The Greatest Books of All Time on Self Discovery

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
12410 Bound To Happen Jonathan Shannon Unknown Unknown
12513 Angie, I Says Avra Wing 1991 American English
12513 Bake Face And Other Guava Stories Opal Palmer Adisa 1991 Jamaican English
12513 Eve's Tattoo Emily Prager 1991 American English
12513 The Revolution Of Little Girls Blanche McCrary Boyd 1991 American English
12586 Sunday You Learn How To Box Bil Wright 2000 American English
12586 Potential Ariel Schrag 2000 American English
12586 Geeks Jon Katz 2000 American English
12733 Living, Loving And Learning Leo Buscaglia 1982 American English
12739 Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me Mariko Tamaki, illustrated Rosemary Valero-O’Connell 2019 Canadian English
12767 Mon Vrai Nom Est Elisabeth Adèle Yon French French
12832 Cantora Sylvia Lopez-Medina 1992 American English
12832 Margins Terri de la Peña 1992 American English
12832 Talking To High Monks In The Snow Lydia Minatoya 1992 American English
12902 Ilaria, Or The Conquest Of Disobedience Gabriella Zalapi Unknown Unknown
12972 Fundamentally Nussaibah Younis 2025 Unknown Unknown
12976 Lessons In Magic And Disaster Charlie Jane Anders 2025 Unknown Unknown
13064 Bridge to Terabithia Katherine Paterson 1977 American English
13089 The Wood Wife Terri Windling 1996 American English
13086 P.S. I Love You Cecelia Ahern 2004 Irish English
13211 Hyperbole And A Half Allie Brosh 2013 American English
13217 10th Grade Joe Weisberg 2002 American English
13217 One Hundred Demons Lynda Barry 2002 American English
13246 Felix Ever After Kacen Callender 2020 American English
13246 The Henna Wars Adiba Jaigirdar 2020 Irish English
13255 You Shall Know Our Velocity Dave Eggers 2002 American English
13266 Why Not Me? Wendy L. Bovard 1993 Unknown Unknown
13256 Wonder When You’ll Miss Me Amanda Davis 2003 American English
13256 She’s Not There Jennifer Finney Boylan 2003 American English
13283 How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe Charles Yu 2010 American English
13350 Si Bob Ong 2014 Filipino Filipino
13359 The Wizard Of The Emerald City Alexander Wolkow 1939 Russian Russian
13359 The Nowhere City Alison Lurie 1965 American English
13511 Indecision Benjamin Kunkel 2005 American English
13511 More Like Not Running Away Paul Shepherd 2005 Unknown English
13518 Travels with Charley John Steinbeck 1962 American English
13542 The Spectator Bird Wallace Stegner 1976 American English
13557 The Black Swan Thomas Mann 1953 German German
13566 Butterfly Boy Rigoberto González 2006 American English
13585 The Adventures Of Harry Richmond George Meredith 1871 British English
13593 The Book Of Joe Jonathan Tropper 2004 American English
13715 What I Was Meg Rosoff 2007 British English
13759 This Book Will Save Your Life A. M. Homes 2006 American English
13771 Likewise Ariel Schrag 2008 American English
13811 Outside The Window Chiung Yao 1963 Chinese Chinese
13813 The Bad Girl Mario Vargas Llosa 2006 Peruvian Spanish
13817 Un Gatto Attraversa La Strada Giovanni Comisso 1955 Italian Italian
13817 Il Viaggiatore Notturno Maurizio Maggiani 2005 Italian Italian
13817 The Eight Mountains Paolo Cognetti 2016 Italian Italian
13817 Spatriati Mario Desiati 2021 Italian Italian
13885 Down Among The Sticks And Bones Seanan McGuire 2017 American English
13885 Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett 2009 British English
13923 The Hero And The Crown Robin McKinley 1984 American English
13941 The Golem and the Jinni Helene Wecker 2013 American English
13941 Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life Bryan Lee O'Malley 2004 Canadian English
13963 This Time Tomorrow Emma Straub 2023 American English
13971 The Radleys Matt Haig 2010 British English
14025 Miss New India Bharati Mukherjee 2011 American English
14098 Why We Took The Car Wolfgang Herrndorf 2010 German German
14103 Bread And Jam For Frances Russell Hoban 1964 American English
14107 The Game That Ended Us Fe Esperanza Trampe Filipino Filipino
14122 Turtles All The Way Down John Green 2017 American English
14129 Sunshine Robin McKinley 2003 American English
14130 Passagère Du Silence Fabienne Verdier 2001 French French
14155 Mulberry And Peach Hualing Nieh 1976 Chinese Chinese
14232 Last Night At The Telegraph Club Malinda Lo 2021 American English
14321 The Garden Of Allah Robert Hichens 1904 British English
14331 Europa Tim Parks 1997 British English
14376 Late Call Angus Wilson 1964 British English
14407 Trans Juliet Jacques 2015 British English
14428 1979 Christian Kracht 2001 German German
14476 The Broad Highway Jeffery Farnol 1910 British English
14497 The Lure Of The Gangdise Mountains Ma Yuan 1985 Chinese Unknown
14547 Queenie Candice Carty-Williams 2019 British English
14546 Queed Henry Sydnor Harrison 1911 American English
14588 Primera Persona Margarita García Robayo 2017 Colombian Spanish
14598 Passage To Juneau Jonathan Raban 1999 British English
14619 City Of Girls Elizabeth Gilbert 2019 American English
14628 Five Steps To Happy Ella Dove 2019 British English
14666 The Finkler Question Howard Jacobson 2010 British English
14697 The Doctor's Wife Brian Moore 1976 British English
14711 Parnassus On Wheels Christopher Morley 1917 American English
14730 I, etcetera Susan Sontag 1978 American English
14750 Musashi Eiji Yoshikawa 1935 Japanese Japanese
14730 How To Save Your Own Life Erica Jong 1977 American English
14787 Instead Of A Letter Diana Athill 1963 British English
14815 The Big Sky A. B. Guthrie 1947 American English
14825 Bad Habit Alana S. Portero Unknown Unknown
14882 Poems of Rumi Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 1207 Persian Persian
14896 The Room On The Roof Ruskin Bond 1956 Indian English
14896 The Third Life Of Grange Copeland Alice Walker 1970 American English
14957 Lucky Per Henrik Pontoppidan 1898 Danish Danish
14978 Full Tilt Dervla Murphy 1965 Irish English
14983 Grizzly Years Doug Peacock 1990 American English
14983 A Drinking Life Pete Hamill 1994 American English
14983 Lucy Jamaica Kincaid 1990 Antiguan English
14983 Sea Monsters Chloe Aridjis 2019 British English
14983 A Hat Full of Sky Terry Pratchett 2004 British English
14983 Smile Raina Telgemeier 2010 American English
14983 Uncommon Women And Others Wendy Wasserstein 1977 American English
14983 The Magician King Lev Grossman 2011 American English
14983 Blood, Bones, And Butter Gabrielle Hamilton 2011 American English
14983 Paper Towns John Green 2008 American English
14983 Daughter Of Fortune Isabel Allende 1999 Chilean Spanish
14983 Walk Two Moons Sharon Creech 1994 American English
14983 No One Belongs Here More Than You Miranda July 2007 American English
14983 A Psalm For The Wild Built Becky Chambers 2021 American English
14983 The Paper Bag Princess Robert Munsch 1980 Canadian English
14983 Rosarita Anita Desai 2024 Unknown English
14983 The Vegan Andrew Lipstein 2023 Unknown English
14983 The New Confessions William Boyd 1987 British English
15559 Dubin's Lives Bernard Malamud 1979 American English
15600 Miss Lulu Bett Zona Gale 1920 American English
15602 Moon Calf Floyd Dell 1920 American English
15634 Stray City Chelsey Johnson 2018 American English
15641 Up Stream Ludwig Lewisohn 1922 American English
15648 Where The Blue Begins Christopher Morley 1922 American English
15667 The Love Story Of A Young Monk Wang Zengqi 2011 Chinese Chinese
15710 Holiday Stanley Middleton 1974 British English
15756 Dodsworth Sinclair Lewis 1929 American English