Talk:The Big Read

Redirect

Does anyone know why there's a redirect at the top of this article to One City One Book? Is that also known as "The Big Read"? If so shouldn't there be similar redirects to other countries' versions of the "The Big Read"? There are a number mentioned in the article itself. 86.148.76.130 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 18:21, 27 October 2024 (UTC)

Missing the Obvious

Am I really the *only* one to notice that this article is a complete fail? The article itself claims that the contest ultimately ended up with a winnowing down to a top 21, yet we are left to buy a Ouija board to figure out which of the 200 won that competition; apparently that list is a top military secret or something. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.212.12.92 (talk) 17:14, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Who cares? This is pop drivel, and if any reasonable standard for what applies as "information" were applied, this list would surely never be considered encyclopaedic. That Alexandre Dumas is not even in the top 10--and the list--including some in the top 10, is so heavily populated with insipid pabulum is a travesty. This list should never have been mentioned again after [or outside of] its publishing--much less enshrined in any kind of encyclopaedia to pollute the minds of the budding literati. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.170.70.57 (talk) 03:07, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

Editorial comments in-text

I don't know who did this, and I'm not going to put forth the effort to figure it out, but I removed from the end of the intro paragraph the following:

"Please just delete the parenthetical above if the Wikipedian mania for citations and objectivity is so all-consuming that statement of the obvious requires documentation. (That is not what scholarship is about.)"

I don't have an opinion on what "scholarship is about" in this context, but Wikipedia is definitely NOT about putting editorial comments in the article itself! Felosele (talk) 14:48, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Wikilinks

I have wikilinked each entry on these lists to improve the look of the page - unfortunately this has created a lot of redlinks in the Hungarian section. If someone knows of a bot which will remove all links beyond the first please direct it at this page and see how it looks - personally I think for list like this each entry should be linked. QmunkE 12:35, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Are you sure that the quotation marks (which refer to literal translations of titles of books that haven't been published in English) should be included in the links? Even if the books should appear some time under those specific titles in English, they'll certainly not have the quotation marks! I think we'd better leave the quotation marks outside the link brackets. Adam78 15:54, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

I didn't realise what the quotation marks were for until after I'd linked everything - thanks for changing them. QmunkE 18:28, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Links in Results

A mess, links anywhere except the actual book. Skinnyweed 17:27, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I think they're all done now. — RevRagnarok ^{Talk Contrib} 17:41, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

sources

the bbc website says they recieved three quarters of a million votes, while the hungarian section of this article says that in britain there were only 140000 votes. where did the number 140000 come from?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.142.176.194 (talk • contribs) 22:18, 29 April 2006

The source is Index.hu, this article.

Az interneten ugyan még április 22-én 14 óráig lehet szavazni, de a szavazólapok összesítése már megkezdődött, az már biztos, hogy A Nagy Könyv kezdeményezés legalábbis a leadott szavazatok számát tekintve megelőzte az anyaműsort, az angol BBC-n futó "The Big Read"-et. Az április 19-i adatok alapján a szavazatok száma megközelíti a 200 ezret, ami minden várakozást felülmúl, a "The Big Read" program első fordulójában összesen 140 ezer szavazat érkezett, pedig Anglia 60 millió lakosával és az MTV-nél jobb közönségarányt elérő közszolgálati csatornájával jelentős előnyben volt.

Translation:

Although it is possible to vote on the Internet until 2 pm, April 22, summing up of the voting sheets has begun. It is already certain that, at least in terms of the votes given, "A Nagy Könyv" [The Big Book] initiative has overtaken the mother-programme, "The Big Read", running on the British BBC. According to the April 19 data, the total of the votes approaches 200 thousand, surpassing all expectations: in the first turn of "The Big Read" there were altogether 140 thousand votes arriving, although the UK with its 60 million inhabitants and its public service channel reaching a higher proportion of the public than MTV (Hungarian television) had a significant advantage.

Adam78 11:35, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Split Requested

Personally, I think the German and Hungarian versions of The Big Read should have their own articles, to keep the British article small and everything cleaned up and organised. The Australian version (My Favourite Book) has its own article -- why not them? -- azumanga 23:10, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. Go for it. — RevRagnarok ^{Talk Contrib} 16:20, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Also agree; it would be neater and more consistent. Robina Fox 13:13, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

agree! Erich 23:24, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Category

Does anybody think it would be worth the effort to add a category? It wouldn't be hard with AWB, but I think it would be slicker if we had the category "properly" sorted, e.g. The Lord of the Rings actually sorts to 001 - The Lord of the Rings. I can probably do it with AWB but not sure how people would feel about it. Please discuss. ;) — RevRagnarok ^{Talk Contrib} 16:25, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh well, no discussion. I just finished Category:Big Read Books (188 of 200 items, some were redlinks, etc) and am now starting Category:Big Read Authors. — RevRagnarok ^{Talk Contrib} 17:40, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Less than 2 hours later, they're both up for CfD. :( — RevRagnarok ^{Talk Contrib} 20:15, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, as they said over there, the category was not a good idea. The list is better. Carcharoth 10:13, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Succession boxes for "The Big Read"

Succession boxes for several entries on this list were added by Eldestone. I've invited Eldestone here to discuss this, as I disagree with the idea of having succession boxes for this sort of thing. Carcharoth 10:15, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

And I think that it's a great idea, which hardly is surprising. It would be easier to navigate among the books in the Big Read and the succession boxes with the Big Read would look nice integrated into the succession boxes that many of the articles already have. Eldestone 10:26, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Technically, those are not successions. If you had Big Read polls in 2003, 2004, 2005, etc. Then possibly you could do this, but for the winner only. But you are reinventing the single 2003 list at Big Read as a series of succession boxes. There have not been later Big Read polls, as far as I know. It also gets silly when you get down to the later entries (eg. number 200) in the list, as seen at yout talk page User_talk:Eldestone. Sorry, but I still think this is a really bad idea. People reading the individual articles should click on Big Read to get to the list. People can use the list at Big Read to navigate around. Why are succession boxes easier to navigate than a list? Carcharoth 10:43, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, I still think it would be nice. I guess it comes down to how noteworthy you consider the Big Read. Eldestone 10:59, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Examples

To Kill a Mockingbird:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Eldestone 10:26, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

It does seem excessive. Before reading the article here, I never heard of it - it's not on the order of the example Pulitzer. What needs to be done (since the category was ditched) is a simple statement somewhere in the article that was ranked n out of 200 in The BBC's Big Read. — RevRagnarok ^{Talk Contrib} 11:38, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I was invited to comment here by Carcharoth. I do not like these navigation boxes, especially for ranking how individual books ranked in a published list (because some books will be ranked highly in multiple lists, leading to multiple cumbersome navigation boxes). The navigation boxes shown here are specifically cumbersome for navigating among the books in the Big Read. I would simply rather see the book's awards listed in one bulleted list and the book's inclusion in various published lists given in a second bulleted list. (unsigned comment added by User:Dr. Submillimeter)

Eldestone, there seems to be enough consensus to replace the succession boxes with "ranked n out of 200 in The BBC's Big Read" comments. What do you think? Carcharoth 14:25, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I think that it's a good idea. Eldestone 07:55, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

The Big Read is hardly notable enough for succession boxes. I hope these are dismantled over time. The Big Read is just one of dozens of such lists that come out every year in the press. It's slow news day material. I caution users from falling too in love with their favorite list and plastering it all over Wikipedia. This seems to be a common problem actually, the Time 100 list is another example. Fothergill Volkensniff IV (talk) 04:06, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Lord of the Rings -vs- Harry Potter

Why is the Lord of the rings combined as a single novel (3: Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Return of the King) while the Harry Potter series is not combined? Fothergill Volkensniff IV (talk) 04:03, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Same goes for His Dark Materials which is condensed into one while Discworld and The Chronicles of Narnia are divided into their individual chapters.

Discworld novels are stand-alone. They are situated in the same world, but have little in common (especially the ones that do not feature the same characters). --Laveol ^T 12:20, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Because The LotR was a single, multi-volume book (6 volumes I think?, although it's generally condensed into 3 books for some reason). The Hobbit was a separate, earlier work, that originally didn't even take place in the same universe as LotR (The Hobbit was rewritten after LotR was published so that they were compatible). Same with The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (and his replacement). The WoT is a single 14 volume novel (plus one prequel), not 14 different novels. I don't know about the His Dark Materials novels/volumes, since I haven't read them. Discworld and Narnia are both divided into separate novels that make up a series.

It's a little weird, because in the case of Discworld you really could divide the series up into 5 or 6 different multi-volume books if you so desired (The City Watch books, Death's books, The Wizards' books, The Witches' books, Ankh-Morporkian Evolution books (Newspaper/Klacks/Mint/Postoffice/Taxreform/Peacekeeping, etc), and Misc. Did I miss a category?). I guess in the end it all boils down to author's choice. Gopher65_talk 15:32, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

(Years later.) These replies are reasonable and the BBC identification of 200 titles as novels may be reasonable but more explanation is appropriate if available. To this point we now say only,

• "The British public voted originally for any novel that they wished.[5] From this, a list of 200 was drawn up [...] As the poll was based on novels, the plays of William Shakespeare were not part of the survey."

In the unstructured first round, no doubt the public voted for many titles that the BBC deemed inappropriate, not only titles of Shakespeare plays and such as The Fellowship of the Ring and Harry Potter. Contemporary coverage of the first or second stage probably includes something about the intervening editorial work of culling and combining free-form titles.

Perhaps number 199 The Very Hungry Caterpillar represents a class of books that was otherwise culled. Or a gross oversight. --P64 (talk) 17:06, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

Celebrities who plugged the top books

When this programme was on in 2003, celebrities plugged each of the top 21 books - for example, Ray Mears plugged "The Lord of the Rings", and Meera Syal plugged "Pride and Prejudice". Does any one think we need to have the celebrities who plugged the top books in the article? ACEOREVIVED (talk) 21:25, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

The full list is as follows, if someone wants to add this in:

Episode 1: The Big Read Launch (Saturday 5 April 2003)

Episode 2: The Big Read Top 100 (Saturday 17 May 2003)

Episode 3: The Big Read Top 21 Revealed (Saturday 18 October 2003)

Episode 4: Pride and Prejudice (Meera Syal)/His Dark Materials (Benedict Allen)/Birdsong (William Hague) (Saturday 25 October 2003)

Episode 5: Winnie the Pooh (Phill Jupitus)/Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Clare Short)/The Catcher in the Rye (Ruby Wax) (Saturday 1 November 2003)

Episode 6: To Kill a Mockingbird (John Humphrys)/The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Sanjeev Bhaskar)/Gone with the Wind (Arabella Weir) (Saturday 8 November 2003)

Episode 7: The Lord of the Rings (Ray Mears)/Wuthering Heights (Alistair McGowan)/Catch-22 (John Sergeant) (Saturday 15 November 2003)

Episode 8: Great Expectations (David Dimbleby)/Rebecca (Alan Titchmarsh)/1984 (Jo Brand) (Saturday 22 November 2003)

Episode 9: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Fay Ripley)/The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Ronni Ancona)/The Wind in the Willows (Bill Oddie) (Saturday 29 November 2003)

Episode 10: War and Peace (Simon Schama)/Little Woman (Sandi Toksvig)/Jane Eyre (Lorraine Kelly) (Saturday 6 December 2003)

Episode 11: The Big Read Final (Saturday 13 December 2003)

There was also a spin-off show called "The Big Read: Battle of the Books" which aired on BBC4, both with the vast majority of the top 21 going head-to-head, and then continuing after the final and going well into 2004. This may not be the definitive list as this was picked up from the BBC Genome/Programme Index listings:

Episode 1: The Big Read Debate with Andrew Marr (John Carey, Germaine Greer, Hari Kunzru, India Knight and Michael Rosen) (Saturday 17 May 2003)

Episode 2: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Pride and Prejudice vs. Bridget Jones's Diary (Thursday 12 June 2003)

Episode 3: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone vs. Alice in Wonderland (Thursday 19 June 2003)

Episode 4: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Great Gatsby vs. Brideshead Revisited (Thursday 26 June 2003)

Episode 5: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Ulysses vs. The Alchemist (Thursday 3 July 2003)

Episode 6: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Lord of the Flies vs. Animal Farm (Thursday 10 July 2003)

Episode 7: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Catcher in the Rye vs. On the Road (Thursday 17 July 2003)

Episode 8: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy vs. Discworld (Thursday 7 August 2003)

Episode 9: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Midnight's Children vs. 100 Years of Solitude (Thursday 14 August 2003)

Episode 10: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Rebecca vs. Jane Eyre (Thursday 21 August 2003)

Episode 11: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Captain Corelli's Mandolin vs. Birdsong (Thursday 28 August 2003)

Episode 12: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Godfather vs. Crime and Punishment (Tuesday 2 September 2003)

Episode 13: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Treasure Island vs. Lord of the Rings (Thursday 4 September 2003)

Episode 14: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Gone with the Wind vs. Wuthering Heights (Tuesday 9 September 2003)

Episode 15: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Grapes of Wrath vs. To Kill a Mockingbird (Thursday 11 September 2003)

Episode 16: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - His Dark Materials vs. Gormenghast (Tuesday 16 September 2003)

Episode 17: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - A Suitable Boy vs. Middlemarch (Thursday 18 September 2003)

Episode 18: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Woman in White vs. Bleak House (Tuesday 30 September 2003)

Episode 19: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Secret History vs. Perfume (Thursday 2 October 2003)

Episode 20: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Catch 22 vs. War and Peace (Tuesday 7 October 2003)

Episode 21: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Wind in the Willows vs. Swallows and Amazons (Thursday 9 October 2003)

Episode 22: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Friday 12 December 2003)

Episode 23: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Whitbread and Booker Prizes (Wednesday 11 February 2004)

Episode 24: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Murder at the Vicarage vs. No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Tuesday 16 March 2004)

Episode 25: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - White Spider vs. Touching the Void (Monday 3 May 2004)

Episode 26: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - True History of the Kelly Gang vs. Cloudstreet (Wednesday 12 May 2004)

Episode 27: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Brave New World vs. Valis (Wednesday 19 May 2004)

Episode 28: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - American Pastoral vs. USA (Wednesday 26 May 2004)

Episode 29: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Schindler's Ark vs. The Complete Maus (Wednesday 2 June 2004)

Episode 30: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Talented Mr Ripley vs. The Shipping News (Monday 14 June 2004)

Episode 31: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - A Kind of Loving vs. A Clockwork Orange (Saturday 19 June 2004)

Episode 32: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - God Little vs. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Wednesday 23 June 2004)

Episode 33: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Europeans vs. The Age of Innocence (Wednesday 30 June 2004)

Episode 34: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Madame Bovary vs. Brick Lane (Wednesday 7 July 2004)

Episode 35: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Trainspotting vs. Lanark: A Life in Four Books (Wednesday 14 July 2004)

Episode 36: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Da Vinci Code vs. The Name of the Rose (Monday 2 August 2004)

Episode 37: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush vs. Between the Woods and the Water (Thursday 12 August 2004)

Episode 38: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - The Unbearable Lightness of Being vs. Under the Frog (Thursday 26 August 2004)

Episode 39: The Big Read: Battle of the Books - Heart of Darkness vs. English Passengers (Thursday 2 September 2004) Gluben (talk) 17:26, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

British novels and others

There are five U.S. novels among the top 21 or top 25[*], if i clerk correctly -- ranking #6 (To Kill a Mockingbird), 11, 15, 18, 21. (* Top 21 and top 25 have integrity in different ways explained at the top of section 3.)

Number 20 (War and Peace) was published in another language and presumably read in translation by almost everyone who participated in the survey --if read at all rather than known by some adaptation.

More information welcome here and some welcome in the article.

(Moments ago I expanded the last paragraph of Little Women#Reception to be more explicit about the three 21c. surveys cited. The Big Read is first [of those] and we now say it was "ranked number 18 ... fourth-highest among novels published in the U.S."). --P64 (talk) 03:13, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

and now say "it is fourth-highest among novels published in the U.S. on that list".

Number 41 Anne of Green Gables was published in the U.S. but is Canadian by setting as well as both nationality and residence of writer LMMontgomery. We cover this survey in section 6 of the book article but say nothing there about the survey in relation to novels that may be Canadian in any sense.

By the way, I am likely to add or amend coverage of this survey only re books that are commonly if not universally considered children's novels. --P64 (talk) 22:34, 30 October 2015 (UTC)