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
2250 Emil And The Detectives Erich Kästner 1929 German German
3953 The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama 1992 American English
3859 Enduring Love Ian McEwan 1997 British English
15916 The Engagement Georges Simenon 1933 Belgian French
1824 The Engineer of Human Souls Josef Škvorecký 1977 Czech Czech
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
3185 Eothen Alexander William Kinglake 1844 British English
264 The Epic Of Gilgamesh Unknown -2100 Multiple Akkadian
728 Erewhon Samuel Butler 1872 British English
2731 The Executioner's Song Norman Mailer 1979 American English
1132 Fanny Hill John Cleland 1748 British English
595 Farewell, My Lovely Raymond Chandler 1940 American English
8894 The Fatal Shore Robert Hughes 1987 Australian English
15916 Father And Son Edmund Gosse 1907 British English
11795 Felicia's Journey William Trevor 1994 British English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
384 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
45 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
1571 Fifth Business Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
17166 The File On H. Ismail Kadare 1981 Albanian Albanian
15916 Final Curtain Ngaio Marsh 1947 New Zealander English
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
3546 Five Children And It Edith Nesbit 1902 British English
17166 Flesh In The Age Of Reason Roy Porter 2003 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
14985 From The Fifteenth District Mavis Gallant 1979 Canadian English
17166 Frozen Desire James Buchan 1997 British English
805 Gaudy Night Dorothy L. Sayers 1935 British English
167 Giovanni's Room James Baldwin 1956 American English
348 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
14985 The Glass Sided Ants’ Nest Peter Dickinson 1968 British English
17166 God's First Love Friedrich Heer 1970 Austrian German
17166 God's Grace Bernard Malamud 1982 American English
15916 Golden Earth Norman Lewis 1952 British English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
17166 The Golem Isaac Bashevis Singer 1969 Unknown English
208 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor 1953 American English
85 The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford 1915 British English
526 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
302 The Lost Estate Henri Alain-Fournier 1913 French French
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
3372 The Green Child Herbert Read 1935 British English
10660 Grief Observed C. S. Lewis 1961 British English
772 The Group Mary McCarthy 1963 American English
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
1116 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
3457 Hamlet, Revenge! Michael Innes 1937 British English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
2523 The Happy Prince And Other Tales Oscar Wilde 1888 British English
236 Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling 1997 British English
15916 He Who Whispers John Dickson Carr 1946 American English
118 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 1940 American English
31 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 British English
867 Heidi Johanna Spyri 1881 Swiss German
298 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
1277 A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes 1929 British English
451 Hiroshima John Hersey 1946 American English
624 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
830 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon 1776 British English
17166 A History Of Warfare John Keegan 1993 British English
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
14985 Hitler And Stalin Alan Bullock 1991 British English
17166 The Holocaust Martin Gilbert 1978 British English
1165 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
14985 Hothouse Brian Aldiss 1962 British English
164 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 British English
9891 The Hour Of Our Death Philippe Ariès 1981 French French
15916 A House And Its Head Ivy Compton-Burnett 1935 British English
223 A House for Mr. Biswas V. S. Naipaul 1961 Trinidadian English
217 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 1905 American English
17166 How Like An Angel Margaret Millar 1962 Canadian English
198 Howards End E. M. Forster 1910 British English
14172 The Human Comedy William Saroyan 1943 American English
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
209 Hunger Knut Hamsun 1890 Norwegian Norwegian
822 I, Robot Isaac Asimov 1950 American English
318 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
37 The Iliad Homer -750 Greek Ancient greek
7639 An Imaginary Life David Malouf 1978 Australian English
6690 In Patagonia Bruce Chatwin 1977 British English
8729 In Praise Of Older Women Stephen Vizinczey 1965 Canadian English
2 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
14788 In The Castle Of My Skin George Lamming 1953 Barbadian English
17166 In The Last Analysis Amanda Cross 1964 American English
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
3311 Into The Heart Of Borneo Redmond O'Hanlon 1984 British English
1286 The Invention Of Morel Adolfo Bioy Casares 1940 Argentinian Spanish
13559 The Inverted World Christopher Priest 1974 British English
15916 The Iron King Unknown 1955 Unknown French
17166 Islam In History Bernard Lewis 1973 British English
459 The Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells 1896 British English
15916 Islandia Austin Tappan Wright 1942 American English
981 It Stephen King 1986 American English
17166 Jacob Two Two Meets The Hooded Fang Mordecai Richler 1975 Canadian English
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
15916 Journal Of Katherine Mansfield Katherine Mansfield 1927 New Zealand English
14232 Journal Of A Solitude May Sarton 1973 American English
14859 Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1863 British English
15916 Journal Of A Tour To The Hebrides James Boswell 1785 Scottish English
15916 A Journey To The Western Islands Of Scotland Samuel Johnson 1775 British English
2021 Journals André Gide 1948 French French
926 Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne 1864 French French
48 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
287 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 1895 British English
1324 A Judgement In Stone Ruth Rendell 1977 British English
1852 July's People Nadine Gordimer 1981 South African English
13349 Just So Stories Rudyard Kipling 1902 British English
247 Kim Rudyard Kipling 1901 British English
15916 The King Of The Golden River John Ruskin 1851 British English
696 King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard 1885 British English
725 The Kingdom of This World Alejo Carpentier 1949 Cuban Spanish
1075 The Kon-Tiki Expedition Thor Heyerdahl 1948 Norwegian Norwegian
2092 Lady Audley's Secret M. E. Braddon 1862 British English
2235 Last And First Men Olaf Stapledon 1930 British English
17166 The Last Detective Peter Lovesey 1991 British English
901 Last Exit to Brooklyn Hubert Selby 1964 American English
17166 The Last Place On Earth Roland Huntford 1979 British English
1793 The Last Unicorn Peter S. Beagle 1968 American English
1275 The Laughing Policeman Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö 1968 Swedish Swedish