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 (lit. "The Big Book") 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 (with a population of 10 million) than in the UK (with a population of 60 million), with 400,000 votes arriving (as opposed to 140,000 votes in the UK competition in the corresponding period).

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 (literally Stars of Eger) 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 Antoine 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 (Az arany ember) by Mór Jókai
 * 12) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Final Top 100

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

Authors by number of novels in the Top 100

 * Four novels: István Fekete, J. K. Rowling, Magda Szabó
 * Three novels: Géza Gárdonyi, Ernest Hemingway, Mór Jókai, Albert Wass
 * Two novels: Sándor Dallos, Alexandre Dumas, Eric Knight, Thomas Mann, Sándor Márai, Gabriel García Márquez, Robert Merle, Kálmán Mikszáth, Ferenc Móra, Zsigmond Móricz, Jenő Rejtő, Antal Szerb, Leo Tolstoy