The Greatest Western Books of All 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
6669 Complete Short Stories Mark Twain 1957 American English
6670 The Balcony Jean Genet 1957 French French
6672 What The Dog Saw And Other Adventures Malcolm Gladwell 2009 Canadian English
6674 Minor Characters Joyce Johnson 1983 American English
6676 The Mountain And The Wall Alisa Ganieva 2015 Russian Russian
6678 The Concept Of Mind Gilbert Ryle 1949 British English
6679 The Imago Sequence And Other Stories Laird Barron 2007 American English
6680 A Fraction Of The Whole Steve Toltz 2008 Australian English
6681 Blacktop Wasteland S. A. Cosby 2020 American English
6683 The Opium Of The Intellectuals Raymond Aron 1955 French French
6684 Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda Becky Albertalli 2015 American English
6685 Celebration Of Discipline Richard J. Foster 1978 American English
6687 Ravelstein Saul Bellow 2000 American English
6688 Le Drame De La Vie & Le Discours Aux Animaux Valère Novarina 1984 French French
6689 Romanen Om Olof Eyvind Johnson 1934 Swedish Swedish
6690 In Patagonia Bruce Chatwin 1977 British English
6691 Raskens Vilhelm Moberg 1927 Swedish Swedish
6692 Night Visitors Julia Briggs 1977 British Unknown
6692 Swords And Ice Magic Fritz Leiber 1977 American English
6694 Only A Mother Ivar Lo-Johansson 1939 Swedish Swedish
6695 The Times Are Never So Bad Andre Dubus 1983 American English
6695 The Stories Of Breece D'j Pancake Breece D'J Pancake 1983 American English
6697 The Tattooist Of Auschwitz Heather Morris 2018 Australian English
6698 Landscapes After the Battle Juan Goytisolo 1982 Spanish Spanish
6699 The Little Stranger Sarah Waters 2009 British English
6700 It's A Good Life Jerome Bixby 1953 American English
6703 Seventh Son Orson Scott Card, Patrick Couton 1987 American English
6701 A Touch Of Chill Joan Aiken 1974 American English
6701 The House In Norham Gardens Penelope Lively 1974 British English
6704 Collected essays Aldous Huxley 1958 British English
6706 Maggie The Mechanic Jaime Hernandez 2003 American English
6707 The Mac Gregor Grooms Nora Roberts 1998 American English
6708 The Treasure Selma Lagerlöf 1899 Swedish Swedish
6709 Knížka S červeným Obalem Alexandra Berková 1986 Czech Czech
6711 Ooga-Booga Frederick Seidel 2006 American English
6713 The Land Of Green Plums Herta Müller 1994 German German
6712 Bock I örtagård Fritiof Nilsson Piraten 1933 Swedish Swedish
6717 Stories of Adalbert Stifter Adalbert Stifter 1801 Austrian German
6717 Human, All Too Human Friedrich Nietzsche 1878 German German
6717 The Son of a Servant August Strindberg 1886 Swedish Swedish
6717 Track Ernst Bloch 1949 German Unknown
6717 My Life Leon Trotsky 1930 Russian Russian
6716 How To Change Your Mind Michael Pollan 2018 American English
6717 The Crime At Black Dudley Margery Allingham 1929 British English
6717 The Conjure Man Dies Rudolph Fisher 1932 American English
6717 Beat Not The Bones Charlotte Jay 1952 Australian English
6715 The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind Julian Jaynes 1976 American English
6717 Anti Goeze Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1778 German German
6717 On The Aesthetic Education Of Man Friedrich Schiller 1794 German German
6728 The Relic Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child 1995 American English
6729 The Mysterious Universe James Jeans 1930 British English
6730 Saturday Ian McEwan 2005 British English
6731 The Afterlife Donald Antrim 2006 American English
6731 Eat the Document Dana Spiotta 2006 American English
6734 The Poverty of Power Barry Commoner 1976 American English
6733 Jubilee Margaret Walker 1966 American English
6735 The Deep Blue Good By John D. MacDonald 1964 American English
6737 Titmuss Regained John Mortimer 1990 British English
6737 The Wimbledon Poisoner Nigel Williams 1990 British English
6737 Room Temperature Nicholson Baker 1990 American English
6745 Life With Billy Brian Vallee 1986 Canadian English
6737 Political Fictions Joan Didion 2001 American English
6737 Emergence Steven Johnson 2001 American English
6737 My Misspent Youth Meghan Daum 2001 American English
6737 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6746 A Matter Of Feeling Janine Boissard 1985 French French
6748 Psalm At Journey's End Erik Fosnes Hansen 1990 Norwegian Norwegian
6748 De Advocaat Van De Hanen A. F. Th. van der Heijden 1990 Dutch Dutch
6748 Infanta Bodo Kirchhoff 1990 German German
6748 Hoffman's Hunger Leon de Winter 1990 Dutch Dutch
6748 Sturmzeit Charlotte Link 1990 German German
6755 I Hotel Karen Tei Yamashita 2010 American English
6760 Bold As Love Gwyneth Jones 2001 British English
6759 The Light Fantastic Terry Pratchett 1986 British English
6758 La Bâtarde Violette Leduc 1964 French French
6762 The World's Illusion Jakob Wassermann 1920 German German
6761 Difficult Loves Italo Calvino 1958 Italian Italian
6764 The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke Theodore Roethke 1966 American English
6765 Odd Girls And Twilight Lovers Lillian Faderman 1991 American English
6767 The Bay Psalm Book Stephen Daye 1640 American English
6767 Experiments And Observations On Electricity Benjamin Franklin 1751 American English
6767 Poor Richard Improved, The Way To Wealth Benjamin Franklin 1758 American English
6767 A Grammatical Institute Of The English Language Noah Webster 1783 American English
6767 A Curious Hieroglyphic Bible Isaiah Thomas 1788 American English
6767 A Survey Of The Roads Of The United States Of America Christopher Colles 1789 American English
6767 American Cookery Amelia Simmons 1796 American English
6767 New England Primer Unknown 1687 American English
6767 Mc Guffey's Newly Revised Eclectic Primer William Holmes McGuffey 1836 American English
6767 Peter Parley's Universal History Samuel Goodrich 1837 American English
6767 Mark, The Match Boy Horatio Alger Jr. 1869 American English
6767 The American Woman's Home Harriet Beecher Stowe, Catharine E. Beecher 1869 American English
6767 The Common Law Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. 1881 American English
6767 Harriet, The Moses Of Her People Sarah H. Bradford 1886 American English
6767 Family Limitation Margaret Sanger 1914 American English
6767 Idaho Federal Writers' Project 1937 American English
6767 A Treasury Of American Folklore Benjamin A. Botkin 1944 American English
6767 Doña Perfecta Benito Pérez Galdós 1876 Spanish Spanish
6767 The Charles Men Verner von Heidenstam 1897 Swedish Swedish
6767 Sotileza Jose M. de Pereda 1885 Spanish Spanish
6787 Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Saidiya Hartman 2019 American English
6788 The Splendid And The Vile Erik Larson 2020 American English
6790 The Eleven Pierre Michon 2009 French French
6791 The True Deceiver Tove Jansson 1982 Finnish Swedish
6793 Men Explain Things To Me Rebecca Solnit 2014 American English
6794 Elegant Nightmares Jack Sullivan 1978 American English
6795 Models Of Man, Social And Rational Herbert Simon 1957 American English
6797 Oh, Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad M. R. James 1904 British English
6798 The Blue Hawk Peter Dickinson 1976 British English
6799 We Others Steven Millhauser 2011 American English
6800 Getting Into Death Thomas M. Disch 1973 American English
6801 Bird Box Josh Malerman 2014 American English
6802 Random Passage Bernice Morgan 1992 Canadian English
6803 On Photography Susan Sontag 1977 American English
6806 America Jean Baudrillard 1986 French French
6806 Maudit Manège Philippe Djian 1986 French French
6808 The Queen Of The Damned Anne Rice 1988 American English
6809 Eastbound Maylis de Kerangal 2012 French French
6810 Down A Dark Hall Lois Duncan 1974 American English
6811 Écrits Jacques Lacan 1966 French French
6813 La Barraca Vicente Blasco Ibáñez 1898 Spanish Spanish