100 All-Time Greatest Popular Science Books

Open Education Database (2013), 100 Books

OEDB.org made this list of the greatest popular science books. here's their description:

These great popular science books offer accessible science to readers from all levels of knowledge. There's something here for everyone, whether you're interested in environmental science, kitchen chemistry, or just want to try out some fun experiments with your kids over the summer. Check out our picks for the best in popular science, and see how you can use them to better understand and explore our world.

Landmarks of World Literature

Cambridge University (2012), 24 Books

This series provides concise and lucid introductions to major works of world literature. It is not confined to any single literary tradition or genre and cumulatively forms a substantial library of textbooks on some of the most important and widely read masterpieces.

Inteliquest's World's 100 Greatest Books of All-Time

InteliQuest (1993), 100 Books

InteliQuest contacted the literature departments of some of America's top universities and asked for their rankings of what they considered to be the greatest works of literature. We then compiled and analyzed these lists and chose the 100 books mentioned most often. The books in this collection are not presented in order of greatness. They are presented in chronological order

InteliQuest then sold the books on cassette tape

The Drama 100 - A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time

Book (2007), 100 Books

Which plays are truly great, and why? This book by Daniel Burt profiles 100 of the greatest plays drawn from all cultures and periods of literature.

The Well-Educated Mind

Book (2003), 178 Books

In her best-selling work on home education, The Well-Trained Mind, Susan Wise Bauer provided a road map of classical education for parents wishing to home-school their children; that book is now the premier resource for home-schoolers. In The Well-Educated Mind, Bauer takes the same elements and techniques and adapts them to the use of adult readers who want both enjoyment and self-improvement from the time they spend reading. Followed carefully, her advice will restore and expand the pleasure of the written word.

Bill Gate's Book Recommendations

Bill Gates (2024), 258 Books

All books recommended by Bill Gates

The Twenty Greatest Philosophy Books (Book from 2006)

James Garvey (2006), 20 Books

The essential guide to the top twenty greatest books in philosophy for those who have just never quite found the time to read them.

In this witty and engaging book, James Garvey offers an introductory account of the must-read books from the whole history of philosophical writing. From Plato to Popper, Descartes to Wittgenstein, the greatest books in philosophy have had a huge impact on the development of contemporary society, politics, economics and culture. This entertaining and intelligent guide introduces the philosophical questions central to these books that are of genuine interest to the general reader and opens up often complex and challenging ideas for wider debate.

James Garvey is the Managing Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy and the Editor of The Philosophers' Magazine

One Hundred Best Books (1916)

John Cowper Powys (1916), 98 Books

John Cowper Powys’ Best 100 Books published more than a century ago, in 1916. John Cowper Powys (8 October 1872 – 17 June 1963) was an English novelist, philosopher, lecturer, critic and poet.

William H. F. Lamont’s 100 Best Novels (1947)

archive.org (1947), 100 Books

The 100 best novels, compiled by William H. F. Lamont for the magazine Books Abroad, Vol. 21 No.1, Winter 1947.

To start off he 'decided to examine the fiction section (57 novels) of John Cowper Powys’ list of One Hundred Best Books, the fiction section (approximately 300 novels) of Asa Don Dickinson’s One Thousand Best Books, & the entire fiction list of William Lyon Phelps' One Hundred Best Novels'.
He found the lists inadequate as regards to Continental & South American novels, as well as those from small countries, changed them substantially and then 'I sent it to perhaps fifty of the outstanding scholars of America, asking for their criticism', which they delivered in spades - that part is funny & illuminating, you get an idea of how the sausages are made when there's a real attempt at a professional list.

The Complete 500: OCLC

OCLC (2024), 495 Books

This list is from OCLC and is a bit different than most lists on this site. OCLC is a global library organization that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large. This list is based on how many libraries have a copy of a book on their shelves. Here's their own description:

What makes a novel “great”? At OCLC, we believe literary greatness can be measured by how many libraries have a copy on their shelves.
Yes, libraries offer access to trendy and popular books. But, they don’t keep them on the shelf if they’re not repeatedly requested by their communities over the years. We’ve identified 500 timeless, top novels—those found in thousands of libraries around the world—using WorldCat, the world’s largest database of library materials'.

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

10 of the Best Popular Science Books as Chosen by Authors and Writers

NewScientist (2021), 10 Books

NewScientist has polled various authors and writers about their favorite science books. here's who they polled: George Monbiot, Colin Tudge, Pragya Agarwal, Jonathan Drori, Emily Shuckburgh, Cassandra Coburn, Jojo Mehta, Jim Down, Camilla Pang and Richard Walker

Twenty Books that Changed the World

The Guardian (2015), 20 Books

The “Twenty Books that Changed the World” shortlist was assembled in October 2015 for the first Academic Book Week: a panel of specialist academic booksellers, librarians and publishers whittled 200 titles submitted by UK publishers down to a top-20 line-up, then opened an online ballot to the public to decide which work had had the greatest scholarly impact. During the fortnight-long vote, just over 900 people cast ballots, with Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species taking 26 % of the “900-plus” votes and topping the poll.

The 50 best books of the past 100 years

The Times (2022), 51 Books

On the 100th anniversary of Ulysses, our jury of authors and critics picked the finest novels published since Joyce’s classic — and readers picked the 51st. Here's who voted:

● Kamila Shamsie is the author of Home Fire, which won the Women’s Prize.
● David Nicholls is the author of One Day and Starter for Ten.
● Aminatta Forna has written four novels, including Happiness.
● John Carey is chief literary critic of The Sunday Times. He has been reviewing in these pages for 50 years.
● Sarah Waters has written six novels, including Fingersmith.
● Sebastian Faulks is the author of 17 novels, including Birdsong.
● Anne Enright has written seven novels, including her Booker-winning The Gathering.
● Megan Nolan wrote Acts of Desperation.
● Peter Kemp is chief fiction reviewer for The Sunday Times.
● Colm Tóibín has written ten novels, including Brooklyn.
● Claire Lowdon is a novelist and literary critic.
● Yiyun Li writes short stories and novels, including A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.
● David Mitchell is the author of Cloud Atlas.
● Johanna Thomas-Corr is a journalist and literary critic.
● Diana Evans is the award-winning author of Ordinary People.
● Carys Davies is the author of West and The Mission House.

The 100 Best Crime Novels and Thrillers since 1945

The Times (2019), 100 Books

The Times team pick their favourite crime and spy novels, from Agatha Christie and Georges Simenon to today’s edgy Scandi and Japanese masters.

Contributors: Francesca Angelini, John Carey, Max Freeman-Mills, Josh Glancy, Andrew Holgate, Alan Hunter, Peter Kemp, Claire Lowdon, David Mills, John Dugdale, Patricia Nicol, Nick Rennison, Karen Robinson, Mika Ross-Southall, Joan Smith, Johanna Thomas-Corr

Zeit Literaturkanon

https://www.librarything.com/award/335/ZEIT-Literaturkanon (2012), 70 Books

The ZEIT Literaturkanon is a curated list of 70 European novels published between 1945 and 2009, assembled in 2012 for a seven-part summer series in the German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. Conceived by literary editor Iris Radisch, its purpose was to spotlight the most artistically and historically significant works of the post-war era—ten titles for each decade—to prompt debate and guide readers rather than to rank “the best” by popularity. Selection was not opened to public voting; instead, roughly 30 prominent critics and cultural journalists from DIE ZEIT’s circle each championed one or more books in short essays that were later collected in the volume Kontinent der Bücher (2013).

Best Books (Fiction, Prose) : Experts Choose Their Favourites

The Book "Best Books" (1996), 197 Books

This list of books is from the book titled "Best Books: Experts Choose Their Favourites". This is a very small set of the books that are listed in the book. This is only the Fiction, non-fiction prose, drama, and genre fiction. The experts in these categories who made up the lists are: Brenda Richardson, Chris Murray, Roz Kaveney, Anthony Thwaite, Claire Tomalin, Malcolm Bardbury, Oliver Harris, Ian F A Bell, Kadiatu Kanneh, Brian Aldiss, Marina Oliver, Colin Dexter, Derek Parker, and T. J. Lustig.

1000 Novels Everyone Must Read

The Guardian (2009), 997 Books

Selected by the Guardian’s Review team and a panel of expert judges, this list includes only novels – no memoirs, no short stories, no long poems – from any decade and in any language. Originally published in thematic supplements – love, crime, comedy, family and self, state of the nation, science fiction and fantasy, war and travel – they appear here for the first time in a single list.

Who Voted?
There's not a lot of concrete information about the exact number of critics who voted. If we go by the critics mentioned on many of the summaries of the books, and how many editors at the guardian at the time, I think a safe assumption would be 40 people worked on this list. If anyone has any additional information please let me know.

The Little Big Bulgaria Read

Bulgaria (2009), 100 Books

Running from 27 February to 19 June 2011, Bulgarian National Television’s licensed BBC-format campaign “The Little Big Bulgaria Read” (Малкото Голямо Четене) invited only school-age readers to name their single favourite children’s novel and amassed well over 100,000 ballots on its website—augmented, in later phases, by postcard and SMS votes—making it the largest national children’s reading poll on record. Eligible voters were primarily pupils aged roughly 7–14, mobilised through classroom events, reading clubs and a slate of BNT-backed art, writing and video contests; adults could watch, but votes cast from adult accounts were screened out during registration. The rules were purely popularity-based: any children’s book could be nominated, the 100 most-nominated titles advanced to a second ballot, and the top ten were defended by celebrity-and-kid “champions” in a live prime-time final. That broadcast saw Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking top the list with 16.238 % of the final-round vote, edging the Harry Potter series (15.027 %) and Bulgaria’s own Patilansko Tsarstvo (12.43 %). BNT never published raw vote totals or a voter roll, but its mid-year corporate report confirms the headline participation figure and hails the project as “a nationwide opinion survey on children’s reading tastes”.

100 Books of Classical and Modern Foreign Literature

The Union of Russian Writers (2013), 100 Books

"100 books of classical and modern foreign literature" according to the Union of Writers of Russia, published on January 23, 2013.

The creators of the list are confident that Russian literature is a universal cultural heritage, but its significance can only be understood in unity with world literature, and that this list, presented to the public within the framework of the presidential project, will help strengthen spirituality and morality among Russian youth, and will also help revive traditions family reading and will become a notable event in the cultural life of modern Russia.

The Union of Russian Writers is a non-governmental organization uniting Russian and writers (novelists, poets, essayists, etc.). It was established in 1991, when on the basis of the Union of Soviet Writers three independent associations were formed: the Writers' Union of Russia (the "patriotic" orientation), the Writers' Union of Moscow, and the Union of Russian Writers ("democratic" union). The Union of Russian Writers includes more than 3,500 writers from Russia and former USSR, in 58 regional organizations.

Who voted and how many people voted?
At that moment the Union’s affairs were run by its elected Правление (Board/Presidium), ca. 40-45 writers (roster published after the XIV Congress in Oct 2013). In the Union’s statute this Board takes such decisions by simple majority. There is no indication that a wider membership vote (≈ 3500 writers) or an external public poll was held. I am going to go with 40 writers helped make the list

Top 50 Books

The Folio Society (1997), 49 Books

These top 50 books were voted on by The Folio Society members in 1997. The Folio Society is a London-based publisher, founded by Charles Ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971.

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.

Quintessential American Fiction, According to the Rest of the World

Literary Hub (2015), 100 Books

On the occasion of the 4th of July, we the asked the rest of the world for its opinion on American literature. In a deeply unscientific survey of nearly 50 writers, editors, publishers, critics, and translators, representing 30 countries, we asked them to name three quintessentially American books, and tell us about their choices.

The 25 Best Science-Fiction Books of All Time

Spy.com (2020), 25 Books

Timothy Beck Werth, an avid Science Fiction book reader and collector, made a list of The 25 Best Science-Fiction Books of All Time, for Spy.com

Dragon Awards

The Dragon Awards (Yearly Award), 30 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.

Robert Holdstock Award

British Fantasy Society (Yearly Award), 12 Books

The Fantasy book award from The British Fantasy Society

August Derleth Award

British Fantasy Society (Yearly Award), 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.

The British Science Fiction Association Awards - Novel

British Science Fiction Association (Yearly Award), 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.

The Andre Norton Award

The Andre Norton Award (Yearly 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.

100 Main Fantasy and Science-Fiction Books

www.mirf.ru (Russian) (2008), 112 Books

Critera:" Our list includes only those books and series that have become universally recognized pillars of fantasy literature or have had a significant impact on the development of individual fantasy trends. At the same time, we did not give in to the temptation to attribute the main contribution to science fiction to English-speaking authors: almost a fifth of our list is occupied by books by Russian masters of the word.

So, here are those 100 books that, according to MirF, any self-respecting fan of science fiction simply must read!" (translated)

voters:
Boris Nevsky,
Dmitry Zlotnitsky,
Vladimir Puzii,
Petr Tyulenev

The 50 Best Sci-Fi Books for Every Kind of Reader

Men's Health (2024), 49 Books

Joshua St. Clair and Milan Polk created this list for Men's Health titled "The 50 Best Sci-Fi Books for Every Kind of Reader"

The 100 Best Science Fiction Books of All Time

Tor (2019), 116 Books

Germany’s SF portal Tor Online asked its community to help create a definitive, German-language guide to the genre. Over a two-week window, 219 readers were allowed to name up to five favourite novels. Their input produced 1 099 nominations covering 450 different titles.

A six-member jury (three women, three men drawn from the site’s editors/critics) then read the long-list and selected the final 100 books. The list is deliberately alphabetical, not ranked, and the jury’s brief was to offer “einen repräsentativen Querschnitt”—a balanced snapshot of classics plus very recent works (roughly the last four to five years). All titles had to be available in German translation, with one deliberate exception (A Door Into Ocean).

Who voted & how many?
Community phase: 219 readers supplied the raw nominations.
Final decision phase: 6 jurors chose the 100-title shortlist.

The 100 Best Books of Two Centuries of Modern Greek Literature (1813 – 2013)

BookPress.gr and the bookstore Politeia (2014), 95 Books

120 contemporary Greek writers choose the 100 best books of two centuries of Greek literature(1813 - 2013).

The authors were asked to rate the 20 books they rated as the best, always according to their reading preferences, their judgment of the influence they exerted, or other criteria that determined their choices. These books could include prose titles, novels or short stories, poetry collections (individual, collective or all) and plays.

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 Great American Novels

The Atlantic (2024), 136 Books

This list is an exploration of the 'Great American Novel' concept, aiming to define a new American literary canon by identifying significant novels published in the United States over the past 100 years. The selection criteria focused on literary works that offer intriguing insights and are written with distinctive, artful prose. Curated by The Atlantic, the list involved contributions from a diverse group of experts, including scholars, critics, and novelists. The methodology emphasized comprehensiveness, rigor, and open-mindedness, leading to a final selection of 136 novels. These novels were chosen not only for their enduring impact but also to highlight the unexpected and overlooked, reflecting the evolving American literary landscape amid contemporary challenges such as censorship and anti-intellectualism.

Famous Authors Name Their Favorite Novels(from 1915)

New York Times (1915), 38 Books

This list of famous authors listing their 6 favorite novels was published in the New York Times on September 5th, 1915. The authors who answered were James Lane Allen, Edwin Lefevre, Oliver Onions, Honore Willsie, Susan Glaspell, Gene Stratton Porter, Eleanor Atkinson, Leona Dalrymple, Frank H. Spearman, and Harvey J. O’Higgins

The 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century

Folha de São Paulo (1999), 98 Books

Folha de São Paulo, also known as simply Folha, is a Brazilian daily newspaper founded in 1921 under the name Folha da Noite and published in São Paulo by the Folha da Manhã company. Folha got ten critics and writers to choose the one hundred best novels published since 1900.

50 Essential Fantasy Books

Abe Books (2018), 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.

100 Best Books of the Decade so Far (2010-2015)

Oyster Books (2015), 100 Books

The “100 Best Books of the Decade So Far” was essentially the work of a single editor, Kevin Nguyen, published April 2015 on Oyster’s literary site. The guiding idea was “books that most powerfully pursue truth” across fiction and nonfiction from 2010-2015. An advisory trio of Roxane Gay, Megan Abbott and Lauren Oliver could comment, but Nguyen made the picks. When Google acquired Oyster in Sept 2015 and the service shut down in early 2016, the original webpage vanished; only mirrors on LibraryThing, Reddit and blogs remain today.

The Greatest Books of All Time

Reader's Digest (2022), 100 Books

Reader's Digest has created a list of greatest books of all time. Their website says:

To land in the top 100, a book needed to truly stand out in the stacks. We considered best sellers, award winners, and books that are highly rated by readers and critics alike. Many have been made into blockbuster movies. (Make sure to check out these exciting book to movie adaptations coming out this year!) Going on, many are taught in schools today. Many have snagged spots on other “best of” lists published by the likes of the New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, PBS, Time magazine, and more. And most have had profound impacts on literature, culture, or the world in general.

Reader's Digest mentions that the list is updated periodically by writers specialize in book content. Book selections are made by editors at Reader's Digest.

No voters are named. The article is written by Leandra Beabout, who i am going to assume is the 1 voter.
A former English teacher, Leandra writes about books and lifestyle for Reader's Digest. She also has bylines in the Guardian, the Telegraph and The Healthy. Leandra splits her time between the U.S. and India, where she and her husband currently live in the lower Himalayas.

What’s the Best Book of the Past 125 Years? We Asked Readers to Decide.

New York Times (2021), 11 Books

A list from the New York Times. Here's the description from the website:

In October, as we marked the Book Review’s 125th anniversary, we invited readers to nominate the best book published during that time. This was a nod to our history: In its first few decades, the Book Review often asked readers to anoint the best books, the best short stories, the best poems. We wanted this project, like those early ones, to reflect readers’ tastes and preferences.

Responses began pouring in from all 50 states and 67 countries. In November, we presented a list of the 25 most-nominated books (one per author) for a vote. There were more than 200,000 ballots.

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

Britain's Favourite Ten Children's Books

Waterstone and BBC (1997), 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
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

What Harvard Professors Think Greatest Books Ever: Top 20 List (1977)

The Boston Globe (Newspaper) (1977), 21 Books

Harvard Professors in in the 1970s list their favorite books of all time. Reprinted in the Boston Globe

7 Essential Authors Recommend Their 7 Essential Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

Powell's Books (2022), 7 Books

Powells Books gets 7 authors to recommend their 7 essential sci-fi and fantasy books.

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 100 Fantasy Books

Fantasy Book Review (2022), 103 Books

Fantasy Book Review lists their Top 100 Fantasy Books of all time, with links to their reviews of each one. Here's what their description says:

The 100 fantasy books that we - and other readers - simply cannot recommend highly enough; books that we've all loved reading. Click on a book title to read the full review.

Books That Shaped America

Library of Congress (2012), 99 Books

As part of a multi-year Library of Congress “Celebration of the Book,” the list – initially 88 books, now expanded by the Library to 100 – and its accompanying exhibition at the Library last June 25-Sept. 25 engendered months of public dialogue. Some 165,400 people attended the exhibit and more than 9,000 responded to a survey about “Books That Shaped America” posted by the Library on its National Book Festival website.

The Best Books of All Time, as Chosen by the Good Housekeeping Team

Good Housekeeping (2020), 20 Books

The Good Housekeeping team have all the picked their top read - the one they would happily read, again and again.

Books of the Century

The Age (Newspaper) (1999), 26 Books

The Age, a major newspaper Melbourne, Victoria asked around 30 authors/critics/experts what their favorite book of the century was. Note, some authors did not understand the question and picked books written in the 1700s