The Greatest Books of All Time on Life

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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
51 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
499 Platero Juan Ramón Jiménez 1914 Spanish Spanish
809 Poems by Machado Antonio Machado 1907 Spanish Spanish
872 Pallieter Felix Timmermans 1916 Belgian Dutch
1038 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
1213 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1393 The Business of Living Cesare Pavese 1952 Italian Italian
1436 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1729 The Mouse And His Child Russell Hoban 1967 American English
1891 The Journal of Jules Renard Jules Renard 1887 French French
2117 Stories of Mr. Keuner Bertolt Brecht 1926 German German
2464 Poems Of William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant 1821 American English
2974 Tuesdays With Morrie Mitch Albom 1997 American English
3052 Our Town Thornton Wilder 1938 American English
3175 Spring And All William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
3235 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3284 What Is Life? Erwin Schrödinger 1944 Austrian English
3470 Solar Bones Mike McCormack 2016 Irish English
3631 Life Of Quintus Fixlein Jean-Paul Richter 1796 German German
3638 Renascence and Other Poems Edna St. Vincent Millay 1917 American English
3833 Повесть о жизни Konstantin Paustovsky 1956 Russian Russian
4175 Replay Ken Grimwood 1986 American English
4228 Each Day Catches Fire Imants Ziedonis 1978 Latvian Latvian
4291 Finite And Infinite Games James P. Carse 1986 American English
4431 The Family of Man Edward Steichen 1955 American English
4482 The Private Papers Of Henry Ryecroft George Gissing 1903 British English
4534 Mend The Living Maylis de Kerangal 2014 French French
4610 Here Richard McGuire 2014 American English
4812 Gaia James Lovelock 1979 British English
4942 Being Dead Jim Crace 1999 British English
5102 The Doctor Stories William Carlos Williams 1984 American English
5448 Così Parlò Bellavista Luciano De Crescenzo 1977 Italian Italian
5668 A Wake For The Living Radmila Lazić 1996 Serbian Serbian
5896 A Confession Leo Tolstoy 1882 Russian Russian
6005 Notebooks Joseph Joubert 1883 French French
6106 Het Leven En De Dood In Den Ast Stijn Streuvels 1926 Belgian Dutch
6135 The Dance Of Life Havelock Ellis 1923 British English
6262 At The Existentialist Café Sarah Bakewell 2016 British English
6333 Devotions Mary Oliver 2017 American English
6931 Duck, Death And The Tulip Wolf Erlbruch 2007 German German
6984 Fine Just the Way It Is Annie Proulx 2008 American English
7067 Adventures Of A Breath Hayam Abbas Al-Homi 1989 Egyptian Unknown
7216 Poems Of Arthur Hugh Clough Arthur Hugh Clough 1862 British English
7216 Poems Of George Meredith George Meredith 1851 British English
7216 Poems Of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman Frederick Goddard Tuckerman 1860 American English
7216 Poems Of Trumbull Stickney Trumbull Stickney 1905 American English
7216 Last Poems Elinor Wylie 1943 American English
7837 The Midnight Library Matt Haig 2020 British English
8076 The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead David Shields 2008 American English
8648 Treatises On Friendship And Old Age Marcus Tullius Cicero -44 Latin Latin
8750 Reaper Man Terry Pratchett 1991 British English
8952 Eu Augusto Dos Anjos 1912 Brazilian Portuguese
9020 Climbing Mount Improbable Richard Dawkins 1996 British English
9540 Two Cures For Love Wendy Cope 2008 British English
9550 Guillén On Guillén Jorge Guillén 1972 Spanish Spanish
9550 Straw For The Fire Theodore Roethke 1972 American English
9931 Collected Poems Richard Eberhart 1976 American English
10690 The Possibility Of Life Jaime Green 2023 Unknown English
10748 A Dog's Purpose W. Bruce Cameron 2010 American English
10745 Yes Is Better Than No Byrd Baylor 1977 American English
10949 Travelling In The Family Carlos Drummond de Andrade 1984 Brazilian Portuguese
11015 Birthday César Aira 2019 Argentinian Spanish
11257 Sister Age M. F. K. Fisher 1983 American English
11278 The Fly Miroslav Holub 1987 Czech Czech
11366 Notes Boulet French Unknown
11366 The Inherent Perfection Of Life Agnès Martin Unknown Unknown
11393 The One Day Donald Hall 1988 American English
11445 Various Miracles Carol Shields 1985 Canadian English
11653 The Continuous Life Mark Strand 1990 American English
11663 Lives Of The Poets E. L. Doctorow 2001 American English
11663 Staring At The Sun Julian Barnes 1986 British English
11890 The Rabbiter's Bounty Les A. Murray 1991 Australian English
11901 Writing A Woman's Life Carolyn G. Heilbrun 1988 American English
12084 Composing A Life Mary Catherine Bateson 1989 American English
12326 Life Richard Fortey 1997 British English
12644 The Restless Clock Jessica Riskin 2016 American English
12834 Fifty Russian Winters Margaret Wettlin 1992 American English
13279 Marzahn, Mon Amour Katja Oskamp 2019 German German
13362 The Autocrat Of The Breakfast Table Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 1858 American English
13818 Quasi Una Vita Corrado Alvaro 1950 Italian Italian
13818 Solitudes Goffredo Parise 1984 Italian Italian
13818 Bella Vita E Guerre Altrui Di Mr. Pyle, Gentiluomo Alessandro Barbero 1995 Italian Italian
13818 The Hummingbird Sandro Veronesi 2019 Italian Italian
13818 Due Vite Emanuele Trevi 2020 Italian Italian
14059 The Simple Life Charles Wagner 1895 French French
14212 Thank You and Other Poems Kenneth Koch 1962 American English
14232 Dart Alice Oswald 2002 British English
14388 On The Branch Pierre de Coulevain 1904 French French
14499 Fiction and the Figures of Life William H. Gass 1970 American English
14520 Life Is What You Make It Peter Buffett 2010 American English
14680 The Vital Question Nick Lane 2015 British English
14711 Casuals Of The Sea William McFee 1916 British English
14726 De Anima Aristotle -350 Greek Ancient greek
14985 Wonderful Life Stephen Jay Gould 1989 American English
14985 Dear Life Alice Munro 2012 Canadian English
14985 Ongoingness Sarah Manguso 2015 American English
15683 Life And Confessions Of A Psychologist G. Stanley Hall 1923 American English
15916 Foliage Leigh Hunt 1818 British English
15916 Memoirs Of A Medieval Woman Louise Collis 1964 British English
15916 Three Days To See Helen Keller 1933 American English
15916 Stray Birds Rabindranath Tagore 1916 Indian Bengali
16599 The Wisdom Of Life And Counsels And Maxims Arthur Schopenhauer 1851 German German
17163 Staying Alive Neil Astley 2002 British English
17163 Taking the World in for Repairs Richard Selzer 1986 American English
17163 Dragon's Egg Robert L. Forward 1980 American English
17163 You And I Padgett Powell 2011 American English
17163 Life Ascending Nick Lane 2009 British English
17163 Die Wise Stephen Jenkinson 2015 Canadian English
17163 Tall Tales And Wee Stories Bill Connolly 2019 Scottish English
17163 Love Her Wild Atticus 2017 Canadian English
17163 Butterfly Valley Inger Christensen 1991 Danish Danish
17163 Мили бате! ... Писма на един дакел Stanka Pencheva 1971 Bulgarian Bulgarian
17163 Life On The Edge Johnjoe McFadden, Jim Al-Khalili 2015 British English
17163 A Dresser Of Sycamore Trees Garret Keizer 1991 American English
17163 The Undertaking Thomas Lynch 1997 American English
17163 Reveries Of A Bachelor Donald Grant Mitchell 1850 American English
17163 The Anthropic Cosmological Principle John D. Barrow, Frank J. Tipler 1986 British English
17163 One Day Gene Weingarten 2019 American English
17065 The Islandman Tomás Ó Crohan 1929 Irish Irish