Entertainment Weekly's Top 100 Novels

Entertainment Weekly, 111 Books

Entertainment Weekly’s Top 100 Novels (2013), as selected by the EW staff in its July 5th 2013 issue

Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century

Le Monde, 101 Books

The 100 Books of the Century (French: Les cent livres du siècle) is a list of the one hundred best books of the 20th century, according to a poll conducted in the spring of 1999 by the French retailer Fnac and the Paris newspaper Le Monde.

Starting from a preliminary list of 200 titles created by bookshops and journalists, 17,000 French voted by responding to the question, "Which books have stayed in your memory?" (« Quels livres sont restés dans votre mémoire ? »).

The list of acclaimed titles mixes great novels with poetry and theatre, as well as the comic strip. The first fifty works on the list were the subject of an essay by Frédéric Beigbeder, The Last Inventory Before Liquidation, in which he notably drew attention to its French-centred character.

The 100 Favorite Novels of Librarians

Bookman.com, 100 Books

Based on a survey of Librarians conducted by Brodart Co., September, 1998 - March, 1999. Brodart is an international company that services libraries around the world.

The 100 Greatest American Novels, 1893 – 1993

Jeff O'Neal at Bookriot.com, 100 Books

The 100 greatest american novels picked by Jeff O’Neal, Editor-in-Chief & Co-founder of Bookriot.com

Koen Book Distributors Top 100 Books of the Past Century

themodernnovel.com, 100 Books

Intended as a companion to the infamous Modern Library ranking of the top 100 books of the past century, this list represents a different viewpoint--that of the booksellers themselves. Compiled from the responses of over 150 Koen Book Distributors customers, the following titles represent the very best in modern literature.

Robert McCrum's top 10 books of the twentieth century

The Guardian, 10 Books

Robert McCrum is The Observer's literary editor and the author of, among other books, My Year Off. This is a list of this top 10 books of the twentieth century.

20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction

Larry McCaffery, 116 Books

The 20th Century’s Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction is a popular "best of" list compiled by Larry McCaffery largely in response to Modern Library 100 Best Novels list (1999), which McCaffery saw as being out of touch with 20th-century fiction. McCaffery writes that he sees his list "as a means of sharing with readers my own views about what books are going to be read 100 or 1000 years from now".

The 50 Books Everyone Needs to Read, 1963-2013

Flavor Wire, 51 Books

The choices here are influenced by the following: the stipulation that any specific author should not be chosen for more than one year, a general focus on fiction over other genres, and the tastes/whims/glaring prejudices of Flavorwire’s literary editor.

100 Books to Read in a Lifetime

Amazon.com (USA), 100 Books

A bucket list of books to create a well-read life, from Amazon Book Editors.

The New Classics - 100 Best Reads from 1983 to 2008

Entertainment Weekly, 100 Books

Entertainment Weekly's list of the 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008.

The 10 Best of the Decade(2000)

Entertainment Weekly, 10 Books

Entertainment Weekly's top 10 best books of the 2000s

Books of the Decade

The Guardian, 52 Books

The 50 books that defined the decade(2000)

The Best Books of the 2000s

The Onion AV Club, 30 Books

The Best Books of the 2000s according to the Onion AV club. Includes Fiction and Nonfiction.

The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written

Martin Seymour-Smith, 101 Books

The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today (1998) is a book of intellectual history written by Martin Seymour-Smith (1928–1998), a British poet, critic, and biographer.

The Top 10: The Greatest Books of All Time

The Top 10 (Book), 103 Books

The Top 10 book chosen by 125 top writers from the book "The Top 10" edited by J. Peder Zane.

Top 100 Works in World Literature

Norwegian Book Clubs, with the Norwegian Nobel Institute, 102 Books

The editors of the Norwegian Book Clubs, with the Norwegian Nobel Institute, polled a panel of 100 authors from 54 countries on what they considered the “best and most central works in world literature.” Among the authors polled were Milan Kundera, Doris Lessing, Seamus Heaney, Salman Rushdie, Wole Soyinka, John Irving, Nadine Gordimer, and Carlos Fuentes. The list of 100 works appears alphabetically by author. Although the books were not ranked, the editors revealed that Don Quixote received 50% more votes than any other book.

Paste Magazine's Best Books of the Decade(2000-2009)

Paste Magazine, 26 Books

The top 20 best books of the 2000s by Paste Magazine. It includes both fiction and nonfiction.

The 80 Books Every Man Should Read

Esquire, 80 Books

An unranked, incomplete, utterly biased list of the greatest works of literature ever published.

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.

50 Greatest Books of All Time

Globe and Mail, 53 Books

A list of the 50 greatest books of all time as determined by a panel of secret judges for Globe and Mail. The books are not ranked.

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.

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).

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.

The 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the Century

National Review, 100 Books

The 100 best non-fiction books of all time judged by a panel of historians, authors, publishers, and experts for the National Review Magazine.

Extreme Classics: The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time

National Geographic Adventure Magazine, 101 Books

The 100 greatest adventure books chosen by National Geographic.

The Best Southern Novels of All Time

Oxford American, 32 Books

A list of the best southern novels of all time by Oxford American Magazine judged by 130 experts as well as authors.

The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time

The Novel 100, 127 Books

The list below is from the book The Novel 100: A Ranking of Greatest Novels All Time (Checkmark Books/Facts On File, Inc.: New York, 2004), written by Daniel S. Burt.

What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?

New York Times, 26 Books

The New York Times Book Review's editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify...

The Best Southern Nonfiction of All Time

Oxford American, 25 Books

The best southern United States nonfiction books of all time judged by 130 literary experts and authors.

Top 10 British, Irish or Commonwealth Novels from 1980 to 2005

The Observer, 10 Books

The Observer asked 150 literary luminaries to vote for the best British, Irish or Commonwealth novel from 1980 to 2005.

Great Books of the Western World

Great Books Foundation, 130 Books

Great Books of the Western World is a series of books originally published in the United States in 1952 by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. to present the western canon in a single package of 54 volume...

The 50 Best Books of the Century

Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 50 Books

ISI defined "best" as "volumes of extraordinary reflection and creativity in a traditional form, which heartens us with the knowledge that fine writing and clear-mindedness are perennially possible."

All the books are non-fiction.

The first 5 are ranked, the rest are alphabetical.

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.

100 Most Influential Books of the Century

Boston Public Library, 100 Books

Boston Public Library's list of "The 100 Most Influential Books of the Century". A booklist for Adults.
Compiled by Dawn Cook, General Library, Adult Reader and Information Services, Boston Public Library, May 2000

Donald Barthelme’s Reading List

Believer Mag, 78 Books

81 books recommended by Author Donald Barthelme to his students at the University of Houston.

Harvard Book Store Staff's Favorite 100 Books

Harvard Book Store, 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.

The Modern Library | 100 Best Nonfiction

The Modern Library, 100 Books

The Modern Library | 100 Best Novels

Modern Library, 100 Books

Modern Library's 100 Best Novels is a 1998 list of the best English-language novels published during the 20th century, as selected by Modern Library from among 400 novels published by Random House, which owns Modern Library. The purpose of the list was to "bring the Modern Library to public attention" and stimulate sales of its books

The board of review consisted of Daniel J. Boorstin, A. S. Byatt, Christopher Cerf, Shelby Foote, Vartan Gregorian, Edmund Morris, John Richardson, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., William Styron and Gore Vidal.

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.

50 Memorable Books from 50 Years of Books to Remember

The New York Public Library, 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.

The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time: The List

The Observer, 100 Books

The list of essential fiction from the past 300 years from Robert McCrum of The Observer.

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.
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.

110 Best Books: The Perfect Library

The Telegraph, 112 Books

From classics and sci-fi to poetry, biographies and books that changed the world… we present the ultimate reading list.

Radcliffe's 100 Best Novels

Radcliffe Publishing Course, 100 Books

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Pulitzer Prize, 97 Books

All the books that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction from 1918 to the present.

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.

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.
The award was first given in 1980.

National Book Critics Circle Award - Nonfiction

National Book Critics Circle, 45 Books

The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote the finest books and reviews published in English.

National Book Critics Circle Award - Fiction

National Book Critics Circle, 48 Books

The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote the finest books and reviews published in English.

TIME Magazine All Time 100 Novels

TIME Magazine, 100 Books

Time critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo pick the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.