[BelleZora]

The BBC posted a Big Read Top 100 books list challenge in 2003. They believed that most people had read only 6 of the 100 books. My 11th-grade granddaughter tells me that she has read the following on the list, most school requirements:

1. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
2. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
3. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
4. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
5. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
6. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
8. Animal Farm - George Orwell
9. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
10. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
11. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
12. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
13. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
14. Harry Potter series
15. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

She and her sister, also 16, love to discuss The Hunger Games Trilogy, House of Night series, and The Mortal Instruments series. They believe that they are average readers among their friends. They discussed Animal Farm seemingly endlessly in my presence.

If they are average, book writers and publishers should remain busy for decades.