The Books You've Always Meant to Read

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

About this list

Waterstones, 229 Books

That classic you're too embarrassed to admit you've never read? That doorstopper of a read still propping up one leg of your bed? You're amongst friends! Make good all your bookish ambitions with our guide to the essential additions to your home library - the best books you've never read.

This list was originally published in 2020 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1765 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
1972 The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 1993 American English
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
266 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 British English
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
2589 Hamnet Maggie O'Farrell 2020 Irish English
1160 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami 1987 Japanese Japanese
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
1809 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon 2001 Spanish Spanish
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
318 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
5 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombian Spanish
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
1010 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
23 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 French French
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
153 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
10 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1877 Russian Russian
219 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 1938 British English
117 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 1891 British English
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
2 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
40 Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1862 French French
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
2223 Good Omens Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman 1990 British English
150 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 1953 American English
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
2327 The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu 2006 Chinese Chinese
3450 Mistborn Brandon Sanderson 2006 American English
9922 Children Of Time Adrian Tchaikovsky 2015 British English
4450 The Eye Of The World Robert Jordan 1990 American English
14232 Rivers Of London Ben Aaronovitch 2011 British English
278 A Wizard Of Earthsea Ursula K. Le Guin 1968 American English
3398 The Name Of The Wind Patrick Rothfuss 2007 American English
9369 Leviathan Wakes James S. A. Corey 2011 American English
13941 The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet Becky Chambers 2014 American English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
1117 The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
2132 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
3557 Magician Raymond E. Feist 1982 American English
236 Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling 1997 British English
400 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
215 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson 1959 American English
981 It Stephen King 1986 American English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
1086 Misery Stephen King 1987 American English
2917 The Woman In Black Susan Hill 1983 British English
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
861 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson 1962 American English
53 Dracula Bram Stoker 1897 British English
1398 The Exorcist William Peter Blatty 1971 American English
14826 Necronomicon H. P. Lovecraft 1927 American English
777 I Am Legend Richard Matheson 1954 American English
671 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe 1839 American English
5594 World War Z Max Brooks 2006 American English
17152 The Rats James Herbert 1974 British English
1361 The King In Yellow Robert W. Chambers 1895 American English
5113 Let The Right One In John Ajvide Lindqvist 2004 Swedish Swedish
17152 Dawn Of The Dead George Romero 1978 American Unknown
13941 Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life Bryan Lee O'Malley 2004 Canadian English
17152 Jujutsu Kaisen Gege Akutami 2018 Japanese Japanese
17152 Demon Slayer Koyoharu Gotouge 2016 Japanese Japanese
1104 Maus Art Spiegelman 1980 American English
6196 One Piece Eiichiro Oda 1997 Japanese Japanese
6675 Uzumaki Junji Ito 1998 Japanese Japanese
14985 Chainsaw Man Tatsuki Fujimoto 2018 Japanese Japanese
17152 Palestine Joe Sacco 1993 American English
14985 Tokyo Ghoul Sui Ishida 2011 Japanese Japanese
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
808 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
17152 Tamara Drewe Posy Simmonds 2007 British English
1348 Sandman Neil Gaiman 1989 British English
12043 Akira Katsuhiro Otomo 1982 Japanese Japanese
2341 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
17152 The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil Stephen Collins 2013 British English
7143 Black Hole Charles Burns 1995 American English
10117 Through The Woods Emily Carroll 2014 Canadian English
17152 I Am Pilgrim Terry Hayes 2013 American English
14985 The Appeal Janice Hallett 2021 British English
1930 Killing Floor Lee Child 1997 British English
191 And Then There Were None Agatha Christie 1939 British English
791 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
423 Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie 1934 British English
6083 Dissolution C. J. Sansom 2003 British English
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
233 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
4118 The Honjin Murders Seishi Yokomizo 1946 Japanese Japanese
2639 Fatherland Robert Harris 1992 British English
7022 The Girl On The Train Paula Hawkins 2015 British English
164 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 British English
3022 The Murder At The Vicarage Agatha Christie 1930 British English
495 Casino Royale Ian Fleming 1953 British English
2189 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson 2005 Swedish Swedish
5465 Child 44 Tom Rob Smith 2008 Russian English
6204 Kolymsky Heights Lionel Davidson 1994 British English
17152 Empireland Sathnam Sanghera 2021 British English
17152 Spqr Mary Beard 2015 British English
17152 A Line In The Sand James Barr 2011 British English
14985 The Anglo Saxons Marc Morris 2021 British English
14985 Pandora's Jar Natalie Haynes 2020 British English
17152 Rogue Heroes Ben Macintyre 2016 British English
17152 The War On The West Douglas Murray 2022 British English
14985 Rubicon Tom Holland 2003 British English
1529 Orientalism Edward W. Said 1978 Palestinian English
5352 Stasiland Anna Funder 2002 Australian English
17152 Jerusalem Simon Sebag Montefiore 2011 British English
17152 The Ruin Of All Witches Malcolm Gaskill 2021 British English