The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Reading

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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
318 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
2647 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
3073 One Writer's Beginnings Eudora Welty 1984 American English
3323 Thomas of Reading, Or, The Sixe Worthie Yeomen of the West Thomas Deloney 1599 British English
6350 The Shallows Nicolas Carr 2010 American English
6358 The Library Book Susan Orlean 2018 American English
6766 A Grammatical Institute Of The English Language Noah Webster 1783 American English
6766 Mc Guffey's Newly Revised Eclectic Primer William Holmes McGuffey 1836 American English
6831 The Uncommon Reader Alan Bennett 2007 British English
10504 October Light John Gardner 1976 American English
12190 The Pleasures Of Reading In An Age Of Distraction Alan Jacobs 2011 American English
12250 Beautiful People Simon Doonan 2005 British English
13939 A History Of Reading Alberto Manguel 1996 Canadian English
14598 The Pleasure of the Text Roland Barthes 1973 French French
14869 The Common Reader Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
14983 Book Lust Nancy Pearl 2003 American English
15558 Confessions Of A Book Lover Maurice Francis Egan 1919 American English
15650 Companionable Books Henry Van Dyke 1922 American English
16719 How To Read A Book Mortimer J. Adler 1940 American English
17114 The Book With No Pictures B. J. Novak 2014 American English
17114 Ten Years In The Tub Nick Hornby 2013 British English
17114 In The Vineyard Of The Text Ivan Illich 1993 American English
17114 A Reader's Delight Noel Perrin 1988 American English
17114 Reading Like A Writer Francine Prose 2006 American English
17114 Golf Dreams John Updike 1996 American English
17114 The Collected Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde Irish English
17114 The Book Amaranth Borsuk 2018 Unknown English
17114 The Child That Books Built Francis Spufford 2002 British English
17114 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 American English
17114 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 Unknown Unknown
17114 How To Read A Book Monica Wood Unknown Unknown
17114 I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf Grant Snider 2020 American English
17114 Austen Years Cohen, Rachel 2020 American English