The Greatest Books of All Time on Authors

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 '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
357 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
1293 Salem's Lot Stephen King 1975 American English
1406 The Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell 1857 British English
2029 The Land Of Laughs Jonathan Carroll 1980 American English
3501 Borges Adolfo Bioy Casares 2006 Argentine Spanish
4819 Hotel De Dream Emma Tennant 1976 British English
5664 Invisible Green John Sladek 1977 American English
5763 Unnatural Causes P. D. James 1967 British English
5994 Writing Degree Zero Roland Barthes 1953 French French
6555 Alchemy Of The Word Jan Parandowski 1951 Polish Polish
6714 Diccionario De Autores Latinoamericanos César Aira 2001 Argentinian Spanish
6992 Hallucinating Foucault Patricia Duncker 1996 British English
7216 Studies In Classic American Literature D. H. Lawrence 1923 British English
7665 The Flowering of New England Van Wyck Brooks 1936 American English
7998 Magpie Murders Anthony Horowitz 2016 British English
8837 Ordinary Grace William Kent Krueger 2013 American English
10308 A History Of Russian Literature Dmitry Svyatopolk Mirsky 1926 Russian English
11309 James Tiptree, Jr. Julie Phillips 2006 Unknown English
11662 Conrad In The Nineteenth Century Ian Watt 1979 British English
11662 Hugging The Shore John Updike 1983 American English
11662 Dawn To The West Donald Keene 1984 American English
14643 The Spirit Of American Literature John Albert Macy 1913 American English
14874 The Common Reader Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
14935 The Amenities Of Book Collecting A. Edward Newton 1918 American English
14985 Book Lust Nancy Pearl 2003 American English
14985 In The Night Room Peter Straub 2004 American English
15566 Confessions Of A Book Lover Maurice Francis Egan 1919 American English
15658 Companionable Books Henry Van Dyke 1922 American English
15686 The Paris Review Interviews Paris Review 2006 American English
15808 The New Guide To Modern World Literature Martin Seymour-Smith 1973 British English
17160 Herman Melville Newton Arvin 1950 American English
17160 Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino 1979 American English
17160 Galaxies Barry N. Malzberg 1975 American English
17160 And So It Goes Charles J. Shields 2011 American English
17160 Ten Years In The Tub Nick Hornby 2013 British English
17160 A Boy At The Hogarth Press Richard Kennedy 1972 American English
17160 The Lyttelton Hart Davis Letters George Lyttelton 1978 British English
17160 A Reader's Delight Noel Perrin 1988 American English
17160 A Moment's Liberty Virginia Woolf 1990 British English
17160 Trillion Year Spree Brian Aldiss 1986 British English
17160 Reading Like A Writer Francine Prose 2006 American English
17160 Moonflower Murders Anthony Horowitz 2020 British English
17160 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 American English
17160 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 Unknown Unknown
17160 The Postscript Murders Elly Griffiths 2020 British English