The Greatest Books of All Time on Self Discovery

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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
12412 Daller Gut Dream Department Store Miye Lee Unknown Unknown
12412 Bound To Happen Jonathan Shannon Unknown Unknown
12515 Angie, I Says Avra Wing 1991 American English
12515 Bake Face And Other Guava Stories Opal Palmer Adisa 1991 Jamaican English
12515 Eve's Tattoo Emily Prager 1991 American English
12515 The Revolution Of Little Girls Blanche McCrary Boyd 1991 American English
12588 Sunday You Learn How To Box Bil Wright 2000 American English
12588 Potential Ariel Schrag 2000 American English
12588 Geeks Jon Katz 2000 American English
12735 Living, Loving And Learning Leo Buscaglia 1982 American English
12741 Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me Mariko Tamaki, illustrated Rosemary Valero-O’Connell 2019 Canadian English
12769 Mon Vrai Nom Est Elisabeth Adèle Yon French French
12834 Cantora Sylvia Lopez-Medina 1992 American English
12834 Margins Terri de la Peña 1992 American English
12834 Talking To High Monks In The Snow Lydia Minatoya 1992 American English
12904 Ilaria, Or The Conquest Of Disobedience Gabriella Zalapi Unknown Unknown
12975 Fundamentally Nussaibah Younis 2025 Unknown Unknown
12979 Lessons In Magic And Disaster Charlie Jane Anders 2025 Unknown Unknown
13067 Bridge to Terabithia Katherine Paterson 1977 American English
13092 The Wood Wife Terri Windling 1996 American English
13089 P.S. I Love You Cecelia Ahern 2004 Irish English
13214 Hyperbole And A Half Allie Brosh 2013 American English
13220 10th Grade Joe Weisberg 2002 American English
13220 One Hundred Demons Lynda Barry 2002 American English
13249 Felix Ever After Kacen Callender 2020 American English
13249 The Henna Wars Adiba Jaigirdar 2020 Irish English
13258 You Shall Know Our Velocity Dave Eggers 2002 American English
13269 Why Not Me? Wendy L. Bovard 1993 Unknown Unknown
13259 Wonder When You’ll Miss Me Amanda Davis 2003 American English
13259 She’s Not There Jennifer Finney Boylan 2003 American English
13286 How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe Charles Yu 2010 American English
13353 Si Bob Ong 2014 Filipino Filipino
13362 The Wizard Of The Emerald City Alexander Wolkow 1939 Russian Russian
13362 The Nowhere City Alison Lurie 1965 American English
13513 Indecision Benjamin Kunkel 2005 American English
13513 More Like Not Running Away Paul Shepherd 2005 Unknown English
13520 Travels with Charley John Steinbeck 1962 American English
13543 The Spectator Bird Wallace Stegner 1976 American English
13558 The Black Swan Thomas Mann 1953 German German
13567 Butterfly Boy Rigoberto González 2006 American English
13586 The Adventures Of Harry Richmond George Meredith 1871 British English
13594 The Book Of Joe Jonathan Tropper 2004 American English
13716 What I Was Meg Rosoff 2007 British English
13760 This Book Will Save Your Life A. M. Homes 2006 American English
13772 Likewise Ariel Schrag 2008 American English
13812 Outside The Window Chiung Yao 1963 Chinese Chinese
13814 The Bad Girl Mario Vargas Llosa 2006 Peruvian Spanish
13818 Un Gatto Attraversa La Strada Giovanni Comisso 1955 Italian Italian
13818 Il Viaggiatore Notturno Maurizio Maggiani 2005 Italian Italian
13818 The Eight Mountains Paolo Cognetti 2016 Italian Italian
13818 Spatriati Mario Desiati 2021 Italian Italian
13886 Down Among The Sticks And Bones Seanan McGuire 2017 American English
13886 Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett 2009 British 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
14322 The Garden Of Allah Robert Hichens 1904 British English
14332 Europa Tim Parks 1997 British English
14377 Late Call Angus Wilson 1964 British English
14408 Trans Juliet Jacques 2015 British English
14429 1979 Christian Kracht 2001 German German
14477 The Broad Highway Jeffery Farnol 1910 British English
14498 The Lure Of The Gangdise Mountains Ma Yuan 1985 Chinese Unknown
14548 Queenie Candice Carty-Williams 2019 British English
14547 Queed Henry Sydnor Harrison 1911 American English
14589 Primera Persona Margarita García Robayo 2017 Colombian Spanish
14599 Passage To Juneau Jonathan Raban 1999 British English
14620 City Of Girls Elizabeth Gilbert 2019 American English
14629 Five Steps To Happy Ella Dove 2019 British English
14667 The Finkler Question Howard Jacobson 2010 British English
14698 The Doctor's Wife Brian Moore 1976 British English
14712 Parnassus On Wheels Christopher Morley 1917 American English
14731 I, etcetera Susan Sontag 1978 American English
14750 Musashi Eiji Yoshikawa 1935 Japanese Japanese
14731 How To Save Your Own Life Erica Jong 1977 American English
14788 Instead Of A Letter Diana Athill 1963 British English
14816 The Big Sky A. B. Guthrie 1947 American English
14827 Bad Habit Alana S. Portero Unknown Unknown
14885 Poems of Rumi Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 1207 Persian Persian
14899 The Room On The Roof Ruskin Bond 1956 Indian English
14899 The Third Life Of Grange Copeland Alice Walker 1970 American English
14957 Lucky Per Henrik Pontoppidan 1898 Danish Danish
14980 Full Tilt Dervla Murphy 1965 Irish English
14985 Grizzly Years Doug Peacock 1990 American English
14985 A Drinking Life Pete Hamill 1994 American English
14985 Lucy Jamaica Kincaid 1990 Antiguan English
14985 Sea Monsters Chloe Aridjis 2019 British English
14985 A Hat Full of Sky Terry Pratchett 2004 British English
14985 Smile Raina Telgemeier 2010 American English
14985 Uncommon Women And Others Wendy Wasserstein 1977 American English
14985 The Magician King Lev Grossman 2011 American English
14985 Blood, Bones, And Butter Gabrielle Hamilton 2011 American English
14985 Paper Towns John Green 2008 American English
14985 Daughter Of Fortune Isabel Allende 1999 Chilean Spanish
14985 Walk Two Moons Sharon Creech 1994 American English
14985 No One Belongs Here More Than You Miranda July 2007 American English
14985 A Psalm For The Wild Built Becky Chambers 2021 American English
14985 The Paper Bag Princess Robert Munsch 1980 Canadian English
14985 Rosarita Anita Desai 2024 Unknown English
14985 The Vegan Andrew Lipstein 2023 Unknown English
14985 The New Confessions William Boyd 1987 British English
15567 Dubin's Lives Bernard Malamud 1979 American English
15608 Miss Lulu Bett Zona Gale 1920 American English
15610 Moon Calf Floyd Dell 1920 American English
15642 Stray City Chelsey Johnson 2018 American English
15649 Up Stream Ludwig Lewisohn 1922 American English
15656 Where The Blue Begins Christopher Morley 1922 American English
15675 The Love Story Of A Young Monk Wang Zengqi 2011 Chinese Chinese
15718 Holiday Stanley Middleton 1974 British English
15768 Dodsworth Sinclair Lewis 1929 American English