I came across this bit from the BBC this week, and took the challenge. It was interesting to see what books they included and I blow by the 6, but only got up in the low 30's. Sadly, I only read that many due to being required to at school. So while the list has modern titles as well as 'classic', the books I have read fell mostly in the 'classic' side. There are those that would suggest that that is because of my age. I would guess that to be right - but not for the reason one might think. I am sure that the 'classics' I was required to read in High School are a far different mix than the ones high school students read now.

I was lucky as well that a number of Jane Austen/Bronte sisters books were included. One summer I set a challenge to myself to read all of Jane Austen and succeeded. Bronte sisters were out of necessity. I have to be reading at all times, and there were many times I was scraping the barrel for something to read. So depending on where we were at that time, I was either dipping into my mother's collection, the books left in our place in Maine from the time it was built in the early 1900's, or at the little library we visited regularly in Maine. Talk about scraping the barrel. This library was dark and probably saw 20 new books a year. I was reading 20 books easily a week, and inevitably over the course of my childhood, read nearly all the books in the library. These were mostly books printed prior to 1930. You know they were old when they were the books Shirley Temple movies were based on. So I picked up some credit on this BBC list from that library. I would like to say I read the Bible (also on the list) as a result of my years going to church each week, but I read that due to a course in college: Archaeology and the Bible. Yeah, I took a number of archaeology courses (a paper I wrote on coprolites was a huge hit with my professor, but that is a (funny) story for another day), but in this one we read the Bible from cover to cover.

So does it really matter why you read a great book or is just the fact that you read it enough? Hard to tell, but I do remember those books more vividly than others I tore through recreationally. No doubt because I had to remember enough to talk about it later.

Take the challenge and see where you fall. And remember, it is a list created by the BBC so it skews a bit British. You could also try this list of titles recommended by Amazon to read in a lifetime. I did a bit better with that group!