The Greatest Books of All Time on Human Experience

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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
202 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
317 The Poems of Robert Frost Robert Frost 1913 American English
1027 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
1239 The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne John Donne 1952 British English
1438 Masnavi Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 1258 Persian Persian
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
1987 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
2293 The Divided Self R. D. Laing 1960 British English
2624 The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell 1949 American English
2782 Mountain Interval Robert Frost 1916 American English
3048 Our Town Thornton Wilder 1938 American English
3560 Insight Bernard Lonergan 1957 Canadian English
3637 Visite D'un Poète Charles Ferdinand Ramuz 1927 Swiss French
4479 Revenge Of The Lawn Richard Brautigan 1971 American English
4659 Poets Of The English Language W. H. Auden, Norman Holmes Pearson 1950 American English
5353 New Hampshire Robert Frost 1923 American English
5472 Working Studs Terkel 1974 American English
5499 Schlachtbeschreibung Alexander Kluge 1978 German German
6002 Travaux Georges Navel 1945 French French
6476 Second World War John Keegan 1989 British English
6736 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6873 Povedal Mi Veštec Tiziano Terzani 2002 Italian Italian
7215 A Philosophical Enquiry Into...The Sublime And Beautiful Edmund Burke 1757 British English
9005 The Sense Of An Ending Frank Kermode 1967 British English
9353 Spring Shade Robert Fitzgerald 1971 American English
9545 Straw For The Fire Theodore Roethke 1972 American English
9727 Wait Five Minutes Shelley Ingram, Willow G. Mullins 2019 Unknown English
9883 The Memory Of War James Fenton 1983 British English
10303 Critique Of Everyday Life Henri Lefebvre 1947 French French
10552 The Early Motion James Dickey 1981 American Unknown
10738 Yes Is Better Than No Byrd Baylor 1977 American English
10849 The Central Motion James Dickey 1983 American English
11271 Seasons On Earth Kenneth Koch 1987 American English
11305 The Simple Truth Philip Levine 1994 American English
11348 The Anthropocene Reviewed John Green 2021 American English
11360 Un Feu Au Cœur Du Vent Zéno Bianu French French
11641 Gentle And Fierce Vanessa Berry 2021 Australian English
11872 Awakenings Oliver Sacks 1973 British English
12258 A Natural History Of The Senses Diane Ackerman 1990 American English
12324 The Lost Upland W. S. Merwin 1992 American English
13885 Essential Pleasures Robert Pinsky 2009 American English
13939 A History Of Reading Alberto Manguel 1996 Canadian English
14373 Smoke And Steel Carl Sandburg 1920 American English
14498 Fiction and the Figures of Life William H. Gass 1970 American English
14679 Pushcart Prize Anthology Pushcart Prize 1976 American English
15814 The Mystery Of Being 1 Gabriel Marcel 1949 French French
15897 The Selected Letters Of William James William James 1920 American English
15875 Myths To Live By Joseph Campbell 1972 American English
16564 Tolkien On Fairy Stories J. R. R. Tolkien 1947 British English
17114 Moondust Andrew Smith 2005 British English
17114 The Making Of Memory Steven Rose 1992 British English
17114 The Beauty And The Sorrow Peter Englund 2011 Swedish Swedish
17114 Craigslist Confessional Helena Dea Bala 2020 American English
17114 Time And The Art Of Living Robert Grudin 1982 American English
17114 The Art Of The Personal Essay Phillip Lopate 1994 American English
17114 Historied Thought, Constructed World Joseph Margolis 1995 American English
17114 Mountains Of The Mind Robert Macfarlane 2003 British English
17114 Pandaemonium Humphrey Jennings 1985 British English
17114 The Power Of Myth Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers 1988 American English
17114 Hue 1968 Mark Bowden 2017 American English
17114 Winter Count Barry Lopez 1981 American English
17114 The Extinction Of Experience Christine Rosen 2004 Unknown English
17114 The Bright Book Of Life Harold Bloom 2020 American English
17114 Your Brain On Art Susan Magsamen 2023 Unknown English
17114 Time Song Julia Blackburn 2019 British English
17114 Inventario Di Alcune Cose Perdute Judith Schalansky 2018 German German
16906 Fate Is The Hunter Ernest K. Gann 1961 American English
17114 Kick The Latch Kathryn Scanlan 2022 American English
17114 An Elemental Thing Eliot Weinberger 2007 American English
17114 Grace In All Simplicity Chris Quigg, Robert Cahn 2023 Unknown English
17114 Time’s Echo Jeremy Eichler 2023 Unknown English
17114 Mapping The Darkness Kenneth Miller 2023 Unknown English
17114 How To Be Multiple Helena de Bres 2023 Unknown Unknown
17114 The Pensive Citadel Victor Brombert 2023 Unknown Unknown
17114 Information Desk Robyn Schiff 2023 Unknown English
17114 Tabula Rasa John McPhee 2023 Unknown English
17114 Fires In The Dark Kay Redfield Jamison 2023 Unknown English
17114 Nothing Stays Put Willard Spiegelman 2023 Unknown English
17114 Is It Hot In Here? Zach Zimmerman 2023 Unknown English
17114 Destinations Jan Morris 1980 British English
17114 More Letters Of Note Nikki Usher 2019 Unknown English
17114 Translation As Transhumance Mireille Gansel 2017 French French
17114 From The Country Of Eight Islands Hiroaki Sato, Burton Watson 1981 Multiple English