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 758 '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
189 The Turn of the Screw Henry James 1898 American English
203 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
319 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
436 El Aleph Jorge Luis Borges 1949 Argentinian Spanish
466 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
548 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
769 A Voyage To Arcturus David Lindsay 1920 Scottish English
1031 Meditations on First Philosophy Rene Descartes 1641 French Latin
1192 Blow Up And Other Stories Julio Cortazar 1968 Argentinian Spanish
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1330 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding John Locke 1689 British English
1333 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
1334 One, No One and One Hundred Thousand Luigi Pirandello 1926 Italian Italian
1344 The Principles of Psychology William James 1890 American English
1476 Flatland Edwin A. Abbott 1884 British English
1515 The World as Will and Idea Arthur Schopenhauer 1818 German German
1546 Understanding Media Marshall McLuhan 1964 Canadian English
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1643 The Teachings Of Don Juan Carlos Castaneda 1968 American English
1647 The Nature of Things Francis Ponge 1942 French French
1733 Tender Buttons Gertrude Stein 1914 American English
1803 The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1912 British English
1910 The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis 2009 American English
1923 Tropisms Nathalie Sarraute 1939 French French
1987 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
1997 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume 1748 Scottish English
2238 A Treatise of Human Nature David Hume 1739 British English
2292 Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett 1991 American English
2446 Blindness Henry Green 1926 British English
2495 The Garden Of Forking Paths Jorge Luis Borges 1941 Argentinian Spanish
2635 Logical Investigations Edmund Husserl 1900 German German
2642 The Palm At The End Of The Mind Wallace Stevens 1971 American English
2835 The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag Robert A. Heinlein 1942 American English
2993 The Doors Of Perception Aldous Huxley 1954 British English
3006 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes 1980 French French
3053 The Sinful Ones Fritz Leiber 1953 American English
3173 Spring And All William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
3207 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3638 The Tunnel Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1952 Swiss German
3638 Theory Of Colours Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1810 German German
3917 The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore Marianne Moore 1967 American English
4114 Art and Illusion Ernest H. Gombrich 1960 British English
4117 For a New Novel Alain Robbe-Grillet 1963 French French
4196 The Celestine Prophecy James Redfield 1993 American English
4289 Gantenbein Max Frisch 1964 Swiss German
4436 House Mother Normal B. S. Johnson 1971 British English
4523 The Situation Is Hopeless, But Not Serious Paul Watzlawick 1983 American English
4527 The Medium Is The Massage Marshall McLuhan 1967 Canadian English
4798 Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson 1836 American English
5029 The City & the City China Miéville 2009 British English
5132 Triptych Claude Simon 1973 French English
5292 Notes On The Cinematographer Robert Bresson 1975 French French
5607 Die Fälschung Nicolas Born 1979 German German
5732 Time And Space Juan Ramón Jiménez 1988 Spanish Spanish
5781 The Serpent Luigi Malerba 1966 Italian Italian
5853 Works Empedocles -439 Greek Ancient greek
5907 Thomas The Obscure Maurice Blanchot 1941 French French
5933 Look At Me Now And Here I Am Gertrude Stein 1967 American Unknown
6004 An Anecdoted Topography Of Chance Daniel Spoerri 1962 Multiple French
6004 Les Métamorphoses Du Cercle Georges Poulet 1961 Belgian French
6004 Madness Of The Day Maurice Blanchot 1949 French French
6004 The Golden Fruits Nathalie Sarraute 1963 French French
6004 The Pine Wood Notebook Francis Ponge 1947 French French
6075 The Voyeur Alain Robbe-Grillet 1955 French French
6124 Inland Gerald Murnane 1988 Australian English
6144 Oreille Rouge Eric Chevillard 1993 French French
6147 A Giacometti Portrait James Lord 1965 American English
6192 Stumbling On Happiness Daniel Gilbert 2006 American English
6199 Metaphors We Live George Lakoff, Mark Johnson 1980 American English
6235 The Affirmation Christopher Priest 1981 British English
6258 Moments Of Being Virginia Woolf 1976 British English
6373 The Feeling Of What Happens Antonio Damasio 1999 Portuguese English
6573 Phenomenology Of Perception Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1945 French French
6635 Journey To The Land Of The Real Victor Segalen 1983 French French
6635 The Stadium Of Wimbledon Daniele del Giudice 1983 Italian Italian
6677 The Concept Of Mind Gilbert Ryle 1949 British English
6803 On Photography Susan Sontag 1977 American English
6872 The Field of Vision Wright Morris 1956 American English
7216 Modern Painters John Ruskin 1843 British English
7216 The Keeper Of Sheep Fernando Pessoa 1925 Portuguese Portuguese
7216 The Use Of Speech Nathalie Sarraute 1933 French French
7216 The Geographical History Of America Gertrude Stein 1936 American English
7216 Tamarisk Row Gerald Murnane 1974 Australian English
7606 L'interruption Dominique Noguez 1993 French French
7699 La Orilla Oscura José María Merino 1985 Spanish Spanish
7724 A Worldly Country John Ashbery 2007 American English
7742 My Life and My Life in the Nineties Lyn Hejinian 1980 American English
7860 Language, Thought, And Reality Benjamin Lee Whorf 1956 American English
7860 The Plains Gerald Murnane 1982 Australian English
7914 Musicophilia Oliver Sacks 2007 British English
7967 Balthazar Lawrence Durrell 1958 British English
8191 Experience And Nature John Dewey 1925 American English
8194 The Order Of Time Carlo Rovelli 2017 Italian Italian
8264 Ideas Edmund Husserl 1913 German German
8337 Fable Robert Pinget 1958 French French
8389 In The Labyrinth Alain Robbe-Grillet 1959 French French
8443 Identity Milan Kundera 1998 Czech French
8463 The Fiddler In The Subway Gene Weingarten 2010 American English
8463 Being Wrong Kathryn Schulz 2010 American English
8546 Monster Walter Dean Myers 1999 American English
8973 Mantra Rodrigo Fresán 2001 Argentinian Spanish
9007 T Zero Italo Calvino 1967 Italian Italian
9075 Event Factory Renee Gladman 2010 American English
9129 Through the Language Glass Guy Deutscher 2010 British English
9133 How To Write About Africa Binyavanga Wainaina 2005 Kenyan English
9136 The Consequences Niña Weijers 2014 Dutch Dutch
9190 The Accidental Universe Alan Lightman 2014 American English
9190 But What If We're Wrong? Chuck Klosterman 2016 American English
9273 Invisible Reality Juan Ramón Jiménez 1983 Spanish Unknown
9291 The Double Dream Of Spring John Ashbery 1970 American English
9546 Collected Poems A. R. Ammons 1972 American English
9704 Astonishing the Gods Ben Okri 1995 Nigerian English
9859 The Meaning of Truth William James 1909 American English
10045 Houseboat Days John Ashbery 1977 American English
10045 Poems Of John Ashbery John Ashbery 1977 American English
10144 Sphere A. R. Ammons 1978 American English
10243 Biased Jennifer Eberhardt 2019 American English
10312 Sense And Non Sense Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1948 French French
10312 Perspective As Symbolic Form Erwin Panofsky 1927 German German
10417 Selected Longer Poems A. R. Ammons 1980 American English