The Greatest Books of All Time on Writing

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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
51 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
113 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 Dutch Dutch
173 A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf 1929 British English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
403 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
407 The World According to Garp John Irving 1978 American English
575 I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith 1948 British English
620 The Elements of Style E. B. White, William Strunk Jr. 1918 American English
855 A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemingway 1964 American English
868 Henry James Leon Edel 1953 American English
898 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
910 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
933 Lives of Girls and Women Alice Munro 1971 Canadian English
987 Harriet the Spy Louise Fitzhugh 1964 American English
993 Essays of E. B. White E. B. White 1977 American English
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
1168 The Diaries Franz Kafka 1948 Czech German
1189 A Writer's Diary Virginia Woolf 1953 British English
1265 On Writing Stephen King 2000 American English
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1393 The Business of Living Cesare Pavese 1952 Italian Italian
1406 The Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell 1857 British English
1411 Concrete Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
1829 To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life Hervé Guibert 1990 French French
1859 Angel Elizabeth Taylor 1957 British English
1870 The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Gustave Flaubert 1921 French French
1891 The Journal of Jules Renard Jules Renard 1887 French French
1904 The Diviners Margaret Laurence 1974 Canadian English
1936 Ask The Dust John Fante 1939 American English
2000 Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter Mario Vargas Llosa 1977 Peruvian Spanish
2012 The Habit of Being Flannery O'Connor 1979 American English
2020 Journals André Gide 1948 French French
2113 The Luminous Novel Mario Levrero 2005 Uruguayan Spanish
2259 Advertisements for Myself Norman Mailer 1959 American English
2287 The History of the Siege of Lisbon José Saramago 1989 Portuguese Portuguese
2404 A Sorrow Beyond Dreams Peter Handke 1972 Austrian German
2412 Loitering With Intent Muriel Spark 1981 British English
2530 The Anatomy Lesson Philip Roth 1983 American English
2576 The Diary of Anais Nin, 1931-1934 Anaïs Nin 1966 French English
2591 Emily of New Moon L. M. Montgomery 1923 Canadian English
2607 Heavy Kiese Laymon 2018 American English
2647 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
2689 Dependency Tove Ditlevsen 1971 Danish Danish
2690 Childhood Tove Ditlevsen 1967 Danish Danish
2807 Summertime J. M. Coetzee 2009 South African English
2927 Unless Carol Shields 2002 Canadian English
2932 On Overgrown Paths Knut Hamsun 1949 Norwegian Norwegian
3054 The Invention of Solitude Paul Auster 1982 American English
3074 One Writer's Beginnings Eudora Welty 1984 American English
3111 Leviathan Paul Auster 1992 American English
3159 Who Made Stevie Crye? Michael Bishop 1984 American English
3174 My Early Life Winston Churchill 1930 British English
3198 Mao II Don DeLillo 1991 American English
3211 Betty Blue Philippe Djian 1985 French French
3216 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson 2014 American English
3310 Cross Creek Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1942 American English
3468 Kudos Rachel Cusk 2018 British English
3469 The Story Of English Robert McCrum 1986 British English
3502 Borges Adolfo Bioy Casares 2006 Argentine Spanish
3522 Balzac Stefan Zweig 1946 Austrian German
3527 All My Puny Sorrows Miriam Toews 2014 Canadian English
3548 Samuel Johnson Walter Jackson Bate 1977 American English
3567 Mystery and Manners Flannery O'Connor 1969 American English
3573 Youth Tove Ditlevsen 1967 Danish Danish
3638 Pack My Bag Henry Green 1940 British English
3810 The Writing Life Annie Dillard 1989 American English
4056 The Tunnel William H. Gass 1995 American English
4295 Bird By Bird Anne Lamott 1994 American English
4308 Mrs. Stevens Hears The Mermaids Singing May Sarton 1965 American English
4393 The Friend Sigrid Nunez 2018 American English
4420 Life Of John Sterling Thomas Carlyle 1851 British English
4468 The History of Love Nicole Krauss 2005 American English
4500 How Should a Person Be? Sheila Heti 2010 Canadian English
4508 Practicalities Marguerite Duras 1987 French French
4565 Mortal y rosa Francisco Umbral 1975 Spanish Spanish
5149 The Copenhagen Trilogy Tiina Nunnally, Michael Favala Goldman, Tove Ditlevsen 1967 Danish Danish
5277 The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling Angus Wilson 1977 British English
5283 από το στόμα της παλιάς Remington Giannis Panou 1981 Greek Greek
5404 I Love Dick Chris Kraus 1997 American English
5459 Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel 2003 British English
5597 Changing My Mind Zadie Smith 2009 British English
5697 The Little Virtues Natalia Ginzburg 1962 Italian Italian
5721 The Rosy Crucifixion Henry Miller 1949 American English
5722 Politics And The English Language George Orwell 1946 British English
5757 Earthly Paradise Colette 1966 French French
5760 Unnatural Causes P. D. James 1967 British English
5947 The Afternoon of a Writer Peter Handke 1987 Austrian German
5990 Writing Degree Zero Roland Barthes 1953 French French
6448 The Half Brother Lars Saabye Christensen 2001 Norwegian Norwegian
6470 The Belles Lettres Papers Charles Simmons 1987 American English
6491 Ruth Hall Fanny Fern 1854 American English
6553 Alchemy Of The Word Jan Parandowski 1951 Polish Polish
6578 Zuckerman Bound Philip Roth 1985 American English
6631 Reveries Of The Wild Woman Hélène Cixous 2000 French French
6713 Diccionario De Autores Latinoamericanos César Aira 2001 Argentinian Spanish
6736 My Misspent Youth Meghan Daum 2001 American English
6736 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6766 A Grammatical Institute Of The English Language Noah Webster 1783 American English
6854 Chelsea Girls Eileen Myles 1994 American English
6873 The End of the Story Lydia Davis 1995 American English
6886 Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage Richard Holmes 1993 British English
6992 Hallucinating Foucault Patricia Duncker 1996 British English
7072 Palimpsest Gore Vidal 1995 American English
7133 Desolation Angels Jack Kerouac 1965 American English
7175 Out Of Sheer Rage Geoff Dyer 1997 British English
7215 Essays Of Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson 1892 Scottish English
7215 The Blue Octavo Notebook Franz Kafka 1935 Czech German
7215 The New York Times Manual Of Style And Usage Allan M. Siegal, William G. Connolly 1950 American English
7215 Tamarisk Row Gerald Murnane 1974 Australian English
7215 The Empty Book Josefina Vicens 1958 Mexican English
7584 Verity Colleen Hoover 2018 American English
7605 Writing Marguerite Duras 1993 French French
7611 Aunt Julia And The Script Writer Mario Vargas Llosa 1977 Peruvian Spanish
7914 How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read Pierre Bayard 2007 French French
7927 Autobiographie De Mon Pere Pierre Pachet 1997 French French
7949 My Story Kamala Das 1976 Indian English
8005 On The Move Oliver Sacks 2015 British English