The Lists
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From Oedipus to The History Boys: Michael Billington's 101 greatest plays
The Guardian, 102 Books
Michael Billington, In his new book, the Guardian’s theatre critic has selected what he thinks are the 101 greatest plays ever written, in any western language
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Zeit Literaturkanon
https://www.librarything.com/award/335/ZEIT-Literaturkanon, 70 Books
Canon of European post-war novels published by the weekly German newspaper DIE ZEIT in 2012.
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Best Books of the Decade(2010-2020)
Chicago Tribune, 38 Books
John Warner of the Chicago Tribune lists his favorite books of the 2010s.
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National Book Award - Nonfiction
National Book Foundation, 47 Books
The National Book Awards are among the most eminent literary prizes in the United States. Started in 1950, the awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the prior year, as well as lifetime achievement awards including the "Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" and the "Literarian Award". The purpose of the awards is "to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.
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Mythopoeic Awards
The Mythopoeic Awards, 92 Books
The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given annually for outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas.
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National Book Award - Fiction
National Book Foundation, 75 Books
The National Book Awards are among the most eminent literary prizes in the United States. Started in 1950, the awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the prior year, as well as lifetime achievement awards including the "Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" and the "Literarian Award". The purpose of the awards is "to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.
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Arthur C. Clarke Award
Arthur C. Clarke Award, 36 Books
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award in 1987. The book is chosen by a panel of judges from the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation, and a third organisation, which as of 2019 is the Sci-Fi-London film festival. The award has been described as "the UK's most prestigious science fiction prize".
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Hugo Award for Best Novel
Hugo Awards, 79 Books
The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,000 words or more; awards are also given out in the short story, novelette, and novella categories. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction", and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing".
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Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Locus Awards, 43 Books
The Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel is one of the annual Locus Awards presented by the science fiction and fantasy magazine Locus. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year. The award for Best Science Fiction Novel was first presented in 1980, and is among the awards still presented (as of 2022). Previously, there had simply been an award for Best Novel. A similar award for Best Fantasy Novel was introduced in 1978.[1] The Locus Awards have been described as a prestigious prize in science fiction, fantasy and horror literature
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Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction
Pulitzer Prize, 66 Books
The Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction has been awarded since 1962 for a distinguished book of non-fiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category.
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World Fantasy Award—Novel
World Fantasy Awards, 55 Books
The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction published in
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English during the previous calendar year. The awards have been described by book critics such as The Guardian as a
"prestigious fantasy prize", and one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards.
The World Fantasy Award—Novel is given each year for fantasy
novels published in English or translated into English. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a novel if it is 40,000
words or longer. The Novel category has been awarded annually since 1975. -
Man Booker Prize
Man Booker Prize, 57 Books
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known in short as the Booker Prize, is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe.[1] The winner of the Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success and, for this reason, the prize is of great significance for the book trade.[2] It is also a mark of distinction for authors to be nominated for the Booker longlist or selected for inclusion in the shortlist.
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Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Pulitzer Prize, 97 Books
All the books that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction from 1918 to the present.
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PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
PEN/Faulkner, 40 Books
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the author of the best American work of fiction that year. The winner receives US $15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US $5000. The foundation brings the winner and runners-up to Washington, D.C. to read from their works at the Great Hall of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is an outgrowth of William Faulkner's generosity in donating his 1949 Nobel Prize winnings, "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers." Mary Lee Settle was also one of the founders after controversy at the 1979 National Book Award.[1] It is affiliated with the writers' organization International PEN.
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The award was first given in 1980. -
Britain's Favourite Ten Children's Books
Waterstone and BBC, 10 Books
On September 1, 1997 the results of a poll to find the nation's favourite children's book were announced. The poll, sponsored by Waterstone's and the BBC, found Roald Dahl's Matilda to be the favorite. The top ten books from the poll are shown in the following table.
More details for it: "Over 10,000 children voted for more than
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700 different titles by phoning or emailing
the BBC poll or voting at their local
Waterstone’s bookshop. The poll closed at
midnight on 27th August after a month’s -
100 Best Books of the Decade so Far (2010-2015)
Oyster Books, 100 Books
Oyster Books made a list of the 100 best books of the decade so far (2010-2015). I guess this company went out of business. I couldn't even find the list on the internet archive.
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The 100 Best Books of the Decade(2000)
Times, 100 Books
The Time's list of the 100 Best Books of the 2000s. It's a mix of fiction and nonfiction.
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50 Essential Fantasy Books
Abe Books, 51 Books
Abe Books lists 50 Essential Fantasy books you should read. Here's what the description says on the website:
If you haven't read any fantasy since reading the The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien in school, you might still think it's a genre for kids. Think again. While you'll still find plenty of elves, knights, and magi, fantasy is now also home to gunslingers, poets and literary detectives. This selection of recommended fantasy books runs the gamut - it's time to discover fantasy all over again.
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Top 10 Fiction Books of the Decade(2010)
Entertainment Weekly, 20 Books
To celebrate the end of the 2010s, Entertainment Weekly’s Must List is looking back at the best pop culture of the decade that changed movies, TV, music, and more (catch up on our list so far, which includes the MCU’s big Snap, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s history-making hit Hamilton, and Beyonce’s iconic Coachella set). Today, we look back on our favorite fiction books of the past 10 years.
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The Best Fiction Books of the 2010s
Time, 10 Books
Here are TIME’s picks for the 10 best fiction books of the 2010s, in order of publication year.
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Royal Society Prizes for Science Books
The Royal Society, 35 Books
The Royal Society Science Books Prize is an annual £25,000 prize awarded by the Royal Society to celebrate outstanding popular science books from around the world. It is open to authors of science books written for a non-specialist audience, and since it was established in 1988 has championed writers such as Stephen Hawking, Jared Diamond, Stephen Jay Gould and Bill Bryson. In 2015 The Guardian described the prize as "the most prestigious science book prize in Britain".
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Costa Book Award - Best Novel
Costa Coffee, 57 Books
The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship.
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The awards, launched in 1971, are given both for high literary merit but also for works that are enjoyable reading and whose aim is to convey the enjoyment of reading to the widest possible audience. As such, they are a more populist literary prize than the Booker Prize. -
The Andre Norton Award
The Andre Norton Award, 18 Books
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction (formerly the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy) is an annual award presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) to the author of the best young adult or middle grade science fiction or fantasy book published in the United States in the preceding year. It is named to honor prolific science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton (1912–2005)
Any published young adult or middle grade science fiction or fantasy novel is eligible for the prize, including graphic novels. There is no limit on word count. The award was originally not a Nebula Award, despite being presented along with them and following the same rules for nominations and voting, but in 2019 SFWA announced that the award was considered a Nebula category.
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The British Science Fiction Association Awards - Novel
British Science Fiction Association, 54 Books
The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, members of the Eastercon convention have also been eligible to vote.
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Robert Holdstock Award
British Fantasy Society, 12 Books
The Fantasy book award from The British Fantasy Society
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August Derleth Award
British Fantasy Society, 50 Books
The August Derleth Award is one of the British Fantasy Awards bestowed annually by the British Fantasy Society. The award is named after the American writer and editor August Derleth. It was inaugurated in 1972 for the best novel of the year, was not awarded in 2011, and was resumed in 2012 for the best horror novel of the year.
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The Cundill History Prize
The Cundill History Prize, 16 Books
The Cundill History Prize is an annual Canadian book prize for "the best history writing in English". It was established in 2008 by Peter Cundill and is administered by McGill University. The prize encourages "informed public debate through the wider dissemination of history writing to new audiences around the world" and is awarded to an author whose book, published in the past year, demonstrates "historical scholarship, originality, literary quality and broad appeal". No restrictions are set on the topic of the book or the nationality of the author, and English translations are permitted.
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Nebula Award
Nebula Awards, 58 Books
The Nebula Award for Best Novel is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy novels. A work of fiction is considered a novel by the organization if it is 40,000 words or longer; awards are also given out for pieces of shorter lengths, in the categories of short story, novelette, and novella. To be eligible for Nebula Award consideration, a novel must have been published in English in the United States. Works published in English elsewhere in the world are also eligible, provided they are released on either a website or in an electronic edition.[1] The Award has been given annually since 1966.
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Your 50 Favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of The Past Decade(2011-2021)
NPR, 96 Books
A science fiction and fantasy list created by NPR that is a curated list that uses public opinion as well as a panel of experts. Here's the description from the website:
As I said above, we decided to limit ourselves to 50 books this year instead of our usual 100, which made winnowing down the list a particular challenge. As you may know, this poll isn't a straight-up popularity contest, though, if it were, the Broken Earth books would have crushed all comers — y'all have good taste! Instead, we take your votes (over 16,000 this year) and pare them down to about 250 semifinalists, and then during a truly epic conference call, our panel of expert judges goes through those titles, cuts some, adds some and hammers out a final curated list.
Note: I converted the multi book series into their individual books
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Pulitzer Prize for History
Pulitzer Prize, 106 Books
The Pulitzer Prize for History has been awarded since 1917 for a distinguished book upon the history of the United States. Many history books have also been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
Two people have won the Pulitzer Prize for History twice; Margaret Leech, for Reveille in Washington, 1860-1865 in 1941 and In the Days of McKinley in 1960, and Bernard Bailyn, for The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1968) and Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution (1987).
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Dragon Awards
The Dragon Awards, 24 Books
The Dragon Awards are a set of literary and media awards voted on by fandom and presented annually since 2016 by Dragon Con for excellence in various categories of science fiction, fantasy, horror novels, movies, television, and games.
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Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
Pulitzer Prize, 107 Books
The Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author.
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These are all the lists used to generate the book rankings. There are currently 282 lists. Each list has a weight associated with it, that is calculated based on a variety of criteria. The higher the weight the more important the list is.
We are always looking for new lists to add to the site. If you know of any that are not on the site please visit this page. Thanks!
These are special lists that group together multiple countries, genders, or are interesting in a variety of ways.
These are the newest 10 lists added.
- The 100 Greatest Non-Fiction Books - 2 days
- 200 Books That Shaped 200 Years of Literature - 2 days
- 10 Most Influential Books by the ISA - 6 days
- The Cundill History Prize - 6 days
- The 13 Best Science Books for the General Reader - 6 days
- A Science Canon (Ian McEwan) - 6 days
- Best Philosophy Books of All Time - 6 days
- Mary Warnock's top 10 philosophy books - 6 days
- 72 Philosophy Books Everyone Should Read - 7 days
- 100 All-Time Greatest Popular Science Books - 8 days