The Complete 500: OCLC

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

About this list

OCLC, 495 Books

This list is from OCLC and is a bit different than most lists on this site. OCLC is a global library organization that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large. This list is based on how many libraries have a copy of a book on their shelves. Here's their own description:

What makes a novel “great”? At OCLC, we believe literary greatness can be measured by how many libraries have a copy on their shelves.
Yes, libraries offer access to trendy and popular books. But, they don’t keep them on the shelf if they’re not repeatedly requested by their communities over the years. We’ve identified 500 timeless, top novels—those found in thousands of libraries around the world—using WorldCat, the world’s largest database of library materials'.

This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
2840 The Magician's Nephew C. S. Lewis 1955 British English
1910 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J. K. Rowling 2003 British English
62 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway 1926 American English
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
166 Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García Márquez 1985 Colombian Spanish
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
287 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 1895 British English
2682 Twilight Stephenie Meyer 2005 American English
78 A Passage to India E. M. Forster 1924 British English
76 The Plague Albert Camus 1947 French French
1146 Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens 1839 British English
2337 The Pearl John Steinbeck 1947 American English
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
130 The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu 1001 Japanese Classical japanese
1799 The Giver Lois Lowry 1993 American English
389 The Alchemist Paulo Coelho 1988 Brazilian Portuguese
218 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
69 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1719 British English
168 Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald 1934 American English
57 The Idiot Fyodor Dostoevsky 1869 Russian Russian
5628 Hatchet Gary Paulsen 1987 American English
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
154 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 1962 American English
73 The Portrait of a Lady Henry James 1881 American English
779 The Outsiders S. E. Hinton 1967 American English
1998 Ben-Hur Lew Wallace 1880 American English
358 The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy 1886 British English
265 Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton 1948 South African English
2475 The Last Battle C. S. Lewis 1956 British English
14786 Captains Courageous Rudyard Kipling 1897 British English
81 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
66 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
25 The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann 1924 German German
1444 James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl 1961 British English
2822 The Horse and His Boy C. S. Lewis 1954 British English
4754 Angels And Demons Dan Brown 2000 American English
1833 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader C. S. Lewis 1952 British English
103 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
227 Women in Love D. H. Lawrence 1920 British English
914 The Yearling Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1938 American English
1654 O Pioneers! Willa Cather 1913 American English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
393 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins 1868 British English
8251 The Old Curiosity Shop Charles Dickens 1841 British English
1464 Little Dorrit Charles Dickens 1855 British English
2686 Prince Caspian C. S. Lewis 1951 British English
336 Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser 1900 American English
2795 The Silver Chair C. S. Lewis 1953 British English
1388 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 2008 American English
3860 This Side of Paradise F. Scott Fitzgerald 1920 American English
510 Eugenie Grandet Honoré de Balzac 1833 French French
292 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham 1915 British English
484 Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1754 Chinese Chinese
1142 Life of Pi Yann Martel 2001 Canadian English
2232 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling 2007 British English
36 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 1952 American English
171 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
282 The Sorrows of Young Werther Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1774 German German
13064 Bridge to Terabithia Katherine Paterson 1977 American English
1973 The Invisible Man H. G. Wells 1897 British English
5230 Holes Louis Sachar 1998 American English
163 Siddhartha Hermann Hesse 1922 German German
244 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 American English
547 Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll 1871 British English
109 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966 American English
291 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
486 Adam Bede George Eliot 1859 British English
273 The Betrothed Alessandro Manzoni 1827 Italian Italian
1085 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
68 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937 American English
148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 Russian Russian
1705 The Sea-Wolf Jack London 1904 American English
14984 Catching Fire Suzanne Collins 2009 American English
1307 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor 1976 American English
391 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather 1927 American English
217 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 1905 American English
181 Light in August William Faulkner 1932 American English
277 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
2 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
678 Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope 1857 British English
631 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder 1927 American English
2708 The Help Kathryn Stockett 2009 American English
423 Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie 1934 British English
1693 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 2002 American English
17120 The Appeal John Grisham 2008 American English
995 Dombey and Son Charles Dickens 1846 British English
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
195 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 1925 American English
308 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison 1970 American English
1442 Little House In The Big Woods Laura Ingalls Wilder 1932 American English
267 Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren 1945 Swedish Swedish
356 Germinal Émile Zola 1885 French French
118 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 1940 American English
139 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
43 Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner 1936 American English
17120 A Painted House John Grisham 2001 American English
2189 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson 2005 Swedish Swedish
289 A Room With a View E. M. Forster 1908 British English
224 Watership Down Richard Adams 1972 British English
2025 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 1997 American English
387 Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens 1864 British English
256 Babbitt Sinclair Lewis 1922 American English
14938 The Red Pony John Steinbeck 1933 American English
149 All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren 1946 American English
60 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 Nigerian English
1198 Lorna Doone R. D. Blackmore 1869 British English
2976 Johnny Tremain Esther Forbes 1943 American English
16570 Anne Of Avonlea L. M. Montgomery 1909 Canadian English
1879 Tuck Everlasting Natalie Babbitt 1975 American English
1397 The BFG Roald Dahl 1982 British English
942 Cannery Row John Steinbeck 1945 American English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
3306 The Silmarillion J. R. R. Tolkien 1977 British English
788 Roots Alex Haley 1976 American English
693 Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder 1935 American English
107 Native Son Richard Wright 1940 American English
1823 Stuart Little E. B. White 1945 American English
17120 Cross Fire James Patterson 2010 American English