The Greatest Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 743 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
3121 The Screwtape Letters C. S. Lewis 1942 British English
3122 Attis And Other Poems Catullus -53 Roman Latin
3123 Mr. Weston's Good Wine T. F. Powys 1927 British English
3124 Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood 2003 Canadian English
3125 Little Nicholas Rene Goscinny 1959 French French
3126 The Man Who Loved Dogs Leonardo Padura 2009 Cuban Spanish
3127 Intruder in the Dust William Faulkner 1948 American English
3128 Daddy Long Legs Jean Webster 1912 American English
3129 The Fortress of Solitude Jonathan Lethem 2003 American English
3130 Ake Wole Soyinka 1981 Nigerian English
3131 Mother's Milk Edward St Aubyn 2005 British English
3132 The Keep F. Paul Wilson 1981 American English
3133 The False Inspector Dew Peter Lovesey 1982 British English
3134 Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Ben Fountain 2012 American English
3135 Great Heart James West Davidson, John Rugge 1988 American English
3136 Als Wär’s Ein Stück Von Mir Carl Zuckmayer 1966 German German
3137 The Shrinking Man Richard Matheson 1956 American English
3138 The Cask Freeman Wills Crofts 1920 British English
3139 Poems Hayyim Nahman Bialik 1901 Israeli Hebrew
3140 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
3141 A Simple Plan Scott Smith 1993 American English
3142 Carrion Comfort Dan Simmons 1989 American English
3143 All the President's Men Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein 1974 American English
3144 Chronicles Jean Froissart 1370 French Middle french
3145 Malevil Robert Merle 1972 French French
3146 A Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Lemony Snicket 1999 American English
3147 The Complete Poems Of San Juan De La Cruz San Juan de la Cruz 1618 Spanish Spanish
3148 Dark Forces Kirby McCauley 1980 American English
3149 We Are For The Dark Robert Aickman 1951 British English
3150 Notes of a Native Son James Baldwin 1955 American English
3152 The Honorary Consul Graham Greene 1973 British English
3151 The Castafiore Emerald Hergé 1963 Belgian French
3153 The Flounder Günter Grass 1977 German German
3154 Who Made Stevie Crye? Michael Bishop 1984 American English
3155 Weights And Measures Joseph Roth 1937 Austrian German
3156 Natural Novel Georgi Gospodinov 1999 Bulgarian Bulgarian
3157 Fierce Attachments Vivian Gornick 1987 American English
3158 Dept. of Speculation Jenny Offill 2014 American English
3159 Gender Trouble Judith Butler 1990 American English
3160 Red Moon and Black Mountain Joy Chant 1970 British English
3161 Paris Trout Pete Dexter 1988 American English
3162 The Travels Of Sir John Mandeville John Mandeville 1357 Unknown French
3163 North Seamus Heaney 1975 Irish English
3164 Hitchcock Francois Truffaut 1966 French French
3165 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
3166 The Bee Sting Paul Murray 2023 Irish English
3167 A Simple Story S.Y. Agnon 1935 Israeli Hebrew
3168 Oblivion David Foster Wallace 2004 American English
3169 My Early Life Winston Churchill 1930 British English
3169 Spring And All William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
3169 The Thirtieth Year Ingeborg Bachmann 1961 Austrian German
3172 Priestdaddy Patricia Lockwood 2017 American English
3173 The Quick And The Dead Joy Williams 2000 American English
3174 Flight Behavior Barbara Kingsolver 2012 American English
3175 Women And Appletrees Moa Martinson 1933 Swedish Swedish
3176 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Tom Stoppard 1966 British English
3178 Flicker Theodore Roszak 1991 American English
3177 Minor Detail Adania Shibli 2017 Palestinian Arabic
3179 Moon Palace Paul Auster 1989 American English
3180 The Quest For Corvo A. J. A. Symons 1934 British English
3180 Eothen Alexander William Kinglake 1844 British English
3182 City, Sister, Silver Jáchym Topol 1994 Czech Czech
3183 The Judas Window Carter Dickson 1938 British English
3184 The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern 2011 American English
3185 Trilce César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
3186 The Age of Reason Thomas Paine 1794 British English
3187 The Aesthetics Of Resistance Peter Weiss 1975 German German
3188 The Best And The Brightest David Halberstam 1972 American English
3189 The Lives of a Cell Lewis Thomas 1974 American English
3190 The Crock Of Gold James Stephens 1912 Irish English
3191 The Gospel Of Thomas Marvin W. Meyer 100 Unknown English
3192 The Autobiography Of A Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda 1946 Indian English
3193 Mao II Don DeLillo 1991 American English
3195 The Perennial Philosophy Aldous Huxley 1945 British English
3194 Story Of A Soul Thérèse of Lisieux 1898 French French
3196 The Pillar And Ground Of The Truth Pavel Florensky 1914 Russian Russian
3197 Trap For Cinderella Sebastien Japrisot 1963 French French
3198 Fever Pitch Nick Hornby 1992 British English
3199 When We Cease To Understand The World Adrian Nathan West, Benjamin Labatut 2020 Chilean Spanish
3200 The Prize Daniel Yergin 1991 American English
3201 Submission Michel Houellebecq 2015 French French
3202 Travels With My Aunt Graham Greene 1969 British English
3204 The Magic Faraway Tree Enid Blyton 1943 British English
3203 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3205 Homo Deus Yuval Noah Harari 2015 Israeli Hebrew
3206 Betty Blue Philippe Djian 1985 French French
3207 Neverwhere Neil Gaiman 1996 British English
3208 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa See 2005 Chinese English
3209 The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld Patricia A. McKillip 1974 American English
3210 The Year of the Hare Arto Paasilinna 1975 Finnish Finnish
3211 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson 2014 American English
3212 Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil John Berendt 1994 American English
3213 The Long Loneliness Dorothy Day 1952 American English
3214 The American Cinema Andrew Sarris 1968 American English
3215 Aphrodite Pierre Louÿs 1896 French French
3216 Ecce Homo Friedrich Nietzsche 1908 German German
3217 Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder Lawrence Weschler 1995 American English
3218 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
3219 The Driver's Seat Muriel Spark 1970 British English
3220 Much Ado about Nothing William Shakespeare 1600 British English
3221 Millennium Trilogy Stieg Larsson 2005 Swedish Swedish
3222 Ghachar Ghochar Vivek Shanbhag 2015 Indian Kannada
3223 Phantastes George McDonald 1858 British English
3224 Growing Up Absurd Paul Goodman 1960 American English
3225 This Bridge Called My Back Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa 1981 American English
3226 The Strategy Of Conflict Thomas Schelling 1960 American English
3228 Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 2005 American English
3227 The Books Of Jacob Olga Tokarczuk 2014 Polish Polish
3229 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3230 The Radiant Way Margaret Drabble 1987 British English
3231 The Man Died Wole Soyinka 1972 Nigerian English
3232 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
3233 Hms Ulysses Alistair MacLean 1955 Scottish English
3234 The Changelings Jo Sinclair 1955 American English
3235 Sweet Dreams Michael Frayn 1973 British English
3236 The Great Bridge David McCullough 1972 American English
3237 Death Is My Trade Robert Merle 1952 French French
3238 The Thurber Carnival James Thurber 1945 American English
3239 Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau 1849 American English
3240 The Transcendent Unity Of Religions Frithjof Schuon 1953 French French