The Greatest Books of All Time on Performance

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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
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
1791 Confessions Of Felix Krull, Confidence Man Thomas Mann 1954 German German
2374 The Vagabond Colette 1910 French French
2697 Wise Children Angela Carter 1991 British English
2987 Tipping The Velvet Sarah Waters 1998 British English
3309 The Theater and Its Double Antonin Artaud 1938 French French
3516 The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life Erving Goffman 1959 American English
3637 The Jazz Book Joachim-Ernst Berendt 1953 German German
4732 The Making of Homeric Verse Milman Parry 1971 American English
5939 Music As Speech Nikolaus Harnoncourt 1982 Austrian German
6004 The Rehearsal Eleanor Catton 2008 New Zealand English
6576 Ingrid Caven Jean-Jacques Schuhl 2000 French French
6604 I Wonder As I Wander Langston Hughes 1956 American English
7101 The Glenn Gould Reader Glenn Gould 1984 Canadian English
8025 Gender Outlaw Kate Bornstein 1994 American English
8032 The Muses Are Heard Truman Capote 1956 American English
8885 Black and Blur Fred Moten 2017 American English
9987 Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom Nik Cohn 1969 British English
10051 Jac The Clown Hjalmar Bergman 1919 Swedish Swedish
10231 The Museum Of Modern Love Heather Rose 2018 Australian English
10308 An Actor Prepares Konstantin Stanislavski 1936 Russian Russian
10940 The Art Of Cruelty Maggie Nelson 2011 American English
11507 The Roaring Girl Greg Hollingshead 1995 Canadian English
11576 The Inner Game Of Tennis W. Timothy Gallwey 1974 American English
11652 American Musicians Ii Whitney Balliett 1996 American English
11662 Apollo’s Angels Jennifer Homans 2010 American English
12384 The Dazzling Paget Sisters Ariane Bankes 2025 Unknown English
12935 Now Jazz Now Neneh Cherry, Thurston Moore, Joe McPhee, Byron Coley, Mats Gustafsson American Unknown
13259 The Spoken Word Revolution Mark Eleveld 2003 Unknown English
14232 How Music Works David Byrne 2012 American English
14411 Dylan Thomas In America John Malcolm Brinnin 1955 American English
14554 Value Added Measures In Education Douglas N. Harris 2011 American English
14554 Academically Adrift Richard Arum 2011 American English
14731 Measure What Matters John Doerr 2017 American English
14985 A Little Devil In America Hanif Abdurraqib 2021 American English
15915 Looking at Dance Edwin Denby 1949 American English
15915 The Singer Of Tales Albert Bates Lord 1960 American English
17158 Faith Healer Brian Friel 1979 Irish English
17158 Master Class Terrence McNally 1995 American English
17158 Dancing In The Dark Caryl Phillips 2005 Dutch English
17158 Good To Great Jim Collins 2001 American English
17158 Endure Alex Hutchinson 2018 Canadian English
17158 The Sports Gene David Epstein 2013 American English
17158 Impro Keith Johnstone 1979 British English
17158 Born Standing Up Steve Martin 2007 American English
17158 The Great Movies Roger Ebert 2003 American English
17158 Goblin Secrets William Alexander 2012 American English
17158 The 12 Week Year Brian P. Moran 2013 American English
17158 Inner Excellence Jim Murphy 2009 Unknown Unknown
17158 Year Of The King Antony Sher 1985 British English