The Greatest Books of All Time on Time

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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
5913 Poems Of Fernando Pessoa Fernando Pessoa 1942 Portuguese Portuguese
6005 The Oxford Book Of English Verse Arthur Quiller-Couch 1900 British English
6005 Les Métamorphoses Du Cercle Georges Poulet 1961 Belgian French
6180 The Complete Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1828 British English
6189 Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Haruki Murakami 2006 Japanese Japanese
6202 The Elegies Of Oxopetra Odysseas Elytis 1991 Greek Greek
6259 Moments Of Being Virginia Woolf 1976 British English
6289 Visitation Jenny Erpenbeck 2008 German German
6292 Amers Saint-John Perse 1957 French French
6343 Reise Durch Die Nacht Friederike Mayröcker 1986 Austrian German
6400 La Grande Juan José Saer 2012 Argentinian Spanish
6799 We Others Steven Millhauser 2011 American English
6840 Other Inquisitions Jorge Luis Borges 1952 Argentinian Spanish
6867 Collected Poems Philip Larkin 1988 British English
6899 Exhalation Ted Chiang 2019 American English
7025 The Fabric Of The Cosmos Brian Greene 2004 American English
7056 Some Thing Black Jacques Roubaud 1990 French French
7120 A Louis Zukofsky 1991 American English
7216 Sonnets And Madrigals Michelangelo Buonarroti 1545 Italian Italian
7216 Sonnets Luis de Góngora 1601 Spanish Spanish
7216 Poems Of Michael Drayton Michael Drayton 1605 British English
7216 The Poetical Works Of Robert Herrick Robert Herrick 1648 British English
7216 The Poems Of Thomas Carew Thomas Carew 1640 British English
7216 Odes, Elegies, Sonnets Pierre Ronsard 1550 French French
7216 Poetic Meditations Alphonse de Lamartine 1820 French French
7216 Enamels And Cameos Théophile Gautier 1852 French French
7216 Poems Of George Meredith George Meredith 1851 British English
7216 Poetical Works Of Robert Bridges Robert Bridges 1912 British English
7216 Poems Of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman Frederick Goddard Tuckerman 1860 American English
7216 Poems Of Trumbull Stickney Trumbull Stickney 1905 American English
7216 Poems Of Carles Riba Carles Riba 1943 Spanish Catalan
7216 Exile And Other Poems Saint-John Perse 1942 French French
7216 Poems And Verse Plays Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1900 Austrian German
7216 Poems Of Mani Leib Mani Leib 1918 Yiddish Yiddish
7216 Poems Of Rubén Dário Rubén Dário 1896 Nicaraguan Spanish
7216 Last Poems Elinor Wylie 1943 American English
7216 Poems Of John Crowe Ransom John Crowe Ransom 1923 American English
7216 Poems Of Allen Tate Allen Tate 1930 American English
7216 Selected Poems Robert Penn Warren 1944 American English
7216 Permit Me Voyage James Agee 1934 American English
7216 The Years Virginia Woolf 1937 British English
7216 A Mind At Peace Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar 1949 Turkish Turkish
7565 Selected Poems Frank O'Hara 1974 American English
7606 L'interruption Dominique Noguez 1993 French French
7726 A Worldly Country John Ashbery 2007 American English
7744 My Life and My Life in the Nineties Lyn Hejinian 1980 American English
7772 Collected Poems Robert Graves 1948 British English
7820 Transparence Of The World Jean Follain 1949 French French
7831 The Blue Flowers Raymond Queneau 1965 French French
7967 Poems Of W. S. Merwin W. S. Merwin 1952 American English
8002 La Visita En El Tiempo Arturo Uslar Pietri 1990 Venezuelan Spanish
8009 Poems Of Philippe Jacottet Philippe Jacottet 1953 French French
8009 Poems Of Elizabeth Jennings Elizabeth Jennings 1953 British English
8009 Collected Poems Conrad Aiken 1953 American English
8076 Selected Poems Ferenc Juhasz 1954 Hungarian Hungarian
8076 Poems Of Léonie Adams Léonie Adams 1954 American English
8076 The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead David Shields 2008 American English
8089 Process And Reality Alfred North Whitehead 1929 British English
8100 Selected Poems Tomas Tranströmer 1981 Swedish Swedish
8182 Timescape Gregory Benford 1980 American English
8193 The Order Of Time Carlo Rovelli 2017 Italian Italian
8280 Three Plays Thornton Wilder 1957 American English
8445 The Harvest Of Chronos Mojca Kumerdej 2016 Slovenian Slovenian
8473 Collected Poems Edwin Muir 1960 Scottish English
8607 Poems Of Roy Fuller Roy Fuller 1962 British English
8624 The Storm And Other Things Eugenio Montale 1978 Italian Italian
8739 Poems Of Sophia De Mello Breyner Sophia de Mello Breyner 1964 Portuguese Portuguese
8739 Poems Of Alvin Feinman Alvin Feinman 1964 American English
8750 Reaper Man Terry Pratchett 1991 British English
8801 Time Regained Marcel Proust 1927 French French
8918 As Metamorfoses Murilo Mendes 1938 Brazilian Portuguese
8923 Poems Of Louis Mac Neice Louis MacNeice 1966 Irish English
8951 Time Without Keys Ida Vitale 2019 Uruguayan Spanish
8975 Mantra Rodrigo Fresán 2001 Argentinian Spanish
8990 Tinkers Paul Harding 2009 American English
9009 T Zero Italo Calvino 1967 Italian Italian
9009 The Sense Of An Ending Frank Kermode 1967 British English
9022 Dark Back Of Time Javier Marias 1998 Spanish Spanish
9074 Autumn Ali Smith 2016 British English
9116 Poems Of Daryl Hine Daryl Hine 1968 Canadian English
9168 Stars Outside Nathan Alterman Israeli Hebrew
9227 Poems Jorge Luis Borges 2010 Argentinian Spanish
9294 Poems Of J. V. Foix J. V. Foix 1970 Catalan Catalan
9294 The Double Dream Of Spring John Ashbery 1970 American English
9358 Spring Shade Robert Fitzgerald 1971 American English
9358 Selected Poems Jean Garrigue 1971 American English
9358 Poems Of Howard Moss Howard Moss 1971 American English
9550 Guillén On Guillén Jorge Guillén 1972 Spanish Spanish
9550 The Owl's Insomnia Rafael Alberti 1972 Spanish Spanish
9550 Selected Poems Lars Gustafsson 1972 Swedish Swedish
9550 Collected Poems A. R. Ammons 1972 American English
9562 Continuous Tony Harrison 1981 British English
9643 Time's Arrow Martin Amis 1991 British English
9647 Selected Poems Osip Mandelstam 1973 Russian Russian
9835 Poems Of Pierre Reverdy Pierre Reverdy 1975 French French
9835 Fully Empowered Pablo Neruda 1975 Chilean Spanish
9835 Poems Of Donald Hall Donald Hall 1975 American English
9905 A Broken Mirror Merce Rodoreda 1974 Spanish Catalan
9930 Collected Poems Richard Eberhart 1976 American English
9952 The Book Of Fathers Miklós Vámos 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
10041 Poems Of Eugénio De Andrade Eugénio de Andrade 1977 Portuguese Portuguese
10041 A Part Of Speech Joseph Brodsky 1977 American Russian
10041 Houseboat Days John Ashbery 1977 American English
10041 Poems Of John Ashbery John Ashbery 1977 American English
10072 New And Collected Poems Richard Wilbur 1988 American English
10076 Prufrock and Other Observations T. S. Eliot 1917 British English
10139 Selected Poetry Andrea Zanzotto 1978 Italian Italian
10139 Sphere A. R. Ammons 1978 American English
10198 Duplex Kathryn Davis 2013 American English
10263 Poems Of F. T. Prince F. T. Prince 1979 British English
10277 Death's End Cixin Liu 2010 Chinese Chinese
10280 La Burla Del Tiempo Mauricio Electorat 2004 Chilean Spanish
10411 Selected Longer Poems A. R. Ammons 1980 American English
10558 Poems Twice Told Jay Macpherson 1981 Canadian English
10558 The Revisionist Douglas Crase 1981 American English
10563 Thief Of Time Terry Pratchett 2001 British English
10751 From The First Nine James Merrill 1982 American Unknown
10751 Selected Poems Galway Kinnell 1982 American English
10768 Collected Poems D. J. Enright 1987 British English
10902 Les Amours Pierre Ronsard 1552 French French