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
2149 The Book of Songs China -600 Chinese Classical chinese
2283 Crowds And Power Elias Canetti 1960 German German
2322 Rituals Cees Nooteboom 1980 Dutch Dutch
2614 Book of Common Prayer Thomas Cranmer 1549 British English
2689 The Ceremonies T. E. D. Klein 1984 American English
2838 Facing Mount Kenya Jomo Kenyatta 1938 Kenyan English
2894 Seven Days In New Crete Robert Graves 1949 British English
3003 The Savage Mind Claude Lévi-Strauss 1962 French French
3088 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
3880 The River Between Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1965 Kenyan English
4280 Christmas At The Ivanovs' Alexander Vvedensky 1938 Russian Russian
4410 Salammbô Gustave Flaubert 1862 French French
4746 Indaba, My Children Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa 1964 South African English
5010 Dance Hall Of The Dead Tony Hillerman 1973 American English
5014 The Hungry Moon Ramsey Campbell 1986 British English
5037 Images And Symbols Mircea Eliade 1952 Romanian French
5619 Our Share of Night Mariana Enríquez 2019 Argentinian Spanish
5915 Egyptian Book Of The Dead Unknown -1550 Egyptian Egyptian (hieroglyphic)
6137 Iron John Robert Bly 1990 American English
6637 The Ruin Of Kasch Roberto Calasso 1983 Italian Italian
7067 Stories From A Shona Childhood Charles Mungoshi 1989 Zimbabwean English
7216 Samskara U.R. Ananthamurthy 1965 Indian Kannada
7724 Purity And Danger Mary Douglas 1966 British English
8023 Ancient Evenings Norman Mailer 1983 American English
8032 A Barbarian In Asia Henri Michaux 1933 French French
8032 From A Chinese City Gontran de Poncins 1957 French English
8206 Waking the Moon Elizabeth Hand, Elisabeth Hand 1994 American English
9710 Society And The Holy In Late Antiquity Peter Brown 1982 British English
9890 The Hour Of Our Death Philippe Ariès 1981 French French
10115 Blackberry Winter Margaret Mead 1972 American English
10309 Chinook Texts Franz Boas 1894 American English
10309 Man, Play And Games Roger Caillois 1958 French French
10309 The Sacred And The Profane Mircea Eliade 1957 Romanian French
10309 The Gift Marcel Mauss 1925 French French
10401 The Bog People P. V. Glob 1965 Danish Danish
10412 The Double Invention Of Komo Jay Wright 1980 American Unknown
10620 Along The Ganges Ilija Trojanow 2005 German German
10797 The Stripping of the Altars Eamon Duffy 1992 British English
11168 Ghost Wall Sarah Moss 2018 British English
11901 Waterlily Ella Cara Deloria 1988 American English
11923 The Ritual Adam Nevill 2011 British English
12175 Tibetan Book Of The Dead Robert Thurman 1994 Tibetan English
12259 May You Be The Mother Of A Hundred Sons Elisabeth Bumiller 1990 American English
14231 The King Must Die Mary Renault 1958 British English
14665 Raise The Red Lantern Su Tong 1990 Chinese Chinese
14825 Necronomicon H. P. Lovecraft 1927 American English
14985 Death In Spring Merce Rodoreda 1986 Spanish Catalan
15916 Avesta Zoroastrian scripture -1200 Iranian Avestan
15916 Tell My Horse Zora Neale Hurston 1938 American English
15916 The Masks Of God Joseph Campbell 1959 American English
15916 The Greek Myths Robert Graves 1955 British English
15916 Themis Jane E. Harrison 1912 British English
15890 Myths To Live By Joseph Campbell 1972 American English
15916 The Elementary Forms Of The Religious Life Emile Durkheim 1912 French French
15916 The Corn King And The Spring Queen Naomi Mitchison 1931 British English
17163 Structural Anthropology Claude Lévi-Strauss 1958 French French
17163 The Raw and the Cooked Claude Lévi-Strauss 1964 French French
17088 Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians George Catlin 1841 American English
17163 Cards of Grief Jane Yolen 1984 American English
17163 Tales from Rugosa Coven Sarah Avery 2013 American English
17163 Radiance From The Waters Sylvia Ardyn Boone 1989 American English
17163 Marked (House Of Night) Unknown 2007 American English
17163 The Throwback Special Chris Bachelder 2016 American English
17163 The Work Of The Dead Thomas W. Laqueur 2015 American English
17163 Passing The Time In Ballymenone Henry Glassie 1982 American English
17163 The Undertaking Thomas Lynch 1997 American English
17163 Kaddish Leon Wieseltier 1998 Kaddish English
17163 Lame Deer Richard Erodes, John Fire Lame Deer 1972 Unknown English
17163 Soma Gordon Wasson 1968 Unknown English
17163 The Seven Days Of Man Abdel-Hakim Qasim 1984 Egyptian Arabic
17163 The Angelical Language, Volume I Aaron Leitch 2010 Unknown English
17163 A Night In The Lonesome October Roger Zelazny 1993 American English
16939 The Elementary Forms Of Religious Life Emile Durkheim 1912 French French
17163 Daughter Of The Red Dear Joan Wolf 1991 American English
17163 Segaki David Stacton 1958 American English
17163 Strega Johanne Lykke Holm, Saskia Vogel 2020 Unknown Swedish
17163 The Annual Banquet Of The Gravediggers' Guild Mathias Énard 2023 French French
17163 Pathways To Bliss Joseph Campbell American English