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
2648 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
3076 One Writer's Beginnings Eudora Welty 1984 American English
3324 Thomas of Reading, Or, The Sixe Worthie Yeomen of the West Thomas Deloney 1599 British English
6353 The Shallows Nicolas Carr 2010 American English
6361 The Library Book Susan Orlean 2018 American English
6767 A Grammatical Institute Of The English Language Noah Webster 1783 American English
6767 Mc Guffey's Newly Revised Eclectic Primer William Holmes McGuffey 1836 American English
6831 The Uncommon Reader Alan Bennett 2007 British English
10509 October Light John Gardner 1976 American English
12191 The Pleasures Of Reading In An Age Of Distraction Alan Jacobs 2011 American English
12251 Beautiful People Simon Doonan 2005 British English
13939 A History Of Reading Alberto Manguel 1996 Canadian English
14599 The Pleasure of the Text Roland Barthes 1973 French French
14872 The Common Reader Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
14985 Book Lust Nancy Pearl 2003 American English
15566 Confessions Of A Book Lover Maurice Francis Egan 1919 American English
15658 Companionable Books Henry Van Dyke 1922 American English
16751 How To Read A Book Mortimer J. Adler 1940 American English
17158 The Book With No Pictures B. J. Novak 2014 American English
17158 Ten Years In The Tub Nick Hornby 2013 British English
17158 In The Vineyard Of The Text Ivan Illich 1993 American English
17158 A Reader's Delight Noel Perrin 1988 American English
17158 Reading Like A Writer Francine Prose 2006 American English
17158 Golf Dreams John Updike 1996 American English
17158 The Collected Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde Irish English
17158 The Book Amaranth Borsuk 2018 Unknown English
17158 The Child That Books Built Francis Spufford 2002 British English
17158 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 American English
17158 The Upstairs Delicatessen Dwight Garner 2023 Unknown Unknown
17158 How To Read A Book Monica Wood Unknown Unknown
17158 I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf Grant Snider 2020 American English
17158 Austen Years Cohen, Rachel 2020 American English