The Greatest Books of All Time on Reflection

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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
108 Walden Henry David Thoreau 1854 American English
1470 Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1939 French French
1611 The Prelude William Wordsworth 1850 British English
2117 Stories of Mr. Keuner Bertolt Brecht 1926 German German
2579 Les Contemplations Victor Hugo 1856 French French
2714 The Narrow Road to the Deep North Matsuo Bashō 1684 Japanese Japanese
2752 The Worm Forgives The Plough John Stewart Collis 1947 British English
2783 Mountain Interval Robert Frost 1916 American English
2933 On Overgrown Paths Knut Hamsun 1949 Norwegian Norwegian
3055 The Invention of Solitude Paul Auster 1982 American English
3056 The Enigma of Arrival V. S. Naipaul 1987 British English
3374 Juan De Mairena Antonio Machado 1936 Spanish Spanish
3484 The Scorpion Fish Nicolas Bouvier 1982 French French
3940 Landscapes With Absent Figures Philippe Jacottet 1970 French French
4282 Air Of Solitude Gustave Roud 1945 Swiss French
4452 Gift From The Sea Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1955 American English
4482 The Private Papers Of Henry Ryecroft George Gissing 1903 British English
4682 The Autobiography of Mark Twain Mark Twain 1924 American English
4791 Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes Robert Louis Stevenson 1879 British English
5242 Abschied Johannes R. Becher 1974 German German
5355 New Hampshire Robert Frost 1923 American English
5951 The Afternoon of a Writer Peter Handke 1987 Austrian German
6005 Mes Heures Perdues Félix Arvers 1833 French French
6125 Inland Gerald Murnane 1988 Australian English
7016 Dukla Andrzej Stasiuk 1997 Polish Polish
7216 Essays And Poems Jones Very 1839 American English
7216 Poems Of Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau 1895 American English
7216 Exile And Other Poems Saint-John Perse 1942 French French
7713 The Snow Of The Admiral Alvaro Mutis 1986 Colombian Spanish
7772 Stories And Recollections Umberto Saba 1948 Italian Italian
8524 The Outermost House Henry Beston 1928 American English
8714 To A Distant Island James McConkey 1984 American English
8769 War Diaries Jean Paul Sartre 1940 French French
9056 Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes Billy Collins 2000 American English
9359 Spring Shade Robert Fitzgerald 1971 American English
10383 Memories Of My Melancholy Whores Gabriel García Márquez 2004 Colombian Spanish
10821 Montauk Max Frisch 1975 Swiss German
11005 Shifting The Silence Etel Adnan 2020 Unknown English
11015 Birthday César Aira 2019 Argentinian Spanish
11181 Daybook Anne Truitt 1982 American English
11218 Book Of My Mother Albert Cohen 1954 French French
11243 Nuptials Albert Camus 1938 Algerian French
11644 Gentle And Fierce Vanessa Berry 2021 Australian English
12068 How We Think John Dewey 1910 American English
12385 Dark Harbor Mark Strand 1993 American English
13362 The Christian Year John Keble 1827 British English
13362 Break Of Day Colette 1928 French French
13818 Il Natale Del 1833 Mario Pomilio 1983 Italian Italian
14138 Haiku Mary Dawson Hughes 1970 Unknown English
14480 Adventures In Friendship David Grayson 1910 American English
15829 The Mystery Of Being 1 Gabriel Marcel 1949 French French
15916 One Man's Meat E. B. White 1942 American English
15916 All Passion Spent Vita Sackville-West 1931 British English
15916 The Confessions Of A Beachcomber E J Banfield 1908 Australian English
15916 A Rose For Winter Laurie Lee 1955 British English
17164 Reflections from Captivity Ho Chi Minn 1965 Vietnamese Vietnamese
17164 Company Samuel Beckett 1979 Irish English
17164 Time And The Art Of Living Robert Grudin 1982 American English
17164 A Dresser Of Sycamore Trees Garret Keizer 1991 American English
17164 Reveries Of A Bachelor Donald Grant Mitchell 1850 American English
17164 Finding Them Gone Red Pine 2015 Chinese English
17164 The Bullet Journal Method Ryder Carroll 2018 American English
17164 It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It Robert Fulghum 1989 American English
17164 Silêncio Na Era Do Ruído Erling Kagge 2016 Norwegian Norwegian
17104 The Singing Wilderness Sigurd F. Olson 1956 American English
17164 The Silent Tarn Hannah Closs 1963 Unknown English
17164 The Pensive Citadel Victor Brombert 2023 Unknown Unknown
17164 A Word Or Two Before I Go Arthur Krystal 2023 American English
17164 Tabula Rasa John McPhee 2023 Unknown English
17164 Spring Rain Marc Hamer 2023 British English
17164 Look At The Lights, My Love Annie Ernaux 2023 French French
17164 The Half Known Life Pico Iyer 2023 British English
17164 Three Roads Back Robert D. Richardson 2023 Unknown English
17164 Do You Remember? Sydney Smith 2023 Unknown English
17164 Time To Think Hannah Barnes 2023 Unknown English
17164 A Walk In The Woods Nikki Grimes 2023 Unknown English
17164 Ways Of Escape Graham Greene 1971 British English
17164 Selected Poems Su Tung–p’o Chinese Chinese
17164 Open Heart Elie Wiesel 2012 American French
16914 Cape Cod Henry David Thoreau 1865 American English