501 Must-Read Books

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About this list

LibraryThing, 501 Books

501 Must-Read Books (Octopus/Bounty Books, 2006) is a 544-page coffee-table guide that distils the literary world into 501 illustrated, one-page entries. Edited by Emma Beare, the picks are spread across eight genre-based chapters—Children’s Fiction, Classic Fiction, Modern Fiction, Thrillers, Science-Fiction, History, Memoirs & Biography, and Travel—each essay pairing a brisk synopsis with key publication facts and a quick “why it matters” hook. Billed by the publisher as “the wisest, cleverest, best-read and most trusted friend you have ever had,” the list itself was drawn up by “a bibliophile and writer with a peerless reputation,” while the descriptive write-ups were farmed out to a team of lecturers, critics and book lovers. The result is an accessible, browsable canon designed to lure general readers into corners of the bookshop they might otherwise overlook.

Who voted: 1 unnamed expert

This list was originally published in 2006 and was added to this site about 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1004 2001 Arthur C. Clarke 1968 British English
9165 84, Charing Cross Road Helene Hanff 1970 American English
15910 Above The Dark Circus Hugh Walpole 1931 British English
2273 The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler 1985 American English
22 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
17151 The Age Of The Cathedrals Georges Duby 1966 French French
226 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
35 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 British English
777 I Am Legend Richard Matheson 1954 American English
15910 Amiel's Journal Henri-Frédéric Amiel 1883 Swiss French
8027 Among The Believers V. S. Naipaul 1981 British English
15910 And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street Dr. Seuss 1937 American English
4619 An Angel At My Table Janet Frame 1984 New Zealand English
1180 Annals Cornelius Tacitus 109 Roman Latin
250 Anne of Green Gables L. M. Montgomery 1908 Canadian English
4983 Arctic Dreams Barry Lopez 1986 American English
3471 The Armada Garrett Mattingly 1959 American English
5862 At The Back Of The North Wind George MacDonald 1871 Scottish English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
493 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
2673 Autobiographies William Butler Yeats 1926 Irish English
3198 The Autobiography Of A Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda 1946 Indian English
1936 Autobiography Benvenuto Cellini 1728 Italian Italian
5595 Poetry And Truth From My Own Life Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2004 German English
1065 La Bête humaine Émile Zola 1890 French French
678 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
9831 Barney's Version Mordecai Richler 1997 Canadian English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
201 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
2019 The Berlin Stories Christopher Isherwood 1945 British English
14232 Berlin Antony Beevor 2002 British English
15910 The Big Clock Kenneth Fearing 1946 American English
1070 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
508 Black Beauty Anna Sewell 1877 British English
17151 Black Like Me John Howard Griffin 1961 American English
604 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
4482 Bliss Katherine Mansfield 1918 New Zealand English
17151 Blood Sport Dick Francis 1967 British English
2103 The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories Angela Carter 1979 British English
1099 The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald 1995 British English
5335 Bones And Silence Reginald Hill 1990 British English
186 Bonjour Tristesse Francoise Sagan 1954 French French
2692 The Book Of Margery Kempe Margery Kempe 1436 British Middle english
17151 Born Victim Hillary Waugh 1962 American English
14984 Borrowed Time Paul Monette 1988 American English
14984 Boy Roald Dahl 1984 British English
15910 Brain Wave Poul Anderson 1954 American English
50 Brave New World Aldous Huxley 1932 British English
14193 The Bride Wore Black Cornell Woolrich 1940 American English
141 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 1945 British English
1871 Brief Lives John Aubrey 1898 British English
1115 The Cairo Trilogy Naguib Mahfouz 1956 Egyptian Arabic
1431 Cakes And Ale Or, The Skeleton In The Cupboard W. Somerset Maugham 1930 British English
80 Candide Voltaire 1759 French French
110 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer 1400 British Middle english
1323 A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller 1960 American English
1935 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
15910 The Case Of The Abominable Snowman Nicholas Blake 1941 British English
346 The Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole 1764 British English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
1754 Changing Places David Lodge 1975 British English
102 Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952 American English
10189 Che Guevara Jon Lee Anderson 1997 American English
17151 The Cheese And The Worms Carlo Ginzburg 1976 Italian Italian
15910 Childhood, Youth And Exile Alexander Herzen 1852 Russian Russian
15910 The Chinese Orange Mystery Ellery Queen 1934 American English
17151 Chinese Shadows Simon Leys 1974 Belgian French
216 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens 1843 British English
1235 Cheri Colette 1920 French French
6277 Citizens Simon Schama 1989 British English
2901 City Clifford D. Simak 1952 American English
1583 The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy Jacob Burckhardt 1860 Swiss German
332 Clarissa Samuel Richardson 1748 British English
153 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
4613 Cold Heaven Brian Moore 1983 British English
1579 The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel Isaac Babel 1934 Russian Russian
1626 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
17151 Colossus Niall Ferguson 2004 British English
322 Household Tales Brothers Grimm 1812 German German
225 Fairy Tales and Stories Hans Christian Andersen 1835 Danish Danish
10630 Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense Edward Lear 1846 British English
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
275 The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 French French
133 Confessions Augustine 397 Roman Latin
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
14984 The Complete Cosmicomics Italo Calvino 1965 Italian Italian
977 Couples John Updike 1968 American English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
15910 The Cruise Of The Snark Jack London 1911 American English
17151 The Crusades Through Arab Eyes Amin Maalouf 1983 French French
2262 The Crystal World J. G. Ballard 1966 British English
1812 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon 2003 British English
15910 Daily Life In Ancient Rome Jérôme Carcopino 1936 French French
1246 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
419 The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey 1951 British English
917 The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham 1951 British English
17151 Dead Man's Chest Nicholas Rankin 1987 Unknown English
17151 Deadlock Sara Paretsky 1984 American English
15910 Death In The Wrong Room Anthony Gilbert 1947 British English
14132 Death Of My Aunt C. H. B. Kitchin 1929 British English
1540 Decline of the West Oswald Spengler 1918 German German
11134 The Demolished Man Alfred Bester 1953 American English
17151 Destinations Jan Morris 1980 British English
14897 Devil Take The Blue Tail Fly John Franklin Bardin 1948 American English
1168 The Diaries Franz Kafka 1948 Czech German
113 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 Dutch Dutch
17151 The Diary Of Alice James Alice James 1982 American English
2881 The Diary of Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys 1825 British English
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
3249 A Distant Mirror Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1978 American English
1904 The Diviners Margaret Laurence 1974 Canadian English
14816 Dona Flor And Her Two Husbands Jorge Amado, Harriet de Onís 1966 Brazilian Portuguese
14865 Donovan's Brain Curt Siodmak 1942 American English
1193 Double Indemnity James M. Cain 1943 American English
17151 Dover One Joyce Porter 1964 British English
1245 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
53 Dracula Bram Stoker 1897 British English
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
3253 Dwellers In The Mirage A. Merritt 1932 American English
474 Embers Sandor Marai 1942 Hungarian Hungarian