Big Read (Hungarian)


Big Read is the Hungarian version of the BBC Big Read.
The Big Read was imported into Hungary under the name A Nagy Könyv and took place in 2005. Around 1400 libraries, 500 book shops and 1300 schools participated in the competition in various ways. It proved to be far more popular in Hungary than in the UK, with 400,000 votes arriving.
Voting for the top 100 began in late February: one was allowed to vote for any novel published in Hungarian. It ended on April 23, when the 50 "foreign" and 50 Hungarian most popular novels were selected.
On June 11, the top 12 novels were chosen in the framework of a television show presented by cultural celebrities. In the next months, 12 short films were made from these novels and screened in television, which competed with each other in pairs.
On December 15, the population selected their ultimate favourite by SMS and phone. The winning novel, which received the title "the most liked novel of Hungary 2005", was the same book as the result of the previous round, Eclipse of the Crescent Moon. The other two Hungarian books that participated in the final were The Paul Street Boys and Abigél.

Initial Top 12

  1. Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Géza Gárdonyi
  2. The Paul Street Boys by Ferenc Molnár
  3. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
  4. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
  5. The Little Prince by A. de Saint-Exupéry
  6. Abigél by Magda Szabó
  7. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
  8. Tüskevár by István Fekete
  9. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
  10. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  11. The Man with the Golden Touch by Mór Jókai
  12. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

    Final Top 100

  13. Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Géza Gárdonyi
  14. The Paul Street Boys by Ferenc Molnár
  15. Abigél by Magda Szabó
  16. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
  17. The Man with the Golden Touch by Mór Jókai
  18. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
  19. The Little Prince by A. de Saint-Exupéry
  20. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
  21. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
  22. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  23. Tüskevár by István Fekete
  24. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
  25. Abel Alone by Áron Tamási
  26. The Baron's Sons by Mór Jókai
  27. Indul a bakterház by Sándor Rideg
  28. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
  29. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
  30. Be Faithful Unto Death by Zsigmond Móricz
  31. Vuk: The Little Fox by István Fekete
  32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
  33. Lottie and Lisa by Erich Kästner
  34. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  35. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
  36. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
  37. A funtineli boszorkány by Albert Wass
  38. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
  39. Fateless by Imre Kertész
  40. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
  41. Kincskereső kisködmön by Ferenc Móra
  42. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
  43. Give Me Back My Mountains by Albert Wass
  44. Embers by Sándor Márai
  45. Pansy Violet by Zsigmond Móricz
  46. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  47. St. Peter's Umbrella by Kálmán Mikszáth
  48. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
  49. Dirty Fred the Captain by Jenő Rejtő
  50. Slave of the Huns by Géza Gárdonyi
  51. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
  52. A nap szerelmese by Sándor Dallos
  53. The Red and the Black by Stendhal
  54. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
  55. Anna Édes by Dezső Kosztolányi
  56. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
  57. Thistle by István Fekete
  58. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  59. The 14-Carat Roadster by Jenő Rejtő
  60. Aranyecset by Sándor Dallos
  61. Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight
  62. Winnetou by Karl May
  64. Téli berek by István Fekete
  65. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
  66. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
  67. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  68. The Gold Coffin by Ferenc Móra
  69. A fekete város by Kálmán Mikszáth
  70. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
  71. Tóték by István Örkény
  72. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
  73. Állítsátok meg Terézanyut! by Zsuzsa Rácz
  74. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
  75. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
  76. Death is My Trade by Robert Merle
  77. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
  78. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
  79. The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek
  80. The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw
  81. Kard és kasza by Albert Wass
  82. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
  83. Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque
  84. School at the Frontier by Géza Ottlik
  85. A Hungarian Nabob by Mór Jókai
  86. This Above All by Eric Knight
  87. Revulsion by László Németh
  88. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
  89. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  90. A Journey Round My Skull by Frigyes Karinthy
  91. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  92. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
  93. The Book of Fathers by Miklós Vámos
  94. The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb
  95. Bezzeg az én időmben by Klára Fehér
  96. Gergő és az álomfogók by Gyula Böszörményi
  97. Malevil by Robert Merle
  98. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  99. Für Elise by Magda Szabó
  100. Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
  101. Jadwiga's Pillow by Pál Závada
  102. Ida's Novel by Géza Gárdonyi
  103. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
  104. An Old-fashioned Story by Magda Szabó
  105. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
  106. The Door by Magda Szabó
  107. The Confessions of a Haut-Bourgeois by Sándor Márai
  108. The Red Lion by Mária Szepes
  109. Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann
  110. Ne féljetek by Anna Jókai
  111. My Happy Days in Hell by György Faludy
  112. PetePite by Gábor Nógrádi
  113. Celestial Harmonies by Péter Esterházy

    Authors by number of novels in the Top 100