The Greatest Books of All Time on Exploration

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
44 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 French French
481 The Lusiad Luís Vaz Camões 1572 Portuguese Portuguese
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
673 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne 1870 French French
696 King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard 1885 British English
710 At the Mountains of Madness H. P. Lovecraft 1936 American English
773 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Edgar Allan Poe 1838 American English
815 Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne 1872 French French
823 The Snowy Day Ezra Jack Keats 1962 American English
826 Voss Patrick White 1957 Australian English
828 Lost Horizon James Hilton 1933 British English
839 Winnetou Karl May 1893 German German
887 Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1915 American English
926 Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne 1864 French French
951 A Princess Of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912 American English
979 The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
1004 2001 Arthur C. Clarke 1968 British English
1038 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
1059 The True History of the Conquest of New Spain Bernal Díaz del Castillo 1632 Spanish Spanish
1075 The Kon-Tiki Expedition Thor Heyerdahl 1948 Norwegian Norwegian
1080 Mount Analogue René Daumal 1952 French French
1098 Seven Years in Tibet Heinrich Harrer 1952 Austrian German
1163 The Road to Oxiana Robert Byron 1937 British English
1172 My Family And Other Animals Gerald Durrell 1956 British English
1244 The Travels of Marco Polo Marco Polo 1300 Italian Old french
1345 The Naked Ape Desmond Morris 1967 British English
1443 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
1456 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1595 The Forbidden Kingdom Jan Jacob Slauerhoff 1932 Dutch Dutch
1730 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1753 The Long Ships Frans G. Bengtsson 1941 Swedish Swedish
1786 Farthest North Fridtjof Nansen 1897 Norwegian Norwegian
1833 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader C. S. Lewis 1952 British English
1846 Swiss Family Robinson Johann David Wyss 1812 Swiss German
1897 The Ice People René Barjavel 1968 French French
1945 Medusa E. H. Visiak 1929 British English
1981 West With the Night Beryl Markham 1942 British English
2094 The Spirit of St. Louis Charles Lindbergh 1953 American English
2147 The Night Land William Hope Hodgson 1912 British English
2238 Ringworld Larry Niven 1970 American English
2301 Journals Meriwether Lewis, William Clark 1804 American English
2400 The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish 1666 British English
2432 The Call Of Cthulhu H. P. Lovecraft 1928 American English
2466 Non Stop Brian Aldiss 1958 British English
2489 Measuring the World Daniel Kehlmann 2005 German German
2496 Rogue Moon Algis Budrys 1960 American English
2500 The South Pole Roald Amundsen 1912 Norwegian Norwegian
2505 The Prairie James Fenimore Cooper 1827 American English
2665 The Lost World Arthur Conan Doyle 1912 British English
2667 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
2669 Sailing Alone Around the World Joshua Slocum 1900 Canadian English
2713 Mission Of Gravity Hal Clement 1954 American English
2719 The Sagas Of Icelanders Örnólfur Thorsson 1000 Icelandic Old norse
2726 The Discovery Of Slowness Sten Nadolny 1983 German German
2775 Travels in Arabia Deserta Charles M. Doughty 1888 British English
2811 Roadside Picnic Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky 1972 Russian Russian
2878 Palace of the Peacock Wilson Harris 1960 Guyanese English
3041 Baron Munchausen's Narrative Of His Marvelous Travels And Campaigns In Russia Rudolf Erich Raspe 1785 German German
3068 Tintin In Tibet Hergé 1960 Belgian French
3084 Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome 1930 British English
3095 We're Going on a Bear Hunt Michael Rosen 1989 British English
3140 Great Heart James West Davidson, John Rugge 1988 American English
3186 Eothen Alexander William Kinglake 1844 British English
3247 A Strange Manuscript Found In A Copper Cylinder James De Mille 1888 Canadian English
3312 Into The Heart Of Borneo Redmond O'Hanlon 1984 British English
3400 Great Plains Ian Frazier 1989 American English
3442 In Search Of The Castaways Jules Verne 1867 French French
3516 In the American Grain William Carlos Williams 1925 American English
3583 Two Sought Adventure Fritz Leiber 1957 American English
3603 Celtic Tales Hugo Pratt 1980 Italian Italian
3638 Van Loon's Lives Hendrik Willem van Loon 1942 Dutch English
3638 The Endless Adventure F. S. Oliver 1930 British English
3638 The Tomb Of Tutankhamun Howard Carter 1954 British English
3638 Gods, Graves, And Scholars C. W. Ceram 1949 German German
3638 The Logbook Of Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus 1493 Multiple Spanish
3638 Die Insel Felsenburg Johann Gottfried Schnabel 1731 German German
3638 How I Found Livingstone Henry M. Stanley 1871 British English
3857 The Silent World Jacques Cousteau 1953 French French
4062 Mit Dem Fahrstuhl In Die Römerzeit Rudolf Pörtner 1959 German German
4234 The Hollanders In Nova Zembla Hendrik Tollens 1819 Dutch Dutch
4310 After London; Or, Wild England Richard Jefferies 1885 British English
4473 Nifft The Lean Michael Shea 1982 American English
4517 Finn Family Moomintroll Tove Jansson 1948 Finnish Swedish
4789 Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana 1840 American English
4797 The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle Hugh Lofting 1922 British English
4879 To The End Of The World Blaise Cendrars 1957 French French
4934 The Terror Dan Simmons 2007 American English
4985 Arctic Dreams Barry Lopez 1986 American English
5009 Against the Day Thomas Pynchon 2006 American English
5173 Land Under England Joseph O'Neill 1935 British English
5190 The Professor Challenger Stories Arthur Conan Doyle 1912 British English
5237 Holder of the World Bharati Mukherjee 1993 Indian English
5315 Abu Telfan, Return from the Mountains of the Moon Wilhelm Karl Raabe 1867 German German
5322 My First Summer in the Sierra John Muir 1911 American English
5324 A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush Eric Newby 1958 British English
5372 Arabian Sands Wilfred Thesiger 1959 British English
5373 Endurance Alfred Lansing 1959 American English
5375 Packing For Mars Mary Roach 2010 American English
5382 Longitude Dava Sobel 1995 American English
5393 New Atlantis Francis Bacon 1627 British English
5429 Venus On The Half Shell Philip José Farmer 1975 American English
5470 The Birthday Boys Beryl Bainbridge 1991 British English
5477 Inherit The Stars James P. Hogan 1977 American English
5576 Audubon Robert Penn Warren 1969 American English
5600 The Lost City of Z David Grann 2009 American English
5657 Soul Eater K. W. Jeter 1983 American English
5729 My Kind of Place Susan Orlean 2004 American English
5756 Blue Highways William Least Heat-Moon 1982 American English
5762 The Scar China Miéville 2002 British English
5773 The Digging Leviathan James P. Blaylock 1984 American English
5857 The Oregon Trail Francis Parkman 1849 American English
5863 France And England In North America Francis Parkman 1865 American English
5906 The First Men In The Moon H. G. Wells 1901 British English
5960 The Time Ships Stephen Baxter 1995 British English
6213 Under A Lucky Star Roy Chapman Andrews 1943 American English
6381 The Mysterious Island Jules Verne 1874 French French
6382 A Voyage Round The World Georg Forster 1777 German German
6438 History Of The Conquest Of Mexico William H. Prescott 1843 American English
6453 News from Tartary Peter Fleming 1936 British English