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
2028 The Land Of Laughs Jonathan Carroll 1980 American English
3502 Borges Adolfo Bioy Casares 2006 Argentine Spanish
4819 Hotel De Dream Emma Tennant 1976 British English
5661 Invisible Green John Sladek 1977 American English
5760 Unnatural Causes P. D. James 1967 British English
5990 Writing Degree Zero Roland Barthes 1953 French French
6553 Alchemy Of The Word Jan Parandowski 1951 Polish Polish
6713 Diccionario De Autores Latinoamericanos César Aira 2001 Argentinian Spanish
6992 Hallucinating Foucault Patricia Duncker 1996 British English
7215 Studies In Classic American Literature D. H. Lawrence 1923 British English
7664 The Flowering of New England Van Wyck Brooks 1936 American English
7997 Magpie Murders Anthony Horowitz 2016 British English
8834 Ordinary Grace William Kent Krueger 2013 American English
10304 A History Of Russian Literature Dmitry Svyatopolk Mirsky 1926 Russian English
11305 James Tiptree, Jr. Julie Phillips 2006 Unknown English
11660 Conrad In The Nineteenth Century Ian Watt 1979 British English
11660 Hugging The Shore John Updike 1983 American English
11660 Dawn To The West Donald Keene 1984 American English
14642 The Spirit Of American Literature John Albert Macy 1913 American English
14870 The Common Reader Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
14932 The Amenities Of Book Collecting A. Edward Newton 1918 American English
14983 Book Lust Nancy Pearl 2003 American English
14983 In The Night Room Peter Straub 2004 American English
15558 Confessions Of A Book Lover Maurice Francis Egan 1919 American English
15650 Companionable Books Henry Van Dyke 1922 American English
15678 The Paris Review Interviews Paris Review 2006 American English
15793 The New Guide To Modern World Literature Martin Seymour-Smith 1973 British English
17119 Herman Melville Newton Arvin 1950 American English
17119 Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino 1979 American English
17119 Galaxies Barry N. Malzberg 1975 American English
17119 And So It Goes Charles J. Shields 2011 American English
17119 Ten Years In The Tub Nick Hornby 2013 British English
17119 A Boy At The Hogarth Press Richard Kennedy 1972 American English
17119 The Lyttelton Hart Davis Letters George Lyttelton 1978 British English
17119 A Reader's Delight Noel Perrin 1988 American English
17119 A Moment's Liberty Virginia Woolf 1990 British English
17119 Trillion Year Spree Brian Aldiss 1986 British English
17119 Reading Like A Writer Francine Prose 2006 American English
17119 Moonflower Murders Anthony Horowitz 2020 British English
17119 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 American English
17119 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 Unknown Unknown
17119 The Postscript Murders Elly Griffiths 2020 British English