Group discussion

Despite the increase in TV watching, reading still is an im­portant leisure activity in Britain. More than 5,000 titles were nominated in a national survey conducted in 1996. The public was invited to suggest up to five books. It was later suggested that the votes either came from English literary students or from people who were showing off. What do you think? Can you point out a few important names that failed to make it into the top 100 list?

1. The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien

2. 1984 George Orwell

3. Animal Farm George Orwell

4. Ulysses James Joyce

5. Catch-22 Joseph Heller

6. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger

7. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

8. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez

9. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck

10. Trainspotting Irvine Welsh

11. Wild Swans Jung Chang

12. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

13. Lord of the Flies William Golding

14. On the Road Jack Kerouac

15. Brave New World Aldous Huxley

16. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame

17. Winnie-the-Pooh A. A, Milne

18. TheCotor Purple Alice Walker

19. The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien

20. The Outsider Albert Camus

21. The lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C. S. Lewis

22. The Trial Franz Kafka

23. Gone with the Wind Margaret Michell

24. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams

25. Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie