The Greatest Books of All Time on Personal Growth

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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
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English
1301 The Road Less Traveled M. Scott Peck 1978 American English
1932 On Self Reliance Ralph Waldo Emerson 1841 American English
2116 The Life Story And Real Adventures Of The Poor Man Of Toggenburg Ulrich Bräker 1789 Swiss German
2372 The Autobiography Of John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill 1873 British English
2540 Pilgrimage Dorothy Richardson 1915 British English
2662 Early Autumn Robert B. Parker 1980 American English
2676 Anne Of The Island L. M. Montgomery 1915 Canadian English
2879 The Diary of Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys 1825 British English
3019 The Tortoise And The Hare Elizabeth Jenkins 1936 British English
3162 Fierce Attachments Vivian Gornick 1987 American English
3285 Three Strong Women Marie NDiaye 2009 French French
3324 A Day Off Storm Jameson 1933 British English
3638 Mitte Des Lebens Luise Rinser 1950 German German
3809 Hotel du Lac Anita Brookner 1984 British English
4083 No Laughing Matter Angus Wilson 1967 British English
4153 Ankunft Im Alltag Brigitte Reimann 1961 German German
4403 The L Shaped Room Lynne Reid Banks 1960 British English
5018 Me Before You Jojo Moyes 2012 British English
5027 Theophilus North Thornton Wilder 1973 American English
5593 Poetry And Truth From My Own Life Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2004 German English
5632 A Life's Work Rachel Cusk 2001 British English
5838 Miss Susie Slagle's Augusta Tucker 1939 American English
6316 The Artist's Way Julia Cameron 1992 American English
6499 Cosima Grazia Deledda 1937 Italian Italian
6515 A Frozen Woman Annie Ernaux 1981 French French
6878 Lettres Aux Années De Nostalgie Kenzaburō Ōe 1987 Japanese Japanese
7023 La Vida Exagerada De Martín Romaña Alfredo Bryce Echenique 1981 Peruvian Spanish
7056 A Passionate Apprentice Virginia Woolf 1990 British English
7102 Nevada Imogen Binnie 2013 American English
7215 The Red Notebook Benjamin Constant 1804 French French
7831 Elling Ingvar Ambjørnsen 1996 Norwegian Norwegian
8075 My New York Diary Julie Doucet 1999 Canadian English
8142 Vor Uns Die Sintflut Urs Widmer 1998 Swiss German
9016 Improvement Joan Silber 2017 American English
9109 Operating Instructions Anne Lamott 1993 American English
9152 My Friend Annie Jane Duncan 1961 Scottish English
9191 Irritable Hearts Mac McClelland 2015 Unknown English
9287 It’s Been A Pleasure, Noni Blake Claire Christian 2020 Australian English
9340 Suzy Zeus Gets Organized Maggie Robbins 2000 American English
9340 Born Twice Giuseppe Pontiggia 2000 Italian Italian
9657 The Student Gerber Unknown Unknown Unknown
9897 My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness Kabi Nagata 2016 Japanese Japanese
10272 Juliette Camille Jourdy 2016 French French
10380 Again, Rachel Marian Keyes 2022 Irish English
10781 Grown Ups Marian Keyes 2020 Irish English
10828 Child Of Fortune Yuko Tsushima 1978 Japanese Japanese
10991 állítsátok Meg Terézanyut! Zsuzsa Rácz 2015 Hungarian Hungarian
11176 Daybook Anne Truitt 1982 American English
11325 Learning To Drive Katha Pollitt 2007 American English
11362 La Vie Chinoise De Marianne Pêche Lisa Bresner French French
11451 Years of Grace Margaret Ayer Barnes 1930 American English
11503 The White Masai Corinne Hofmann 1998 Swiss German
12030 American Wife Curtis Sittenfeld 2008 American English
12148 Awkward And Definition Ariel Schrag 1997 American English
12258 Exile In The Promised Land Marcia Freedman 1990 American English
12311 Yes Please Amy Poehler 2014 American English
12513 Angie, I Says Avra Wing 1991 American English
12513 Black Ice Lorene Cary 1991 American English
12733 Living, Loving And Learning Leo Buscaglia 1982 American English
12972 Fundamentally Nussaibah Younis 2025 Unknown Unknown
13266 Why Not Me? Wendy L. Bovard 1993 Unknown Unknown
13307 倪煥之 Ye Shengtao 1928 Chinese Chinese
13817 Il Desiderio Di Essere Come Tutti Francesco Piccolo 2013 Italian Italian
13986 Scenes From Provincial Life William Cooper 1950 British English
14019 The Maples Stories John Updike 2009 American English
14479 Adventures In Friendship David Grayson 1910 American English
14546 Queed Henry Sydnor Harrison 1911 American English
14617 The Story Of Hay Bo Yi Shu 1988 Chinese Unknown
14672 The Bent Twig Dorothy Canfield Fisher 1915 American English
14679 Becoming Steve Jobs Brent Schlender 2015 American English
14870 Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1903 American English
14984 Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus John Gray 2024 American English
14984 The Vegan Andrew Lipstein 2023 Unknown English
15561 From The Ground Up Howard Schultz 2019 American English
15602 Miss Lulu Bett Zona Gale 1920 American English
15606 Foursquare Grace S. Richmond 1920 American English
15706 Doctor Nye Of North Ostable Joseph Crosby Lincoln 1936 American English
15757 Dodsworth Sinclair Lewis 1929 American English
15898 Boswell's London Journal, 1762-1763 James Boswell 1950 British English
15898 Work Louisa May Alcott 1873 American English
15898 Childhood, Youth And Exile Alexander Herzen 1852 Russian Russian
16586 Salka Valka Halldor Laxness 1931 Icelandic Icelandic
16614 Another Self James Lees-Milne 1970 British English
17120 Motivation and Personality Abraham Maslow 1954 American English
17120 Christy Catherine Marshall 1967 American English
17120 10% Happier Dan Harris 2014 American English
17120 Portrait Of Clare Francis Brett Young 1927 British English
17120 The Middle Age Of Mrs Eliot Angus Wilson 1958 British English
17120 Four Agreements Don Miguel Ruiz 1997 Mexican English
17120 Good Vibes, Good Life Vex King 2018 British English
17120 4000 Miles Amy Herzog 2011 American English
17120 The Art Of The Personal Essay Phillip Lopate 1994 American English
17120 Are You Somebody? Nuala O'Faolain 1996 Irish English
17120 Wasmiya Comes Out Of The Sea Laila al-Othman 1984 Kuwaiti Arabic
17120 Superior Women Alice Adams 1984 American English
17120 Inner Engineering Sadhguru 2016 Indian English
17120 Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger, Douglas Kent Hall 1979 Unknown English
17120 Check & Mate Ali Hazelwood 2023 Unknown English
17120 Better Than The Movies Lynn Painter 2021 American English
17120 Yoga Emmanuel Carrère 2020 French French
17120 Getting Through Grief Christine McArthur Unknown Unknown
17120 Habitus Emma Rooksby Unknown Unknown
17120 Tiny Experiments Anne-Laure Le Cunff Unknown Unknown
17120 Be Water, My Friend Shannon Lee 2020 Unknown English
17120 I Swear I'll Make It Up To You Mishka Shubaly 2016 American English
17120 The First Bad Man Miranda July 2015 American English
17120 Addicted Tony Adams 1998 British English
17120 The Horsemasters Joan Wolf 1993 American English
17120 Ordeal By Silence Prudence Andrew Unknown Unknown
17120 The Girls’ Guide To Hunting And Fishing Melissa Banks 1999 Unknown English
17120 The Boy From Kyiv Marina Harss 2023 Unknown Unknown
17120 Unreliable Narrator Aparna Nancherla 2023 Unknown English
17120 A Life Of One’s Own Joanna Biggs 2023 Unknown English
17120 Skip To The Fun Parts Dana Jeri Maier 2023 Unknown English
17120 We Should Not Be Friends Will Schwalbe 2023 American English
17120 Is It Hot In Here? Zach Zimmerman 2023 Unknown English
17120 Life On Delay John Hendrickson 2023 Unknown English
17120 Three Roads Back Robert D. Richardson 2023 Unknown English
17120 Why You’ll Never Find The One Sarah Akinterinwa 2023 Unknown English