48 Good Books

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

University of Buffalo, 49 Books

Recommended literature by the Undergraduate Academies and Libraries of the University of Buffalo.

description from their old website:
In cooperation with the UB Libraries, the UB Undergraduate Academies announce the Good Books project, a list of 48 good books which embody the mission and spirit of the five Undergraduate Academies: Civic Engagement, Entrepreneurship, Global Perspectives, Research Exploration and Sustainability The Academies Council members, an advisory board of faculty and staff, nominated books that have been personally important to them. You could read one book from this eclectic list, which ranges from biography to politics to poetry, each month over the course of your college career. Some of these books may be familiar, others quite unknown, but Council Members put their heads together to devise a list of “unrequired reading” that have inspired inquiry, pleasure, and a renewed engagement with civic life.

who voted?
the page says "The Academies Council members, an advisory board of faculty and staff, nominated books"

I am going to assume it's a minimum 10 unknown people who worked on this list.

This list was originally published in 2010 and was added to this site over 11 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
483 The Civil War Shelby Foote 1958 American English
713 The Killer Angels Michael Shaara 1974 American English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
1615 Giants in the Earth Ole Edvart Rolvaag 1927 Norwegian Norwegian
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
60 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 Nigerian English
133 Confessions Augustine 397 Roman Latin
162 Silent Spring Rachel Carson 1962 American English
471 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
844 Civilization and Its Discontents Sigmund Freud 1930 Austrian German
152 The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli 1532 Italian Italian
75 Essays Michel de Montaigne 1580 French French
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
211 The Tempest William Shakespeare 1623 British English
108 Walden Henry David Thoreau 1854 American English
229 Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville 1835 French French
70 The Aeneid Virgil -19 Roman Latin
8841 Zeitoun Dave Eggers 2009 American English
3170 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
506 The Affluent Society John Kenneth Galbraith 1958 American English
1224 The Snow Leopard Peter Matthiessen 1978 American English
882 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
8498 Soul of a Citizen Paul Rogat Loeb 1999 American English
4822 He, She and It Marge Piercy 1991 American English
10741 The Frugal Superpower Michael Mandelbaum 2010 American English
9127 Why the West Rules - For Now Ian Morris 2010 British English
9127 Through the Language Glass Guy Deutscher 2010 British English
2164 Bread Givers Anzia Yezierska 1925 American English
818 The African Child Camara Laye 1953 Guinean French
1902 The Physician Noah Gordon 1986 American English
8350 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
10741 Farm Hands Tom Rivers 2012 American English
5981 Ecotopia Ernest Callenbach 1975 American English
6903 Ain't No Makin' It Jay MacLeod 1987 American English
3421 The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein 2007 Canadian English
6125 Selected Poems, 1965-1975 Margaret Atwood 1976 Canadian English
6903 Selected Poems II Margaret Atwood 1987 Canadian English
10741 A Dog's Purpose W. Bruce Cameron 2010 American English
9751 Darkness Spoken Ingeborg Bachmann 2006 Austrian German
4987 Madame Curie - A Biography by Eve Curie Eve Curie 1937 French French
3495 Eating Animals Jonathan Safran Foer 2009 American English
2870 Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Richard P. Feynman 1985 American English
1502 The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born Ayi K. Armah 1968 Ghanaian English
3537 The Death of Woman Wang MMP Jonathan Spence 1978 American English