The Greatest Books of All Time on Culture

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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
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
235 The Ambassadors Henry James 1903 American English
363 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
368 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
371 History of My Life Giacomo Casanova 1822 Italian French
377 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
395 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
418 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
483 The Civil War Shelby Foote 1958 American English
525 Family Sayings Natalia Ginzburg 1963 Italian Italian
537 The Waning of the Middle Ages Johan Huizinga 1919 Dutch Dutch
541 The Seven Pillars of Wisdom T. E. Lawrence 1926 British English
580 Black Lamb and Grey Falcon Rebecca West 1941 British English
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
614 Facundo Domingo Faustino Sarmiento 1845 Argentinian Spanish
624 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
645 A Study of History Arnold J. Toynbee 1934 British English
659 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
715 The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Washington Irving 1819 American English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
753 Henderson The Rain King Saul Bellow 1959 American English
788 Roots Alex Haley 1976 American English
806 The Story of Art Ernest H. Gombrich 1950 British English
815 Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne 1872 French French
818 The African Child Camara Laye 1953 Guinean French
839 Winnetou Karl May 1893 German German
846 A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Laurence Sterne 1768 British English
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
982 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
991 Macunaíma Mario de Andrade 1928 Brazilian Portuguese
993 Essays of E. B. White E. B. White 1977 American English
1002 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko 1977 American English
1037 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
1045 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1050 The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi 1990 British English
1075 The Kon-Tiki Expedition Thor Heyerdahl 1948 Norwegian Norwegian
1076 Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres Henry Adams 1904 American English
1097 My Name Is Aram William Saroyan 1940 American English
1098 Seven Years in Tibet Heinrich Harrer 1952 Austrian German
1129 The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri 2003 American English
1145 The Bone People Keri Hulme 1984 New Zealand English
1147 Dialectic Of Enlightenment Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer 1944 German German
1163 The Road to Oxiana Robert Byron 1937 British English
1195 Song Of Lawino Okot P'Bitek 1966 Ugandan Acholi
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1246 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
1248 The Conservative Mind Russell Kirk 1953 American English
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1363 The Liberal Imagination Lionel Trilling 1950 American English
1376 Tales of the South Pacific James A. Michener 1947 American English
1378 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
1446 The Tongue Set Free Elias Canetti 1977 Austrian German
1447 Minima Moralia Theodor Adorno 1951 German German
1454 Pushkin House Andrey Bitov 1978 Russian Russian
1456 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
1497 How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez 1991 Dominican English
1507 Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya 1972 American English
1529 Orientalism Edward W. Said 1978 Palestinian English
1540 Decline of the West Oswald Spengler 1918 German German
1545 Understanding Media Marshall McLuhan 1964 Canadian English
1565 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1583 The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy Jacob Burckhardt 1860 Swiss German
1590 Germania Cornelius Tacitus 98 Roman Latin
1611 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1624 The Mediterranean And The Mediterranean World In The Age Of Philip Ii Fernand Braudel 1949 French French
1634 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros 1984 American English
1691 Cat Country Lao She 1932 Chinese Chinese
1702 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1754 Changing Places David Lodge 1975 British English
1759 Bai Ganyo Aleko Konstantinov 1895 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1784 Marks of Identity Juan Goytisolo 1966 Spanish Spanish
1811 A Time Of Gifts Patrick Leigh Fermor 1977 British English
1818 Barbarian Days William Finnegan 2015 American English
1824 The Engineer of Human Souls Josef Škvorecký 1977 Czech Czech
1825 Studies In The History Of The Renaissance Walter Pater 1873 British English
1860 Notebook Of A Return To The Native Land Aimé Césaire 1939 French French
1874 The Proud Tower Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1966 American English
1895 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
1907 Consider The Lobster David Foster Wallace 2005 American English
1924 Pages From The Goncourt Journal Edmond de Goncourt 1887 French French
1938 The Spectator Joseph Addison 1711 British English
1991 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
1996 A Childhood Harry Crews 1978 American English
2048 Amusing Ourselves To Death Neil Postman 1985 American English
2064 The Egghead Republic Arno Schmidt 1957 German German
2069 The Round House Louise Erdrich 2012 American English
2075 The Memory of Fire Trilogy Eduardo Galeano 1982 Uruguayan Spanish
2114 All Souls' Day Cees Nooteboom 1998 Dutch Dutch
2161 The Uses of Literacy Richard Hoggart 1957 British English
2205 The Gate of Heavenly Peace Jonathan Spence 1981 American English
2229 A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles 2016 American English
2259 Advertisements for Myself Norman Mailer 1959 American English
2294 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2319 Lavengro George Borrow 1851 British English
2336 There There Tommy Orange 2018 American English
2365 Little Big Man Thomas Berger 1964 American English
2367 The Arcades Project Walter Benjamin 1982 German German
2372 South Wind Norman Douglas 1917 British English
2411 The Americanization of Edward Bok Edward Bok 1920 American English
2452 Black Mischief Evelyn Waugh 1932 British English
2471 Roll, Jordan, Roll Eugene Genovese 1974 American English
2480 Mangeclous Albert Cohen 1938 French French
2500 Rebellion In The Backlands Euclides da Cunha 1902 Brazilian Portuguese
2525 The Everlasting Man G. K. Chesterton 1925 British English
2561 Segu Maryse Condé 1984 French French
2598 The Witness Juan José Saer 1983 Argentinian Spanish
2633 Tripmaster Monkey Maxine Hong Kingston 1989 American English
2647 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
2698 Cod Mark Kurlansky 1997 American English
2716 The Great War and Modern Memory Paul Fussell 1975 American English
2750 Dust Tracks on a Road Zora Neale Hurston 1942 American English
2771 The Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist Friedrich Nietzsche 1888 German German
2774 Travels in Arabia Deserta Charles M. Doughty 1888 British English
2785 The Philosophy Of Symbolic Forms Ernst Cassirer 1929 German German
2787 A Cultural History Of The Modern Age Egon Friedell 1927 Austrian English