Yes of course I was sent the list - by more than one person who thought I might find it "interesting". Yes, it was interesting.
I think the list came from something like "The Times" - somewhere with at least a reasonable reputation at least. They apparently asked people in more than one country for their choices and then put them together somehow. No, I don't know how it was done.
The question to me of course was, "How many of these have you read Cat?"
I ran my paw down the list and decided it was easier, much easier to work out how many I had not read. Out of a hundred I had read eighty-six - not enough, but not too bad I suppose.
But there were some things missing. "The Little White Horse" (Elizabeth Goudge) was not on the list. "The Woolpack" (Cynthia Harnett) was not there, nor was something like "The Eagle of the Ninth" (Rosemary Sutcliff). Joan Aiken, CS Lewis, KM Peyton, Margot Benary, Erich Kastner and Elfrida Vipont are not mentioned either. They would all be on my list for one reason or another, along with many others.
It made me realise once again just how impossible such lists are. You can never please everyone. Favourite books will always be missing.
I do think though they should not have allowed any author to be mentioned more than once. It might have allowed a few of my favourites to be mentioned.
You can choose ten books...what would you choose?
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The list was from the British Broadcasting Corporation.
I saw the greatest books of the 21st century
and then the greatest books of all time.
The BBC asked people from 45 to 100 countries.
My list [not in order]
PLAYING BEATIE BOW - Ruth Park
WILLY AND THE SQUARE WORLD - Jeffrey Archer
THE SILVER SWORD - Ian Seriallier
THIS IS LONDON - Miroslav Sasek
THE ENCHANTED WOOD - Enid Blyton
THE GREEN DWARF - Charlotte Brontë
SO MUCH TO TELL YOU - John Marsden
TOM'S MIDNIGHT GARDEN - Philippa Pearce
A MONSTER CALLS - Patrick Ness
GOLDEN BOY - Abigail Tarttelin
Thank you for the reference! And your list reminds me of another one missing from the list Ann Holm's "I am David". Do you know that one?
I first knew I AM DAVID in possibly 1993 and 1994
when I was reading the M Readers
[the ones published by Macmillan Children's - like NOBODY'S FAMILY IS GOING TO CHANGE by Louise Fitzhugh
and JACOB TWO-TWO MEETS THE HOODED FANG by Mordecai Richler - which I first knew in 1990/91 and purchased in 1995.
Another one which fascinated me was JULIE OF THE WOLVES
Another one which intrigued me was THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster - I had been so sad when he died - and I loved the absurdity and the Secondary Creation
they are especially good to get ex-library if you like a simple yet challenging shelf. Or to peruse the second-hand bookshops].
I got to know it much better in 2018/19 or even 2020.
It made me think of the Calais refugees and asylum seekers
and the people on Nauru and Manus Island.
[I realised that it had not been set in the Second World War but during the COLD WAR - which was still in the shadows so much].
A good one for Refugee Week!
A current writer - Emily Henry - shared that she wished she had written Naomi Novak's UPROOTED.
That was a book which moved me too - and it has a great crossover appeal for multiple audiences and a very particular appeal to a very particular and peculiar reader.
I am also loving verse fiction like the works of Sarah Crossan whose ONE I read a few weeks ago.
It is about Grace and Tippi [some very fine movie names of the old school - two beautiful women wrapped up in one] and is told from Grace's point of view.
I also got into the reading of national epics.
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