22 of the Funniest Novels Since ‘Catch-22’

New York Times (2024), 22 Books

Three critics from the New York Times put together a list of 22 of the funniest novels written in English since Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” (1961).

The New Canon: What’s the Most Influential Book of the Past 20 Years?

The Chronicle of Higher Education (2018), 20 Books

The Chronicle of Higher Education, which is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professional invited scholars from across the academy to tell what they saw as the most influential book published in the past 20 years. (Some respondents named books slightly outside our time frame, but were included anyway.) They asked them to select books — academic or not, but written by scholars — from within or outside their own fields. It was up to the respondents to define “influential.”

Who voted?
Paul Bloom | Eric Klinenberg | Peniel Joseph | Johanna Hanink | Jackson Lears | Leon Botstein | Sheena Iyengar | Noliwe M. Rooks | G. Gabrielle Starr | Amy J. Binder | Susan J. Douglas | Mari Matsuda | Steven Shapin | Mark Greif | Ashley Farmer | Nakul Krishna | Richard Delgado | Jonathan Holloway | John L. Jackson | Deborah Tannen | Amitava Kumar

100 Novels That Shaped Our World

BBC (2019), 100 Books

Stories have the power to change us. We asked a panel of leading writers, curators and critics to choose 100 genre-busting novels that have had an impact on their lives, and this is the result. These English language novels, written over the last 300 years, range from children’s classics to popular page turners. Organised into themes, they reflect the ways books help shape and influence our thinking.

The panel are Radio 4 Front Row presenter and Times Literary Supplement editor Stig Abell, broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, authors Juno Dawson, Kit de Waal and Alexander McCall Smith, and Bradford Festival Literary Director Syima Aslam

International Dublin Literary Award

International Dublin Literary Award (Yearly Award), 30 Books

The International Dublin Literary Award (Irish: Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. It promotes excellence in world literature and is solely sponsored by Dublin City Council, Ireland. At €100,000, the award is one of the richest literary prizes in the world. There are 5 voters every year.

The Greatest Tech Books of All Time

The Verge (2023), 40 Books

The Verge staff picks for the greatest tech books of all time.
"We were less interested in works that are supposedly influential and more in ones that have endured, with ideas that are still relevant today, stories that have captured something essential about technology, and writing that’s made us stand up in our seats. These books don’t project a single vision of what tech is but continue to challenge what it can be".

The 50 Best Horror Novels of All Time

Paste Magazine (2018), 50 Books

This is the description from the website:

Horror is a peculiar genre. If it’s meant purely to scare, then some of the heftier books on this list would have wracked up a body count, terrifying readers to death over 700 pages or more. And what is scary? What might shock one reader is laughable to another. Ghosts, serial killers, great heaving monsters, the loss of self-control, plagues, impossible physics and a creepy clown all figure into our countdown, with entries spanning from the 1800s to the last few years. One (obvious) author makes five(!) appearances, and easily could have qualified for a few more; another has written just one novel during his decades-long career. We narrowed our focus to prose novels, so please don’t ask after The Books of Blood or Uzumaki. And while we kept an eye on the diversity of our featured authors, the inclusion of women, authors of color and queer creators came naturally as we gathered the best of the best. We’re prepared for you to question our choices, we ask only that you leave the chainsaw at home before doing so. Without further ado, we present our choices for the best horror novels of all time.

Six Professors from "Esteemed" Universities Favorite Books

Democrat and Chronicle (Newspaper) (1982), 48 Books

A newspaper article from the "Democrat and Chronicle" from 1982 where they asked 6 esteemed professors to list books that theyh would recommend to anyone as worth reading during a lifetime.

The voters were: Louis Rubin, Joseph Summers, R.W.B Lewis, Clark Blaise, Edward Rosenheim, and William Chace

The 100 Best YA Books of All Time

Time (2021), 99 Books

With a panel of celebrated authors—Elizabeth Acevedo, Kacen Callender, Jenny Han, Jason Reynolds, Adam Silvera, Angie Thomas and Nicola Yoon—TIME presents the most compelling, enlightening and influential young-adult books, in chronological order beginning in the 1800s.

The Best Travel Books of All Time, According to Authors

Condé Nast (2022), 75 Books

Condé Nast Traveler created a list of the best travel books based on multiple authors opinions. Here's the description from their website:

There are an astounding number of travel books out there. How to choose the best of the best? You can start by asking the experts. Back in 2007, Traveler enlisted a literary all-star jury that included Monica Ali, Vikram Chandra, Jennifer Egan, Francine Prose, Paul Theroux, and more to create a comprehensive list of the best travel books of all time. Then in 2020, we reached out to another batch of authors—Pico Iyer, Julia Phillips, and Imbolo Mbue, to name a few—to see what travel books have made a mark on them—an even more meaningful question during a year when travel was extraordinarily limited for most. We wanted to know which books, regardless of genre, changed the way they considered a certain culture or place or people; the books that inspired them both to write and to get out into the world themselves.

As you'll see below, the picks—old and new—carry their weight, proving many of the greats are just as relevant today as they were when first published. From David Sedaris's 2000 Me Talk Pretty One Day to Herodotus's 440 B.C. The Histories, read on for dozens of passionately endorsed and beloved travel books, presented in alphabetical order.

Who voted?
Monica Ali, Vikram Chandra, Jennifer Egan, Francine Prose, Paul Theroux, Pico Iyer, Julia Phillips, and Imbolo Mbue.

Top 50 Books

The Daily Telegraph (2008), 50 Books

2,000 people voted in an online poll to determine the 50 greatest books of all time.

Kanon na koniec wieku (Canon at the end of the century)

Rzeczpospolita (newspaper) (2002), 42 Books

Canon at the end of the century - a series of 25 (later expanded to 40) most important books of the 20th century published by a Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita (newspaper).

Who voted—and how many.
The ballot attracted 4 361 valid reader votes (paper coupons sent to the newsroom and e-mails; on-line voting did not yet exist at rp.pl). The 25 top-scoring titles formed the initial “Canon at the End of the Century.”

500 Great Books by Women

Book (1994), 506 Books

The editors of this work-one is a teacher, one a writer, and one a women's bookstore owner-clearly love to read, are committed to promoting women's writing, and want to provide a useful guide for readers of similar inclination. The editors, along with some 30 contributors, have written brief descriptions (about 200 words) of 500 selected books. To be included, books had to be written by a woman and be in prose, in print, and in English (or in translation). The editors selected books they personally loved that represent multicultural and international perspectives. The entries are arranged thematically, including sections for art, family, identity, work, and 15 additional themes. The selections are somewhat unexpected, but they do include at least one sampling of the most acclaimed women writers (e.g., Angelou, Morrison, Weldon, and Oates).

The 101 Favorite Novels of 'Le Monde' Readers

Le Monde (2019), 101 Books

After compiling a list of the 100 greatest novels according to Le Monde's critics, the newspaper decided to engage its readership by asking them to vote for their favorite novels. A total of 26,000 readers participated, each submitting up to five titles. This exercise was both challenging and enjoyable for the participants, who had to reflect on their reading experiences and make difficult choices to narrow down their selections.

From these contributions, Le Monde collected 70,000 book titles, out of which 11,000 unique books were mentioned. The final list consists of the top 101 novels, reflecting the diverse tastes and personal literary "Pantheons" of the readers. Notably, this list differs significantly from the critics' list, with only 17 titles appearing on both. The selection process was free from algorithms, focusing instead on the personal connections and memories that readers have with these works.

The Modern Philosophical Classics

The Philosophical Forum (1999), 27 Books

We asked respondents to name the five most important books in philosophy in the twentieth century, and also the five most important articles. Giving five choices permits discretion, but five is a small enough number to force voters to choose their selections carefully. Since we were interested in judgments of quality, we instructed respondents to make their choices on the basic of intrinsic merit, not on the basis of causal influence. (By the causal influence standard, Mein Kampf might be the most important book of the twentieth century.)

Using the Philosophers’ Email Directory, we mailed our questionnaire to 5,000 teachers of philosophy. About 1,000 emails bounced back for mis-typed or obsolete addresses, 4,000 reached their targets. We received 414 survey replies, a healthy response rate of better than 10%. Since there are about 10,000 teachers of philosophy in North America, we had replies from 4% of the entire profession.

R/ClassicLiterature's Top 100 Favorite Books

R/ClassicLiterature (2026), 100 Books

Hello everybody! Last month I have launched a poll to find the 100 favourite books of this subreddit, inspired by similar contests over at r/TrueLit and 4chan's /lit/. With 163 people participating in the poll, 1425 votes being cast and 504 different books being entered, I'm happy to finally share the results.

It was actually incredibly close at the top: our #1 Moby Dick got 485 points, while our #5 The Count Of Monte Cristo got just 36 less. The point difference between #5 and #6 is nearly twice as big as the difference between #1 and #5.

In the second image I have added images showing how many votes have been cast for books released in each century and written in each language. These percentages were calculated by counting up all of your votes, so not just the books that made the top 100.

In the third image I've added the top 20 authors with the most votes. This is largely similar to the top 20 books, since most authors have just one or two books that are particularly popular, but it does raise authors like Shakespeare and Dickens who have many popular works.

4chan’s Literature Board’s Aggregate Top 100 Books for the Decade 2014 - 2024

Reddit (2024), 99 Books

For 10 years now, 4chan has ranked the 100 best books ever. A Reddit user combined them all to create the Final 4chan List of Greatest Books: An Aggregate of Every List Published From 2014 to 2024.

Voter count:
It's hard to figure out how many people actually voted in the poll, but since this is an aggregation of an aggregation of a decade of these polls I am going to assume at least 500 people

Books of the Decade

The Guardian (2009), 52 Books

The 50 books that defined the decade(2000)

Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels

Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels (Book) (1988), 102 Books

This collection of 100 brief (2-3 page) essays by British sf magazine editor Pringle offers an informed and admittedly subjective guided tour of a genre that encompasses such widely divergent titles as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (1954-55), Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman (1967), and Stephen King's Salem's Lot (1975). Following the format of his earlier collection, Science The 100 Best Novels (LJ 7/86), Pringle presents his selections in chronological order and includes a synopsis of the story, a discussion of the author's overall contribution to fantasy literature, critical commentary on the title's significance, and a brief publishing history. An introductory essay tackles the difficulty of defining fantasy, while a "Brief Bibliography" directs readers to other discussions of the genre. By no means a definitive subject guide, this entertaining volume should serve as a solid introduction to the elusive field of imaginative literature.

50 Memorable Books from 50 Years of Books to Remember

The New York Public Library (2005), 49 Books

A representative selection from over 1500 titles on annual lists of Books to Remember from 1956 to 2005.

Chosen by a group of librarians who are specialists in their genres, these outstanding works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry provide an informative or transformative reading experience, and are chosen for their literary excellence, uniqueness of concept and command of subject matter.

A Century in Books

First Things Magazine (2000), 19 Books

The editors of First Things Magazine, an influential journal of religion & public life, released this list back in 2000 when R. J. Neuhaus was editor-in-chief

Who voted?
There are 18 people who submitted books according to the article, and every person is named

Prix Goncourt

Prix Goncourt (Yearly Award), 123 Books

The Prix Goncourt is France’s best-known literary prize for fiction, awarded each year to the author of what the jury describes as the “best and most imaginative” prose work published in French. Founded in 1903, it comes with a symbolic €10 purse, but it carries huge prestige and typically drives major sales and international attention; the winner is traditionally announced in early November after several rounds of shortlist selections.

How many people pick/vote? The winner is chosen by the Académie Goncourt, which consists of 10 members (often called les Dix).

Are their names known? Yes — the members are public and listed (with bios) by the Académie Goncourt.

100 best Brazilian books according to Bravo!

Bravo! Magazine (2024), 100 Books

This list presents a ranking of the 100 best Brazilian books as curated by Bravo!, with contributions from Almir de Freitas, highlighting works published up to 2009. The selection criteria include the cultural significance of the books in shaping national literature, their recognition by critical currents, and their alignment with Bravo!'s mission to promote Brazilian culture. The methodology acknowledges subjectivity but strives to avoid arbitrariness by including a diverse range of genres and critically acclaimed works. This updated edition, released in 2009 and revised for orthographic consistency, aims to serve as a comprehensive guide to Brazilian literary achievements.

23 Must-Read Science Books About the Environment, Chosen by Earthwatch Scientists

Earthwatch (2020), 22 Books

This list features 23 must-read science books about the environment, curated by Earthwatch scientists and staff to engage readers with conservation and environmental topics. The selection criteria focused on personal recommendations from these experts, emphasizing the impact these books had on their understanding and passion for environmental science. The Earthwatch team aimed to provide insights into how these works can inspire individuals to support nature and the conservation movement, even when not participating in Earthwatch expeditions. The methodology involved asking contributing scientists and staff to share their favorite environmental science reads and the significance of these books in their professional and personal journeys.

The Books That Built The French

TNS-Sofres/SNCF–Lire (2004), 101 Books

Published in the October 2004 issue of Lire magazine, the list popularly known as “The 100 Favourite Books of the French” was in fact the result of a nationwide postal survey titled “Les livres fondateurs des Français.” Polling institute TNS-Sofres designed the study for the railway company SNCF as the flagship event of its travelling literacy campaign “En train de lire,” held during the book festival Lire en fête. Between 16 June and 26 July 2004, a representative panel of 10,000 French residents aged 15 + was screened to keep the 3,800 who had bought at least one book in the previous year; they were asked to list up to three books that had “marked [them] for life.” 2,121 usable questionnaires came back—about 57 %—and the 100 most-cited titles formed the final ranking, offering a portrait of readers’ lifelong favourites rather than an expert literary canon.

Truelit's 100 Best Books of the Quarter Century

/r/truelit (2024), 102 Books

The /r/truelit subreddit with many people from around the globe, all voted on the 100 best books of the 21st century in 2024. These are the results.

Note: Users could not list an author twice, so authors like Tokarczuk with multiple masterpieces suffered as a result. The “Favorite authors” list only includes authors who had multiple books reach two votes.

Voters: 252 unknown voters

Top 100 Books, As Chosen By Canadians

The Gazette(Newspaper) (2005), 98 Books

This list is from a newspaper poll of readers from The Gazette in Montreal, Quebec, Canada · Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Who voted?
Readers. They do not specify a count. I am conservatively going to guess 50 people

Waterstone's Books of the Century

LibraryThing (1997), 102 Books

Waterstones is a bookstore chain with more than 200 stores in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and Europe. In January 1997, Waterstones announced the results of its Books of the Century poll to find out what the public considered to be the hundred greatest books of the twentieth century. Over 25, 000 people took part in the poll and the Book of the Century was revealed as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Strega Prize

Strega Prize (Yearly Award), 77 Books

The Strega Prize is the most important Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published between 1 March of the previous year and 28/29 February.

Horror: Another 100 Best Books

Book (2005), 100 Books

This is a follow-up of Horror: The 100 Best Books

Here's the description of the book:

Horror: Another 100 Best Books features one hundred of the top names in the horror field discussing one hundred of the most spine-chilling novels ever written. Each entry includes a synopsis of the work as well as publication history, biographical information about the author of each title, and recommended reading and biographical notes on the contributor. Author Ramsey Campbell also offers a new foreword to the book describing the evolution of horror over the past two decades from the way it's written by a crop of new and exciting writers to the way it's received by a new market of readers. Horror: Another 100 Best Books will be the definitive guide to the tremendous library of horror fiction available today. a reference that no fan can live without.

150 Great Reads

The Spokesman-Review Spokane Chronicle (1988), 151 Books

In 1988, readers of the Spokesman-Review Spokane Chronicle (a newspaper) submitted 150 "great reads" for people to read.

Who voted:
Unknown users wrote it. The exact amount is not given, but i am going to assume it's 30(30x5 books == 150)

International Booker Prize

The Booker Prizes (Yearly Award), 10 Books

The International Booker Prize is an annual literary award honoring a single work of fiction or a short story collection, translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. It was established in 2016 following the disbandment of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

A Century of World Literature 1925 - 2025

Der Spiegel (2025), 100 Books

This list, known as the SPIEGEL-Literaturkanon, is a curated selection of the 100 best works of world literature from 1925 to 2025, aimed at highlighting significant literary contributions globally. The selection criteria involve a focus on works that have been translated into German, with a strong emphasis on representing diverse geographical regions, including Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, to reflect a comprehensive view of modern world literature. It was curated by a four-member jury composed of experts with varied literary interests, including Eva Horn, Miryam Schellbach, Michael Maar, and Peter Sloterdijk, each bringing a unique perspective to the process. The methodology involves a subjective selection by the expert jury, aiming to create a normative rather than a purely commercial or descriptive list, emphasizing works of literary significance that may not be readily available in bookstores but demonstrate the vibrancy of literary history.

The Ultimate Book Bucket List: The 75 Best Books Of All Time

Refinery29 (2023), 75 Books

What is the best book of all time? This question is impossible to answer — to some, the best book of all time might be Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. To others, it could be A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. If we’re looking at plain numbers, it appears that The Bible is the best-selling book of all time — but does that really make it the best book of all time?
Because there are just so many books well worth a read, we’ve collated some of the very best stories ever told for you in the list below. They’re even sorted by genre, so you can pick your favourite and get started — do you like fiction, non-fiction, romance, or even fantasy? We’ve got you covered.

who voted?
Eilish Gilligan, Alexandra Koster, Nina Miyashita

The 10 Best Memoirs of the Decade (2010s)

Literary Hub (2019), 17 Books

The 10 Best Memoirs of the Decade (2010-2019) chosen by the Literary Hub staff.
Total came to 17 as they also had some dissenting opinions - those are left unranked.

The 16 Greatest Books of All Time

NYU Local (2008), 46 Books

Two book editors for the nyulocal.com present their list of the 16 greatest books of all time, with a list of runner-ups as well.

100 Best Novels, in Translation, Since 1900

CounterPunch (2014), 100 Books

Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn's list of the best novels, in translation, since 1900.

The 20 Best Books in Translation You've Never Read

Publishers Weekly (2013), 20 Books

This list, titled 'The 20 Best Books in Translation You've Never Read,' is curated by Chad W. Post, director of Open Letter Books and Three Percent, with input from Stephen Sparks of Green Apple Books. The list aims to spotlight outstanding translated works often overshadowed by more universally known authors. The selection criteria emphasize quality and uniqueness, avoiding the typical inclusion of well-known figures such as Garcia or Kafka. Instead, it highlights lesser-known yet critically acclaimed translations that are often overlooked in American publishing, which heavily favors English originals. The methodology involved selecting personal favorites from Post and Sparks's extensive experience with international literature, focusing on titles that expand the reader's understanding of global narratives.

Horror Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide

Book edited by Marshall B. Tymn (1981), 385 Books

The book Horror Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide is a comprehensive reference work designed to serve a wide audience, from library acquisitions staff and educators to scholars, researchers, and general readers interested in horror fiction. Edited by Marshall B. Tymn, the book provides an extensive overview of the genre, tracing its origins from Gothic romance through to modern horror literature. Contributors such as Frederick S. Frank, Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV, Jack Sullivan, and Robert Weinberg bring their expertise to different eras and forms of horror literature, including novels, anthologies, pulp magazines, and supernatural verse.

The book's purpose is to offer bibliographic control of horror fiction and related genres, presenting over 1,300 key works and providing a historical framework for understanding the development of the genre. Each chapter includes annotated bibliographies, critical essays, and a focus on core collection titles, selected based on their influence, popularity, and historical significance. The guide also aims to highlight the importance of horror literature as an entertaining yet intellectually stimulating form of art, while also addressing the contributions of well-known and lesser-known authors in the field.

Voters:
Edited by Marshall B. Tymn, with contributors such as Frederick S. Frank, Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV, Jack Sullivan, and Robert Weinberg

Harvard Book Store Staff's Favorite 100 Books

Harvard Book Store (2011), 106 Books

In early 2010 Harvard Book Store employees worked together to come up with a list of our favorite books. Each staff member submitted a list of their favorite books of all time, in (rough) order of preference. Their selections were then weighted according to the order and the results were tabulated. It was by no means a perfect system, but it was the best way we could think of to quantify opinions that are in no way quantifiable.

Now, we read a lot, so it was hard to narrow it down. What we came up with are the books that moved us, that changed the way we think about the world, and that we will happily read over and over again. We hope you enjoy them too.

Der Kanon (The Canon)

Der Kanon (2006), 20 Books

Der Kanon (German pronunciation: [deːɐ̯ ˈkaːnɔn], "The Canon") or more precisely Marcel-Reich-Ranickis Kanon is a large anthology of exemplary works of German literature.
Edited by the literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki (1920–2013), he called the anthology, announced on 18 June 2001 in the German news magazine Der Spiegel under the title
"The Canon of worthwhile German Works", his magnum opus. This list is not the full Canon, this is only the novels.

The Golden Man Booker

Booker Prize (2018), 5 Books

The Golden Man Booker was a special one-off prize awarded in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Booker Prize. All of the previous 51 winning titles since the Booker's inception in 1969 were eligible.

Five judges read the books from each relevant decade and chose a title which to be pitted against the judges' other choices. The judges' shortlist of five titles was announced on 26 May 2018, with voting also commencing that day. The winner was announced at a ceremony on 8 July 2018, at London's Southbank Centre, with the award going to Michael Ondaatje for his 1992 novel The English Patient.

The judges were (chosen decade in parentheses):

Robert McCrum (1970s)
Lemn Sissay (1980s)
Kamila Shamsie (1990s)
Simon Mayo (2000s)
Hollie McNish (2010s)

100 Best 20th-Century American Books

Hungry Mind Review (1999), 100 Books

Yet another reaction to the now notorious Modern Library 100 list. This is from the discontinued Hungry Mind Review, the history of which can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruminator_Review

What the Hungry Mind Review of Spring 1999 had to say about its list:
The books were chosen by five writers: Mary Moore Easter, Heid E. Erdrich, Bill
Holm, David Mura, and George Rabasa, under the direction of Bart Schneider,
editor of the Hungry Mind Review, and J. Otis Powell of The Loft Literary Center in
Minneapolis.

The Hungry Mind Review list provides a compelling alternative to the Modern
Library's selection of "100 Best Novels published in the English language since
1900," announced last July. Although the Modern Library list was criticized for
including only six books by nonwhite writers, only nine books by women, and very
few books published after 1960, it initiated a lively national discussion. The HMR list
reflects a far more realistic race and gender balance, and includes a good number
of contemporary books. Our list is however limited to books written by Americans.

While the Modern Library list is restricted to novels, the Hungry Mind Review
includes distinguished books of nonfiction and collections of short fiction. "Opening
the list to nonfiction makes sense in a literary century that has witnessed the
blurring of the line between fiction and nonfiction," according to Hungry Mind
Review editor Bart Schneider. "It's thrilling to have James Agee's Let Us Now
Praise Famous Men, as well as the autobiographies of Malcolm X and Alice B.
Toklas, on this list," Schneider adds. "Essential 20th-century writers like James
Baldwin, Joan Didion, and Gore Vidal, who each have collections of nonfiction
included on the list, are commonly thought to have done their best writing in the
essay form."

Books that will make you fall in love with the Filipino language again

Rappler (2022), 9 Books

For August 2022's monthly #RapplerReads, Rappler asked several readers – from “Booktokers” to veteran authors – what books they would recommend to reconnect someone with Filipino language and literature.

Who voted?
it says. "several readers – from “Booktokers” to veteran authors" Since there's not much else to go on we are going to go with 5

100 Greatest Books of All Time

Steve Donoghue (2024), 100 Books

Steve Donoghue is a renowned book critic whose work has appeared in prestigious publications such as The Washington Post, The American Conservative, The Spectator, The Wall Street Journal, The National, and the Daily Star. He is a regular contributor to The Boston Globe, the Vineyard Gazette, and the Christian Science Monitor, and he serves as the Books Editor for Georgia’s Big Canoe News.

Steve's YouTube channel, Steve Donoghue, boasts over 7,700 videos dedicated to books in one form or another. His "100 Greatest Books of All Time" list is unique in that it is unranked—except for the very first book, which he deems the definitive greatest book of all time. The list stands out for its inclusion of more non-Western works than is typical for such compilations and notably features "Animal Liberation" by Peter Singer, highlighting its significant influence and potential to be recognized as a classic in the years to come.

You can watch the series detailing his selections here:

The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: 100-91!
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: 90-81!
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: 80-71!
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: 70-61!
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: 60-51!
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: 50-41!
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: 40-31!
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: 30-21!
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: 20-11!
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: The Top Ten!

Siri Hustvedt's Book Choices from "The Writer's Library"

The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Book) (2020), 13 Books

These are Siri Hustvedt's book choices from the interview with him in the book "The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives" by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager

Laila Lalami's Book Choices from "The Writer's Library"

The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Book) (2020), 19 Books

These are Laila Lalami's book choices from the interview with him in the book "The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives" by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager

Vendela Vida's Book Choices from "The Writer's Library"

The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Book) (2020), 13 Books

These are Vendela Vida's book choices from the interview with him in the book "The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives" by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager

Amor Towles's Book Choices from "The Writer's Library"

The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Book) (2020), 14 Books

These are Amor Towles's book choices from the interview with him in the book "The Writer's Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives" by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager

Introduction to a top 100 list of Swedish books.

BIF (Biblioteket i fokus) (1997), 98 Books

The following top-100 list is the result of BIF's poll for the "Swedish Book of the Century," which was conducted in the autumn of 1997. Over 21,000 votes were received from library visitors all over the country.

The list comes from the magazine Biblioteket i fokus (established on December 11, 1997)

Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life (Michael Dirda)

Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life (2007), 18 Books

In his stimulating book of essays the Pulitzer Prize winning critic Michael Dirda proclaims the following:
"What should a person know of the world’s literature? It has always seemed obvious to me that the great patterning works ought to lie at the heart of any structured reading program. By “patterning works” I mean those that later authors regularly build on, allude to, work against".
“Know these well," he says, "and nearly all of world literature will be an open book to you.”