The Greatest Books of All Time on Rituals

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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
525 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
537 The Waning of the Middle Ages Johan Huizinga 1919 Dutch Dutch
621 Analects Confucius -479 Chinese Classical chinese
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
905 Coming of Age in Samoa Margaret Mead 1928 American English
943 The Bacchae Euripides -405 Greek Ancient greek
1141 The Golden Bough James George Frazer 1890 British English
1210 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
1681 The Teachings Of Don Juan Carlos Castaneda 1968 American English
2148 The Book of Songs China -600 Chinese Classical chinese
2282 Crowds And Power Elias Canetti 1960 German German
2320 Rituals Cees Nooteboom 1980 Dutch Dutch
2612 Book of Common Prayer Thomas Cranmer 1549 British English
2688 The Ceremonies T. E. D. Klein 1984 American English
2836 Facing Mount Kenya Jomo Kenyatta 1938 Kenyan English
2892 Seven Days In New Crete Robert Graves 1949 British English
3001 The Savage Mind Claude Lévi-Strauss 1962 French French
3086 The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony Roberto Calasso 1988 Italian Italian
3324 The Harvesters Cesare Pavese 1941 Italian Unknown
3407 All Heads Turn When The Hunt Goes By John Farris 1977 American English
3638 Homo Ludens Johan Huizinga 1938 Dutch Dutch
3638 On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs Olha Kobylianska 1909 Ukrainian Ukrainian
3881 The River Between Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1965 Kenyan English
4279 Christmas At The Ivanovs' Alexander Vvedensky 1938 Russian Russian
4409 Salammbô Gustave Flaubert 1862 French French
4744 Indaba, My Children Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa 1964 South African English
5006 Dance Hall Of The Dead Tony Hillerman 1973 American English
5010 The Hungry Moon Ramsey Campbell 1986 British English
5033 Images And Symbols Mircea Eliade 1952 Romanian French
5616 Our Share of Night Mariana Enríquez 2019 Argentinian Spanish
5913 Egyptian Book Of The Dead Unknown -1550 Egyptian Egyptian (hieroglyphic)
6134 Iron John Robert Bly 1990 American English
6635 The Ruin Of Kasch Roberto Calasso 1983 Italian Italian
7067 Stories From A Shona Childhood Charles Mungoshi 1989 Zimbabwean English
7215 Samskara U.R. Ananthamurthy 1965 Indian Kannada
7722 Purity And Danger Mary Douglas 1966 British English
8022 Ancient Evenings Norman Mailer 1983 American English
8031 A Barbarian In Asia Henri Michaux 1933 French French
8031 From A Chinese City Gontran de Poncins 1957 French English
8204 Waking the Moon Elizabeth Hand, Elisabeth Hand 1994 American English
9705 Society And The Holy In Late Antiquity Peter Brown 1982 British English
9886 The Hour Of Our Death Philippe Ariès 1981 French French
10109 Blackberry Winter Margaret Mead 1972 American English
10303 Chinook Texts Franz Boas 1894 American English
10303 Man, Play And Games Roger Caillois 1958 French French
10303 The Sacred And The Profane Mircea Eliade 1957 Romanian French
10303 The Gift Marcel Mauss 1925 French French
10395 The Bog People P. V. Glob 1965 Danish Danish
10406 The Double Invention Of Komo Jay Wright 1980 American Unknown
10613 Along The Ganges Ilija Trojanow 2005 German German
10790 The Stripping of the Altars Eamon Duffy 1992 British English
11161 Ghost Wall Sarah Moss 2018 British English
11899 Waterlily Ella Cara Deloria 1988 American English
11921 The Ritual Adam Nevill 2011 British English
12174 Tibetan Book Of The Dead Robert Thurman 1994 Tibetan English
12258 May You Be The Mother Of A Hundred Sons Elisabeth Bumiller 1990 American English
14231 The King Must Die Mary Renault 1958 British English
14664 Raise The Red Lantern Su Tong 1990 Chinese Chinese
14824 Necronomicon H. P. Lovecraft 1927 American English
14983 Death In Spring Merce Rodoreda 1986 Spanish Catalan
15897 Avesta Zoroastrian scripture -1200 Iranian Avestan
15897 Tell My Horse Zora Neale Hurston 1938 American English
15897 The Masks Of God Joseph Campbell 1959 American English
15897 The Greek Myths Robert Graves 1955 British English
15897 Themis Jane E. Harrison 1912 British English
15874 Myths To Live By Joseph Campbell 1972 American English
15897 The Elementary Forms Of The Religious Life Emile Durkheim 1912 French French
15897 The Corn King And The Spring Queen Naomi Mitchison 1931 British English
17117 Structural Anthropology Claude Lévi-Strauss 1958 French French
17117 The Raw and the Cooked Claude Lévi-Strauss 1964 French French
17041 Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians George Catlin 1841 American English
17117 Cards of Grief Jane Yolen 1984 American English
17117 Tales from Rugosa Coven Sarah Avery 2013 American English
17117 Radiance From The Waters Sylvia Ardyn Boone 1989 American English
17117 Marked (House Of Night) Unknown 2007 American English
17117 The Throwback Special Chris Bachelder 2016 American English
17117 The Work Of The Dead Thomas W. Laqueur 2015 American English
17117 Passing The Time In Ballymenone Henry Glassie 1982 American English
17117 The Undertaking Thomas Lynch 1997 American English
17117 Kaddish Leon Wieseltier 1998 Kaddish English
17117 Lame Deer Richard Erodes, John Fire Lame Deer 1972 Unknown English
17117 Soma Gordon Wasson 1968 Unknown English
17117 The Seven Days Of Man Abdel-Hakim Qasim 1984 Egyptian Arabic
17117 The Angelical Language, Volume I Aaron Leitch 2010 Unknown English
17117 A Night In The Lonesome October Roger Zelazny 1993 American English
16891 The Elementary Forms Of Religious Life Emile Durkheim 1912 French French
17117 Daughter Of The Red Dear Joan Wolf 1991 American English
17117 Segaki David Stacton 1958 American English
17117 Strega Johanne Lykke Holm, Saskia Vogel 2020 Unknown Swedish
17117 The Annual Banquet Of The Gravediggers' Guild Mathias Énard 2023 French French
17117 Pathways To Bliss Joseph Campbell American English