The Greatest Books of All Time on Humanity

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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
6697 The Tattooist Of Auschwitz Heather Morris 2018 Australian English
6717 On The Aesthetic Education Of Man Friedrich Schiller 1794 German German
6821 Collected Stories Of William Saroyan William Saroyan 1943 American English
6896 Doomsday Book Connie Willis 1992 American English
6899 Exhalation Ted Chiang 2019 American English
6915 Other Fires Maxim Gorky 1900 Russian Unknown
6966 Sagarana Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1946 Brazilian Portuguese
7025 Precarious Life Judith Butler 2004 American English
7160 The Poems Of Manolis Anagnostakis Manolis Anagnostakis 2001 Greek Greek
7179 A Book of Luminous Things Czesław Miłosz 1996 Polish English
7216 The Scarlet Plague Jack London 1912 American English
7216 The Moon is Down John Steinbeck 1942 American English
7216 Poems Of Tommaso Campanella Tommaso Campanella 1601 Italian Italian
7216 Poems Of William Cowper William Cowper 1782 British English
7216 The Lisbon Earthquake Voltaire 1756 French French
7216 On The Naïve And Sentimental In Literature Friedrich Schiller 1795 German German
7216 Hymn To Satan Giosué Carducci 1865 Italian Italian
7216 A Defence Of Poetry Percy Bysshe Shelley 1840 British English
7216 Poems Of Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold 1853 British English
7216 Odes Coventry Patmore 1868 British English
7216 Ballads And Songs John Davidson 1894 British English
7216 From The Other Shore Alexander Herzen 1850 Russian Russian
7216 Poems Of John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier 1838 American English
7216 Specimen Days Walt Whitman 1882 American English
7216 Essays And Poems Jones Very 1839 American English
7216 Poems Of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1895 American English
7216 Selected Poems Giuseppe Ungaretti 1942 Italian Italian
7216 Poems Of Paul éluard Paul Éluard 1920 French French
7216 Man's Hope Andre Malraux 1937 French French
7216 Major Critical Essays George Bernard Shaw 1930 Irish English
7216 Back To Methuselah George Bernard Shaw 1921 Irish English
7216 Collected Poems Isaac Rosenberg 1937 British English
7216 Poems Of D. H. Lawrence D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
7216 Some Versions Of Pastoral William Empson 1935 British English
7216 Selected Prose Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1900 Austrian German
7216 R.U.R. Karel Čapek 1920 Czech Czech
7216 Selected Poems Angelos Sikelianos 1900 Greek Greek
7216 Poems Of H. Leivick H. Leivick 1918 Yiddish Yiddish
7216 Poems Of Rubén Dário Rubén Dário 1896 Nicaraguan Spanish
7216 Poems Of Edwin Arlington Robinson Edwin Arlington Robinson 1897 American English
7216 Poems Of Robinson Jeffers Robinson Jeffers 1920 American English
7216 Selected Poems Robert Penn Warren 1944 American English
7639 An Imaginary Life David Malouf 1978 Australian English
7650 Cloud Cuckoo Land Anthony Doerr 2021 American English
7656 Paterson William Carlos Williams 1946 American English
7681 The Long Journey Johannes V. Jensen 1908 Danish Danish
7717 Collected Poems Herman Melville 1947 American English
7750 The Screwfly Solution Raccoona Sheldon 1977 American English
7763 The Collected Stories of Heinrich Boll Heinrich Böll 1972 German German
7817 In My Hands Irene Opdyke 1999 American English
7861 Poems Of Blas De Otero Blas de Otero 1950 Spanish Spanish
7878 The Fountains of Paradise Arthur C. Clarke 1979 British English
7878 Forever Peace Joe Haldeman 1997 American English
7926 Letters From The Earth Mark Twain 1962 American English
7959 La Casa De La Fuerza Angélica Liddell 2009 Spanish Spanish
7963 The Good Hope William Heinesen 1964 Danish Danish
7993 A World Apart Gustaw Herling 1951 Polish Polish
8002 La Visita En El Tiempo Arturo Uslar Pietri 1990 Venezuelan Spanish
8019 Mirrors Eduardo Galeano 2008 Uruguayan Spanish
8058 Palestine Hubert Haddad 1989 French French
8064 A Paradise Built In Hell Rebecca Solnit 2009 American English
8076 Selected Poems Ferenc Juhasz 1954 Hungarian Hungarian
8076 The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead David Shields 2008 American English
8166 Child Of God Cormac McCarthy 1973 American English
8178 Poems Of A. D. Hope A. D. Hope 1955 Australian English
8208 89 Poems Zbigniew Herbert 1956 Polish Polish
8231 Frankenstein In Baghdad Ahmed Saadawi 2013 Iraqi Arabic
8445 The Diary Of A Gulag Prison Guard 1935 6 Ivan Chistyakov 2016 Russian Russian
8445 The Harvest Of Chronos Mojca Kumerdej 2016 Slovenian Slovenian
8473 Selected Writings Salvatore Quasimodo 1960 Italian Italian
8473 Collected Poems Edwin Muir 1960 Scottish English
8516 Blue Mars Kim Stanley Robinson 1996 American English
8517 Os Escravos Castro Alves 1883 Brazilian Portuguese
8535 Man Plus Frederik Pohl 1976 American English
8732 Hymns And Fragments Freidrich Hölderlin 1984 German German
8768 War Diaries Jean Paul Sartre 1940 French French
8817 Shikasta Doris May Lessing 1979 British English
8827 Photographs Eudora Welty 1971 American English
8832 Hiroshima Notes Kenzaburō Ōe 1965 Japanese Japanese
8879 Invenção De Orfeu Jorge De Lima 1952 Brazilian Portuguese
8881 Mockingbird Walter Tevis 1980 American English
8918 As Metamorfoses Murilo Mendes 1938 Brazilian Portuguese
8952 Eu Augusto Dos Anjos 1912 Brazilian Portuguese
8973 A Short History Of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson 2003 American English
9006 Regain Jean Giono 1930 French French
9044 A Simple Path Mother Teresa 1995 Unknown English
9116 Selected Poems Zbigniew Herbert 1968 Polish Polish
9148 Knowledge And Human Interests Jürgen Habermas 1968 German German
9168 Stars Outside Nathan Alterman Israeli Hebrew
9185 Selected Poems Vasko Popa 1969 Serbian Serbian
9192 The Accidental Universe Alan Lightman 2014 American English
9255 To Your Scattered Bodies Go Philip José Farmer 1971 American English
9274 Naples 44 Norman Lewis 1978 British English
9294 Casualties John Pepper Clark 1970 Nigerian English
9317 Russia Is Burning Maria Bloshteyn 2020 Russian English
9334 Acceptance Jeff VanderMeer 2014 American English
9377 In The Midst Of Life Ambrose Bierce 1891 American English
9550 Poems Of John B. Wheelwright John B. Wheelwright 1972 American English
9550 Collected Poems A. R. Ammons 1972 American English
9569 Les Naufragés Patrick Declerck 2001 French French
9596 The Gospel According To Jesus Christ José Saramago 1991 Portuguese Portuguese
9660 The Cell Horst Bienek German Unknown
9683 Not Wanted On The Voyage Timothy Findley 1984 Canadian English
9716 Eros Is More Juan Antonio González Iglesias 2018 Spanish Spanish
9734 Europe Central William T. Vollmann 2005 American English
9777 The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams 1986 American English
9822 The Precipice Toby Ord 2020 British English
9836 Fully Empowered Pablo Neruda 1975 Chilean Spanish
9836 An Interrupted Life Etty Hillesum 1981 Dutch Dutch
9860 An Essay on Man Alexander Pope 1734 British English
9860 Nationalism Rabindranath Tagore 1917 Indian English
9887 The Memory Of War James Fenton 1983 British English
9931 Collected Poems Richard Eberhart 1976 American English
10007 The Dawn Of Everything David Graeber, David Wengrow 2021 British English
10012 Tamas Bhisham Sahni 1974 Indian Hindi
10030 An Absolutely Remarkable Thing Hank Green 2018 American English
10073 New And Collected Poems Richard Wilbur 1988 American English
10085 The Girl With All The Gifts M. R. Carey 2014 British English
10140 Poems Of Gavin Ewart Gavin Ewart 1978 British English
10140 Sphere A. R. Ammons 1978 American English