The Greatest Books of All Time on Perception

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 743 '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
188 The Turn of the Screw Henry James 1898 American English
202 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
318 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
434 El Aleph Jorge Luis Borges 1949 Argentinian Spanish
464 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
545 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
768 A Voyage To Arcturus David Lindsay 1920 Scottish English
1027 Meditations on First Philosophy Rene Descartes 1641 French Latin
1189 Blow Up And Other Stories Julio Cortazar 1968 Argentinian Spanish
1233 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1325 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding John Locke 1689 British English
1328 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
1329 One, No One and One Hundred Thousand Luigi Pirandello 1926 Italian Italian
1340 The Principles of Psychology William James 1890 American English
1475 Flatland Edwin A. Abbott 1884 British English
1514 The World as Will and Idea Arthur Schopenhauer 1818 German German
1543 Understanding Media Marshall McLuhan 1964 Canadian English
1613 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1642 The Nature of Things Francis Ponge 1942 French French
1731 Tender Buttons Gertrude Stein 1914 American English
1802 The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1912 British English
1907 The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis 2009 American English
1920 Tropisms Nathalie Sarraute 1939 French French
1981 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
1992 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume 1748 Scottish English
2155 The Teachings Of Don Juan Carlos Castaneda 1968 American English
2229 A Treatise of Human Nature David Hume 1739 British English
2285 Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett 1991 American English
2442 Blindness Henry Green 1926 British English
2491 The Garden Of Forking Paths Jorge Luis Borges 1941 Argentinian Spanish
2631 Logical Investigations Edmund Husserl 1900 German German
2637 The Palm At The End Of The Mind Wallace Stevens 1971 American English
2829 The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag Robert A. Heinlein 1942 American English
2988 The Doors Of Perception Aldous Huxley 1954 British English
3001 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes 1980 French French
3048 The Sinful Ones Fritz Leiber 1953 American English
3169 Spring And All William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
3203 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3633 The Tunnel Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1952 Swiss German
3633 Theory Of Colours Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1810 German German
3911 The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore Marianne Moore 1967 American English
4107 Art and Illusion Ernest H. Gombrich 1960 British English
4110 For a New Novel Alain Robbe-Grillet 1963 French French
4190 The Celestine Prophecy James Redfield 1993 American English
4282 Gantenbein Max Frisch 1964 Swiss German
4431 House Mother Normal B. S. Johnson 1971 British English
4518 The Situation Is Hopeless, But Not Serious Paul Watzlawick 1983 American English
4522 The Medium Is The Massage Marshall McLuhan 1967 Canadian English
4791 Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson 1836 American English
5019 The City & the City China Miéville 2009 British English
5123 Triptych Claude Simon 1973 French English
5282 Notes On The Cinematographer Robert Bresson 1975 French French
5598 Die Fälschung Nicolas Born 1979 German German
5722 Time And Space Juan Ramón Jiménez 1988 Spanish Spanish
5771 The Serpent Luigi Malerba 1966 Italian Italian
5843 Works Empedocles -439 Greek Ancient greek
5898 Thomas The Obscure Maurice Blanchot 1941 French French
5924 Look At Me Now And Here I Am Gertrude Stein 1967 American Unknown
5996 An Anecdoted Topography Of Chance Daniel Spoerri 1962 Multiple French
5996 Les Métamorphoses Du Cercle Georges Poulet 1961 Belgian French
5996 Madness Of The Day Maurice Blanchot 1949 French French
5996 The Golden Fruits Nathalie Sarraute 1963 French French
5996 The Pine Wood Notebook Francis Ponge 1947 French French
6067 The Voyeur Alain Robbe-Grillet 1955 French French
6116 Inland Gerald Murnane 1988 Australian English
6136 Oreille Rouge Eric Chevillard 1993 French French
6139 A Giacometti Portrait James Lord 1965 American English
6184 Stumbling On Happiness Daniel Gilbert 2006 American English
6191 Metaphors We Live George Lakoff, Mark Johnson 1980 American English
6227 The Affirmation Christopher Priest 1981 British English
6249 Moments Of Being Virginia Woolf 1976 British English
6365 The Feeling Of What Happens Antonio Damasio 1999 Portuguese English
6564 Phenomenology Of Perception Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1945 French French
6625 Journey To The Land Of The Real Victor Segalen 1983 French French
6625 The Stadium Of Wimbledon Daniele del Giudice 1983 Italian Italian
6667 The Concept Of Mind Gilbert Ryle 1949 British English
6794 On Photography Susan Sontag 1977 American English
6862 The Field of Vision Wright Morris 1956 American English
7201 Modern Painters John Ruskin 1843 British English
7201 The Keeper Of Sheep Fernando Pessoa 1925 Portuguese Portuguese
7201 The Use Of Speech Nathalie Sarraute 1933 French French
7201 The Geographical History Of America Gertrude Stein 1936 American English
7201 Tamarisk Row Gerald Murnane 1974 Australian English
7591 L'interruption Dominique Noguez 1993 French French
7684 La Orilla Oscura José María Merino 1985 Spanish Spanish
7709 A Worldly Country John Ashbery 2007 American English
7727 My Life and My Life in the Nineties Lyn Hejinian 1980 American English
7845 Language, Thought, And Reality Benjamin Lee Whorf 1956 American English
7845 The Plains Gerald Murnane 1982 Australian English
7899 Musicophilia Oliver Sacks 2007 British English
7952 Balthazar Lawrence Durrell 1958 British English
8174 Experience And Nature John Dewey 1925 American English
8177 The Order Of Time Carlo Rovelli 2017 Italian Italian
8247 Ideas Edmund Husserl 1913 German German
8320 Fable Robert Pinget 1958 French French
8372 In The Labyrinth Alain Robbe-Grillet 1959 French French
8427 Identity Milan Kundera 1998 Czech French
8447 The Fiddler In The Subway Gene Weingarten 2010 American English
8447 Being Wrong Kathryn Schulz 2010 American English
8532 Monster Walter Dean Myers 1999 American English
8959 Mantra Rodrigo Fresán 2001 Argentinian Spanish
8993 T Zero Italo Calvino 1967 Italian Italian
9059 Event Factory Renee Gladman 2010 American English
9112 Through the Language Glass Guy Deutscher 2010 British English
9116 How To Write About Africa Binyavanga Wainaina 2005 Kenyan English
9119 The Consequences Niña Weijers 2014 Dutch Dutch
9173 The Accidental Universe Alan Lightman 2014 American English
9173 But What If We're Wrong? Chuck Klosterman 2016 American English
9256 Invisible Reality Juan Ramón Jiménez 1983 Spanish Unknown
9274 The Double Dream Of Spring John Ashbery 1970 American English
9528 Collected Poems A. R. Ammons 1972 American English
9684 Astonishing the Gods Ben Okri 1995 Nigerian English
9842 The Meaning of Truth William James 1909 American English
10021 Houseboat Days John Ashbery 1977 American English
10021 Poems Of John Ashbery John Ashbery 1977 American English
10119 Sphere A. R. Ammons 1978 American English
10215 Biased Jennifer Eberhardt 2019 American English
10283 Sense And Non Sense Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1948 French French
10283 Perspective As Symbolic Form Erwin Panofsky 1927 German German
10386 Selected Longer Poems A. R. Ammons 1980 American English