The Greatest Books Since 1900
How is this list generated?
This list is generated from 130 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources. An algorithm is used to create a master list based on how many lists a particular book appears on. Some lists count more than others. I generally trust "best of all time" lists voted by authors and experts over user-generated lists. On the lists that are actually ranked, the book that is 1st counts a lot more than the book that's 100th. If you're interested in the details about how the rankings are generated and which lists are the most important(in my eyes) please check out the list details page.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or corrections please feel free to e-mail me.
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2052
. Behind of the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
Behind the Scenes at the Museum is the first novel of Kate Atkinson. The book covers the experiences of Ruby Lennox from a middle-class English family.
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2055
. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
The Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The semi-fictional accounts in the novel are based upon events that occurred years after the events of On the Road. The main ...
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2058
. Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula by Barry Gifford
Despite her mother's disapproval, Lula Pace Fortune joins her boyfriend, Sailor Ripley, when he finishes serving his prison sentence for murder
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2059
. Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler
Searching for Caleb is Anne Tyler's sixth novel. It was originally published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1975.
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2060
. The Box Man by Kobo Abé
Kōbō Abe (安部公房, Abe Kōbō?), pseudonym of Kimifusa Abe (Abe Kimifusa, March 7, 1924 – January 22, 1993) was a Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor.
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2062
. Joy in the Morning by P. G. Wodehouse
“To dive into a Wodehouse novel is to swim in some of the most elegantly turned phrases in the English language.”—Ben Schott Follow the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his gentleman’s gentleman, J...
- Google
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2063
. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The Book of Strange New Things is a 2014 science fiction novel by Dutch-born author Michel Faber. The work was first published in the United States on October 28, 2014 and concerns an English pasto...
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2064
. Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
Injury Time is a novel by English author Beryl Bainbridge and first published in 1977 by Duckworth. It won the 1977 Whitbread Book of the Year Award.
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2066
. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Time Traveler's Wife, published in 2003, is the debut novel of American author Audrey Niffenegger. It is a love story about a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredic...
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2067
. Home to Harlem by Claude McKay
With sensual, often brutal accuracy, Claude McKay traces the parallel paths of two very different young men struggling to find their way through the suspicion and prejudice of American society. At ...
- Google
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2069
. Poems: Selected and New, 1950-1974 by Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the [20th] century."
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2070
. Savages: A Novel by Don Winslow
Running a lucrative marijuana operation in Laguna Beach, environmentalist Ben and mercenary Chon confront an adversary in the Mexican Baja cartel who kidnaps their playmate and confidante Ophelia, ...
- Google
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2071
. Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby
The decadence and violence of the urban streets is graphically portrayed in a novel set in a New York slum
- Google
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2072
. Young Shoulders by John Wain
Young Shoulders is a 1982 novel by John Wain. It portrays incompatibility in a marital relationship and how such a flawed marriage affects the children born out of it.
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2074
. The Terror by Dan Simmons
The Terror is the name of a 2007 novel by American author Dan Simmons. The novel is a fictionalized account of Franklin's lost expedition of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror under Captain Sir John Frankli...
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2075
. The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston
This landmark gathering of Zora Neale Hurston's short fiction—most of which appeared only in literary magazines during her lifetime—reveals the evolution of one of the most important African Americ...
- Google
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2077
. The Natural by Bernard Malamud
Introduction by Kevin Baker The Natural, Bernard Malamud’s first novel, published in 1952, is also the first—and some would say still the best—novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usua...
- Google
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2078
. A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reade...
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2079
. Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
Poor Things is a novel by Scottish writer Alasdair Gray, published in 1992. It won the Whitbread Novel Award in 1992 and the Guardian Fiction Prize for 1992.
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2080
. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Written using a vocabulary of only 50 words, Dr. Seuss' second best selling book of all time is brought joyously to life in this colourful board book. Featuring lots of fabulous flaps and silly sti...
- Google
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2083
. City of Glass by Paul Auster
The first story, City of Glass, features a detective-fiction writer become private investigator who descends into madness as he becomes embroiled in a case. It explores layers of identity and reali...
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2084
. The History of Mr. Polly by H. G. Wells
The History of Mr. Polly is a 1910 comic novel by H. G. Wells. The novel's principal conflict is Mr. Polly's struggle with life, told "in the full-blooded Dickens tradition." This moral struggle is...
- Google
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2087
. Airships by Barry Hannah
Now considered a contemporary classic, Airships was honored by Esquire magazine with the Arnold Gingrich Short Fiction Award. The twenty stories in this collection are a fresh, exuberant celebratio...
- Google
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2088
. The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore by Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was a Modernist American poet and writer noted for her irony and wit.
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2089
. The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke
The Chymical Wedding is a 1989 novel by Lindsay Clarke about the intertwined lives of six people in two different eras. The book includes themes of alchemy, the occult, fate, passion, and obsession.
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2090
. The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde
Audre Geraldine Lorde (February 18, 1934 - November 17, 1992) was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist.
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2091
. Quarantine by Jim Crace
Quarantine is a novel by Jim Crace. It was the winner of the 1997 Whitbread Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction the same year.
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2093
. Building Stories by Chris Ware
Presents an illustrated tale, told in various books and folded sheets, about the residents in a three-story Chicago apartment building, including a lonely single woman, a couple who are growing to ...
- Google
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2094
. Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold
Carter Beats The Devil is a historical mystery thriller novel by Glen David Gold
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2095
. Pushcart Prize Anthology by Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize is a prestigious American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previo...
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2096
. Nog by Rudy Wurlitzer
Nog is a psychedelic novel by Rudolph Wurlitzer published in 1969. Written in an experimental style, the novel is described by Atlantic Monthly as being effective at replicating "the slight and con...
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2098
. Will You Please be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, published in 1976, was the first short-story collection by American writer Raymond Carver. This minimalist collection revolves around themes of segregation and di...
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2099
. The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Beginning of Spring is a novel by British author Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in Moscow in 1913, it tells the story of a Moscow-born son of a British emigre manufacturer whose Britain-born wife has...
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This list is generated from 130 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources. An algorithm is used to create a master list based on how many lists a particular book appears on. Some lists count more than others. I generally trust "best of all time" lists voted by authors and experts over user-generated lists. On the lists that are actually ranked, the book that is 1st counts a lot more than the book that's 100th. If you're interested in the details about how the rankings are generated and which lists are the most important(in my eyes) please check out the list details page.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or corrections please feel free to e-mail me.
-
-
2052 . Behind of the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
Behind the Scenes at the Museum is the first novel of Kate Atkinson. The book covers the experiences of Ruby Lennox from a middle-class English family.
-
-
-
2055 . The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
The Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The semi-fictional accounts in the novel are based upon events that occurred years after the events of On the Road. The main ...
-
-
-
2058 . Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula by Barry Gifford
Despite her mother's disapproval, Lula Pace Fortune joins her boyfriend, Sailor Ripley, when he finishes serving his prison sentence for murder
- Google -
2059 . Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler
Searching for Caleb is Anne Tyler's sixth novel. It was originally published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1975.
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2060 . The Box Man by Kobo Abé
Kōbō Abe (安部公房, Abe Kōbō?), pseudonym of Kimifusa Abe (Abe Kimifusa, March 7, 1924 – January 22, 1993) was a Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor.
-
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2062 . Joy in the Morning by P. G. Wodehouse
“To dive into a Wodehouse novel is to swim in some of the most elegantly turned phrases in the English language.”—Ben Schott Follow the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his gentleman’s gentleman, J...
- Google -
2063 . The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The Book of Strange New Things is a 2014 science fiction novel by Dutch-born author Michel Faber. The work was first published in the United States on October 28, 2014 and concerns an English pasto...
-
2064 . Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
Injury Time is a novel by English author Beryl Bainbridge and first published in 1977 by Duckworth. It won the 1977 Whitbread Book of the Year Award.
-
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2066 . The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Time Traveler's Wife, published in 2003, is the debut novel of American author Audrey Niffenegger. It is a love story about a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredic...
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2067 . Home to Harlem by Claude McKay
With sensual, often brutal accuracy, Claude McKay traces the parallel paths of two very different young men struggling to find their way through the suspicion and prejudice of American society. At ...
- Google -
2069 . Poems: Selected and New, 1950-1974 by Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the [20th] century."
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2070 . Savages: A Novel by Don Winslow
Running a lucrative marijuana operation in Laguna Beach, environmentalist Ben and mercenary Chon confront an adversary in the Mexican Baja cartel who kidnaps their playmate and confidante Ophelia, ...
- Google -
2071 . Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby
The decadence and violence of the urban streets is graphically portrayed in a novel set in a New York slum
- Google -
2072 . Young Shoulders by John Wain
Young Shoulders is a 1982 novel by John Wain. It portrays incompatibility in a marital relationship and how such a flawed marriage affects the children born out of it.
-
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2074 . The Terror by Dan Simmons
The Terror is the name of a 2007 novel by American author Dan Simmons. The novel is a fictionalized account of Franklin's lost expedition of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror under Captain Sir John Frankli...
-
2075 . The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston
This landmark gathering of Zora Neale Hurston's short fiction—most of which appeared only in literary magazines during her lifetime—reveals the evolution of one of the most important African Americ...
- Google -
-
2077 . The Natural by Bernard Malamud
Introduction by Kevin Baker The Natural, Bernard Malamud’s first novel, published in 1952, is also the first—and some would say still the best—novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usua...
- Google -
2078 . A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
A Fan's Notes is a novel by Frederick Exley, first published in 1968. Subtitled "A Fictional Memoir" and categorized as fiction, the book is somewhat autobiographical. In a brief "Note to the reade...
-
2079 . Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
Poor Things is a novel by Scottish writer Alasdair Gray, published in 1992. It won the Whitbread Novel Award in 1992 and the Guardian Fiction Prize for 1992.
-
2080 . Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Written using a vocabulary of only 50 words, Dr. Seuss' second best selling book of all time is brought joyously to life in this colourful board book. Featuring lots of fabulous flaps and silly sti...
- Google -
-
-
2083 . City of Glass by Paul Auster
The first story, City of Glass, features a detective-fiction writer become private investigator who descends into madness as he becomes embroiled in a case. It explores layers of identity and reali...
-
2084 . The History of Mr. Polly by H. G. Wells
The History of Mr. Polly is a 1910 comic novel by H. G. Wells. The novel's principal conflict is Mr. Polly's struggle with life, told "in the full-blooded Dickens tradition." This moral struggle is...
- Google -
-
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2087 . Airships by Barry Hannah
Now considered a contemporary classic, Airships was honored by Esquire magazine with the Arnold Gingrich Short Fiction Award. The twenty stories in this collection are a fresh, exuberant celebratio...
- Google -
2088 . The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore by Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was a Modernist American poet and writer noted for her irony and wit.
-
2089 . The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke
The Chymical Wedding is a 1989 novel by Lindsay Clarke about the intertwined lives of six people in two different eras. The book includes themes of alchemy, the occult, fate, passion, and obsession.
-
2090 . The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde
Audre Geraldine Lorde (February 18, 1934 - November 17, 1992) was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist.
-
2091 . Quarantine by Jim Crace
Quarantine is a novel by Jim Crace. It was the winner of the 1997 Whitbread Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction the same year.
-
-
2093 . Building Stories by Chris Ware
Presents an illustrated tale, told in various books and folded sheets, about the residents in a three-story Chicago apartment building, including a lonely single woman, a couple who are growing to ...
- Google -
2094 . Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold
Carter Beats The Devil is a historical mystery thriller novel by Glen David Gold
-
2095 . Pushcart Prize Anthology by Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize is a prestigious American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previo...
-
2096 . Nog by Rudy Wurlitzer
Nog is a psychedelic novel by Rudolph Wurlitzer published in 1969. Written in an experimental style, the novel is described by Atlantic Monthly as being effective at replicating "the slight and con...
-
-
2098 . Will You Please be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, published in 1976, was the first short-story collection by American writer Raymond Carver. This minimalist collection revolves around themes of segregation and di...
-
2099 . The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Beginning of Spring is a novel by British author Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in Moscow in 1913, it tells the story of a Moscow-born son of a British emigre manufacturer whose Britain-born wife has...
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