry potter! you little pib-squeak! hehe upset you didnt get to the top eh? hehe i didnt really like his dark materials after the first book. it got really irreverent to christianity. and it was taking itself to seriously.
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12-18-2003, 10:33 PM
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#14 |
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Viggoholic
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,749
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The LOTR has been voted the best book before the movies came out. For example, in 1997 Waterstones surveyed 25,000 people in Britain asking what was the best book of the 20th century and the LOTR came first.
I've read all the books except Pride and Prejudice. His Dark Materials are excellent books, although the last one was a let down. Of course Harry Potter would be there, given his popularity. Hitchhikers is great, but top 5? I love Douglas Adams, but that surprised me. And, of course, I think LOTR is the best book I've ever read, so I'm happy with this result.
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12-19-2003, 03:03 PM
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#15 |
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Enting
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: here, there, everywhere
Posts: 88
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Im not familiar with this... erm, list of the greatest books of all time. *snigger* Might I ask how these books were chosen? Out of the entirety of extant literature, these are the five greatest? What about Pope's translation of the Iliad? Dante's Divine Comedy? Moby Dick? The King James Bible? Joyce's Ulysses? I can understand Tolkien and Jane Austen being on the list, but not at the top. As for the other three, they're enjoyable enough, but surely you don't think that they'll be taught at St. John's 500 years hence?
In conclusion, what is John Bull smoking these days? Better than Longbottom Leaf it must be!
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12-19-2003, 03:22 PM
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#16 | |
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Death of Mooters and [Entmoot] Internal Affairs
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Oslo, Norway
Posts: 2,870
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Quote:
Should people vote for the book they enjoy the most, or the books that are accounted for as classics? How does a book become good, and who should decide which books are the best? Old professors? About being thaught at St. John's 500 years from now; well, why not?
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Fëanor - Innocence incarnated Still, Aikanáro 'till the Last battle. |
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12-19-2003, 03:58 PM
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#17 | |
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Lady of Letters
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England
Posts: 2,476
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Quote:
Don't think I'm making claims for The Big Read as authoritative, though - it certainly wasn't. And for the record, Anglorfin, I also put Pride and Prejudice above LOTR
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And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool. |
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12-19-2003, 06:28 PM
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#18 |
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Enting
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: here, there, everywhere
Posts: 88
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All right then, that makes a bit more sense, but now I have a new gripe: If its a list of the best loved novels, why was Ulysses anywhere on the list? A great book, yes, but I can't say that I know anyone who dosen't hate the blasted thing.
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If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?! |
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12-19-2003, 06:34 PM
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#19 |
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Lady of Letters
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England
Posts: 2,476
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That's a very good point
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And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool. |
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12-25-2003, 07:52 PM
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#20 |
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Hobbit
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: In a small town in a small state in a...rather overlarge country
Posts: 38
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I liked it. But maybe I'm just sick and twisted.
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