Posted by Mike Dennis on October 12, 2003 at 12:49:12 from 195.92.67.65 user MTD.
As an alternative view to the BBC's Big Read today's Observer (UK) has published its own 'The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time' and reflecting the earlier thread in at No. 40 is 'The Wind in the Willows' rated more highly than 'Nineteen Eightyfour', 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Ulysses'.
In his introduction Robert McCrum explains their choices and why some things missed out - "... we had to exclude Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series and CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which some will find perverse, even baffling."
What makes their list more interesting than Big Read is that it is a list of books you should not do without, not the most popular.