The 100 Best Books from 1900 to the Present
This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
Yedioth Ahronoth, 102 Books
More than 100 Israeli writers, critics, editors, translators and scholars each submitted a personal Top‑10 of books published since 1900. Using a simple points system (10 pts for a first‑place vote, 9 pts for second, etc.) the culture desk of Yedioth Ahronoth aggregated the ballots into a master list, yielding 101 titles—expanded to 102 lines because Samuel Beckett’s “trilogy” was counted as its three component novels.
The result is a canon‑snapshot that leans heavily on world literature (≈90 translated works, 40 of them from English) yet still includes modern Hebrew landmarks. Only eight poetry collections and 27 books by women made the cut—figures that echo 20th‑century publishing realities. Curator Elad Zeret frames the project as “an anchor in rough seas,” a reminder that reading and storytelling outlast any moment of upheaval, and invites readers to craft and share their own Top‑10s.
This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site about 1 year ago.