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
17152 The Laxian Key Robert Sheckley 1966 American English
363 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
56 The Leopard Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa 1958 Italian Italian
11546 Lest Darkness Fall L. Sprague de Camp 1939 American English
14111 Epistulae Pliny the Younger 100 Roman Latin
17152 Leviathan And The Air Pump Steven Shapin 1985 Unknown English
1142 Life of Pi Yann Martel 2001 Canadian English
381 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C. S. Lewis 1950 British English
93 Little Women Louisa May Alcott 1868 American English
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
13941 London Peter Ackroyd 2000 British English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
828 Lost Horizon James Hilton 1933 British English
296 The Lover Marguerite Duras 1984 French French
20 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 1857 French French
25 The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann 1924 German German
1501 The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer 1960 Polish Yiddish
916 Malice Aforethought Francis Iles 1931 British English
15910 The Man In The Net Patrick Quentin 1956 American English
14985 The Man Who Killed Himself Julian Symons 1967 British English
472 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940 Australian English
444 The Man Who Was Thursday G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
1453 The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury 1950 American English
1736 Mary Poppins P. L. Travers 1934 British English
1790 The Master Colm Toibin 2004 Irish English
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
15910 Medieval Cities Henri Pirenne 1925 Belgian French
1624 The Mediterranean And The Mediterranean World In The Age Of Philip Ii Fernand Braudel 1949 French French
17152 Memoirs Pablo Neruda 1974 Chilean Spanish
14854 Memoirs Of A Dutiful Daughter Simone de Beauvoir 1958 French French
123 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French
1058 Memories, Dreams, Reflections Carl Jung 1963 Swiss German
9915 The Messiah Of Stockholm Cynthia Ozick 1987 American English
28 Middlemarch George Eliot 1871 British English
14985 Millennium Felipe Fernández-Armesto 1995 British English
40 Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1862 French French
7 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 1851 American English
393 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins 1868 British English
12923 More Than Human Theodore Sturgeon 1953 American English
14898 More Work For The Undertaker Margery Allingham 1948 British English
1214 The Moving Toyshop Edmund Crispin 1946 British English
3129 Mr. Weston's Good Wine T. F. Powys 1927 British English
251 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 1926 British English
17152 The Murder Room P. D. James 2003 British English
1172 My Family And Other Animals Gerald Durrell 1956 British English
14161 My Journey to Lhasa Alexandra David-Neel 1927 French French
15910 My Left Foot Christy Brown 1954 Irish English
9299 My Place Sally Morgan 1987 Australian English
2530 The Mystery Of The Yellow Room Gaston Leroux 1907 French French
394 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
17152 The Naked Heart Peter Gay 1995 American English
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
773 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Edgar Allan Poe 1838 American English
17152 The Nephew James Purdy 1960 American English
893 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
17152 Never Cry Wolf Farley Mowat 1963 Canadian English
1134 The Neverending Story Michael Ende 1979 German German
910 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
1639 No Orchids for Miss Blandish James Hadley Chase 1939 British English
2029 Nobody's Boy Hector Malot 1878 French French
439 North and South Elizabeth Gaskell 1855 British English
2487 The Golden Compass Philip Pullman 1995 British English
228 Father Goriot Honoré de Balzac 1835 French French
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
17152 On Fiji Islands Ronald Wright 1986 Canadian English
17152 On The Narrow Road Lesley Downer 2013 Unknown English
3077 Once Were Warriors Alan Duff 1990 New Zealand English
5 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombian Spanish
1461 Oranges are not the only Fruit Jeanette Winterson 1985 British English
14963 The Origins of the Second World War A. J. P. Taylor 1961 British English
17152 The Ornament Of The World María Rosa Menocal 2002 American English
1561 Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey 1988 Australian English
929 Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet 1943 French French
387 Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens 1864 British English
2601 Out Of The Silent Planet C. S. Lewis 1938 British English
15910 An Oxford Tragedy J. C. Masterman 1933 British English
17152 Pagans And Christians Robin Lane Fox 1986 British English
859 The Palm-Wine Drinkard Amos Tutola 1952 Nigerian English
17152 Pandaemonium Humphrey Jennings 1985 British English
78 A Passage to India E. M. Forster 1924 British English
8494 Paula Isabel Allende 1994 Chilean Spanish
14192 Pax Britannica James Morris 1968 British English
124 Pedro Páramo Juan Rulfo 1955 Mexican Spanish
17152 Pentimento Lillian Hellman 1973 American English
17152 The People Trap Robert Sheckley 1968 American English
2586 A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn 1980 American English
1882 Pereira Maintains Antonio Tabucchi 1994 Italian Italian
511 Perfume Patrick Suskind 1985 German German
958 The Periodic Table Primo Levi 1975 Italian Italian
2332 The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault Charles Perrault 1697 French French
303 Peter And Wendy J. M. Barrie 1911 Scottish English
89 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 1890 Irish English
551 Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 British English
15910 A Pin To See The Peepshow F. Tennyson Jesse 1934 British English
684 The Adventures Of Pinocchio Carlo Collodi 1883 Italian Italian
267 Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren 1945 Swedish Swedish
14207 Planet Of The Apes Pierre Boulle 1963 French French
17152 The Pleasures Of The Imagination John Brewer 1997 British English
334 Parallel Lives Plutarch 100 Greek Greek
948 The Poisoned Chocolates Case Anthony Berkeley 1929 British English
3484 The Scorpion Fish Nicolas Bouvier 1982 French French
73 The Portrait of a Lady Henry James 1881 American English
3399 Portrait Of A Marriage Nigel Nicolson 1973 British English
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
301 The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas Machado de Assis 1881 Brazilian Portuguese
187 The Power and the Glory Graham Greene 1940 British English
169 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark 1961 British, Scottish English
4630 De Profundis Oscar Wilde 1905 British English
2923 The Progress of Love Alice Munro 1986 Canadian English
1279 Psycho Robert Bloch 1959 American English
15910 The Purple Land Jay William Hudson 1885 Unknown Unknown
1618 The Pursuit Of Love Nancy Mitford 1945 British English
17152 Quiet As A Nun Antonia Fraser 1977 British English
199 The Radetzky March Joseph Roth 1932 Austrian German
2441 A Rage In Harlem Chester Himes 1957 American English
8816 Shikasta Doris May Lessing 1979 British English
3102 Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi 2003 Iranian English
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English