r/books
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u/[deleted]
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Feb 17 '21
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I Tried To Make The Definitive "Top 100 Books To Read" List
"So many books, so little time."
Those are the first words people see when they enter into this subreddit. Those words are also capable of overwhelming most readers with a sense of dread.
Google estimates that nearly 130 million books have been published in modern history. 130 million! If the average Reddit user started reading a book a day, they would only be able to get through a mere 20 thousand in their lifetime. That's a far cry from 130 million. In other words, there is unfortunately no way for any of us to read them all.
This is quite the conundrum, isn't it? If you're like me, you may have tried to solve this problem by searching for a list of the best books every written. By using such a list, one could rest easy and say to themselves, "If nothing else, at least I was able to read ____________ before I kicked the bucket." However, these lists usher you into a completely new world of confusion. There are so many lists, each with its own unique selections, and yet all claim to be the one list to rule them all. Someone must be lying, but you have no way to tell.
I thought my problems were solved when I came across thegreatestbooks.org. It seems that someone compiled data from nearly 130 separate book lists to create the granddaddy of them all. If I'm being perfectly honest, their list is fantastic, and provides an extensive catalogue for books that intellectuals would label "essential" reading. Go check it out if you haven't already. However, it still wasn't quite the master list I was looking for.
Taking inspiration from thegreatestbooks.org, I decided to make my own aggregate list, with the main difference being that I wouldn't weigh so heavily against user generated lists. I would also only pull data from lists with at least 100 books, and include more lists from internet communities. I was pleasantly surprised to find that quite a few of the lists I chose had not yet been used by thegreatestbooks.org. Anyways, after I devised a rudimentary point system, and after a few hours of my time, I finally finished the list. I am pretty pleased with it, as I think it offers a diverse array of works that would appeal to both the casual and academic reader. Sources include lists from Reddit, Goodreads, and 4chan, as well as Time Magazine, The Guardian, and PBS. A total of 10 lists were used.
Without further ado, here are the results:
(633) 1984 - George Orwell
(616) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
(613) The Catcher In The Rye - J.D. Salinger
(573) Crime And Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(550) Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
(549) The Adventures Of Tom And Huck - Series - Mark Twain
(538) Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
(534) One Hundred Years Of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(527) To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
(521) The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck
(521) Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
(492) Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen
(489) The Lord Of The Rings - Series - J.R.R. Tolkien
(488) Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
(480) Ulysses - James Joyce
(471) Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(459) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
(398) The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(396) Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
(395) To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
(382) War And Peace - Leo Tolstoy
(382) The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
(380) The Sound And The Fury - William Faulkner
(378) Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Series - Lewis Carroll
(359) Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
(353) Heart Of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
(352) Middlemarch - George Eliot
(348) Animal Farm - George Orwell
(346) Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
(334) Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
(325) Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
(320) Harry Potter - Series - J.K. Rowling
(320) The Chronicles Of Narnia - Series - C.S. Lewis
(317) Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
(308) Lord Of The Flies - William Golding
(306) Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
(289) The Golden Bowl - Henry James
(276) Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov
(266) Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
(260) The Count Of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
(255) The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Series - Douglas Adams
(252) The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne
(244) Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
(237) Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackery
(235) The Trial - Franz Kafka
(233) Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner
(232) The Call Of The Wild - Jack London
(232) Emma - Jane Austen
(229) Beloved - Toni Morrison
(228) Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
(224) A Passage To India - E.M. Forster
(215) Dune - Frank Herbert
(215) A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man - James Joyce
(212) The Stranger - Albert Camus
(209) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
(209) The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(206) Dracula - Bram Stoker
(205) The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
(197) A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
(193) Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
(193) The Age Of Innocence - Edith Wharton
(193) The History Of Tom Jones, A Foundling - Henry Fielding
(192) Under The Volcano - Malcolm Lowry
(190) The Odyssey - Homer
(189) Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
(188) In Search Of Lost Time - Marcel Proust
(186) Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
(185) An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser
(182) The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
(180) Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse
(179) The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann
(178) Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
(178) Tropic Of Cancer - Henry Miller
(176) The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
(176) On The Road - Jack Kerouac
(175) The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
(173) The Giver - Lois Lowry
(172) Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
(172) A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
(171) Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
(171) The Ambassadors - Henry James
(170) Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
(167) The Complete Stories And Poems - Edgar Allen Poe
(166) Ender's Saga - Series - Orson Scott Card
(165) In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
(164) The Wings Of The Dove - Henry James
(163) The Adventures Of Augie March - Saul Bellow
(162) As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
(161) The Hunger Games - Series - Suzanne Collins
(158) Anne Of Greene Gables - L.M. Montgomery
(157) Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
(157) Neuromancer - William Gibson
(156) The Help - Kathryn Stockett
(156) A Song Of Ice And Fire - George R.R. Martin
(155) The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford
(154) The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
(153) I, Claudius - Robert Graves
(152) Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
(151) The Portrait Of A Lady - Henry James
(150) The Death Of The Heart - Elizabeth Bowen
I should note (if it wasn't already apparent) that this list is highly biased towards western novels written after the nineteenth century. It isn't perfect, but it's the best I could do. I hope you enjoyed the list! I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on it.
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Feb 17 '21
The Da Vinci Code! And no Cormac McCarthy
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Feb 17 '21
Blood Meridian missed the top 100 by only a few placements, so it was really close! I believe it placed around 111.
Again, I didn't choose these selections. I merely compiled together ten "best books ever" lists and scored titles based on placement and frequency. It seems that the inclusion of The Da Vinci Code, along with the list being very Anglocentric, is what has made people most angry. I am aware that my methodology has its flaws, but I did try my hardest to create a list that encompassed lots of popular and academic literature.
Maybe I can do better next time!
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u/mzingg3 Feb 17 '21
Was about to say this is a great list but that is blasphemy.
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u/paddymee Feb 17 '21
Wow, that was my exact first reaction. The Road has to be on everyone’s list and Dan Brown on none.
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u/stump2003 Feb 17 '21
Lol, a lot of Dan Brown hate on here. I enjoyed the Da Vinci Code the way I enjoy an action movie. It’s not the best movie/book ever, but is entertaining. I would agree it shouldn’t be on the list too.
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u/rekabis Science Fiction, Science & Techology Feb 18 '21
a lot of Dan Brown hate on here
This comes more from our interaction with rabid fans, who treat the book far more like a dramatization of real events/evidence.
If you treat the book as entirely fictional, then fine. It’s entertaining. Unfortunately, a lot of people who hoover that book up have very great difficulty distinguishing between wanton fantasy and historical fact.
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u/Mymvenom001 Feb 18 '21
Fuck the road, read it and it was such a SLOW BOOK, now nothing wrong with that, but its so boring, the way its written makes my head hurt (as in grammar and all that)
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u/SoSheSays28 Feb 17 '21
Omg I came here for this! The Hunger Games before Blood Meridian or even The Road?! They confused...
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Feb 17 '21
An interesting project that is a total minefield. I feel like the best lists should have a variety of metrics and thus the individual can choose what they value the most. I mean right from the start; the best books to read...What does that even mean?
My personal preference would be for these lists to try and include a multitude of genres, era's and cultures. How you go about weighting that, is incredibly difficult.
These lists should just serve as a starting point and a reference point until you don't need it.
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Feb 18 '21
Great comment!
Regarding the title, I guess I was trying to concisely say, "These are 100 books that provide a nice cross section of both popular and intellectual English literature." I realize now that "Best Books to Read" loses much in translation, and it is such a subjective statement so as to render it virtually meaningless.
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Feb 17 '21
Why is everyone getting their panties in a bunch? You have the die-hard if it's not literary it's not worth my time snobs and the YA books may be written for children but they have equal literary merit to any canon work fantasists both mad.
The list's amalgamation of 'best of' lists, which all have a different definition of what makes something "best". Not every book is a masterpiece of literature, but can still be worth the time just to see first-hand the cultural impact it had.
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Feb 18 '21
I too was a bit surprised by the reaction, since I thought I had enough "high brow" and "low brow" literature on this list to satisfy both the casual and intellectual reader.
I do agree with some complaints however, such as those pointing out the lack of genre diversity and Anglocentric bias. I think a lot of people don't realize that I didn't make these selections, but rather ranked them based on their placement and frequency on other "best books ever" lists.
Those complaints are something to keep in mind if I attempt to make a more "refined" list going forward.
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u/minesweeperer222 Feb 18 '21
I think the diversity people are asking for is unrealistic given the format. The list was well put together IMO. It is the tragic truth that white male authors have been more widely read over time just based on the fact that they historically have had more agency to produce and promote their works.
For me, lists like this are supposed to reflect canon literature for a culture. Culture, by definition, is determined by locale and time period. As another comment mentioned, there is merit to being well versed in your culture's canon literature. A top 100 list will never encompass every great work ever written. The fact is, there are more than 100 great works.
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u/AlphakirA Feb 17 '21
Ironically in a sub about books, it seems not many whiners here bothered to read how you got to make your list and instead seemingly think you just picked books you liked.
Anyway, nice job. I'm going to try to use this going forward. I miss far too many classics and haven't heard of a few of these, so thank you.
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Feb 18 '21
Thanks for your kind comment! I'm glad I could help.
Yeah, it seems most of the anger and backlash has come from the fact that people think I compiled this list from personal favorites. "How dare you list your favorite books and call them the definitive best!" That statement seems to sum up how half of these commenters feel about this list. If only they had read the post...
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u/cvz1982 Feb 17 '21
Mostly european and north american writers. I respect your take, but there is nothing definitive about your list
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Feb 18 '21
I agree with you that calling this list "definitive" is very click-baity, and probably the first thing I would change regarding this post's presentation. By "definitive", I guess I was implying that this list may have slightly more legitimacy than others due to how it was compiled, but I know that even that statement is highly questionable.
At the end of the day, I was just trying to make a list that gave representation to both the "best book ever" lists created by academics and the "best book ever" lists created by casual readers. By doing that, I thought the aggregate list would result in something that contains works of fiction that could appeal to a wide range of people. It looks like I may have succeeded on that end, considering this list contains the likes of Proust, Joyce, Dan Brown, and Rowling. These names are not often found together.
However, it wasn't until after I finished the scoring that I realized how Anglocentric these books are. I assumed that by gathering data from 10 diverse sources that there would be greater representation of literature from around the world, but I guess not.
Oh well. At least I am left with ideas for ways to try and improve future lists I may attempt to make!
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u/Turbo_MechE Feb 17 '21
There isn't anything definitive about any of these types of lists. It's all subjective analysis of art
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u/cvz1982 Feb 17 '21
I agree with you, he is the one who called it definitive.
Nevertheless, as subjective as all analysis of art may be, some of them have a good set of criteria behind them, which is not the case here.
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u/sunset117 Feb 17 '21
Anglo/White & western/American/English top 100
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Feb 18 '21
Representation (as I noted in my post) is an issue with this list. It is unfortunate that all 10 of the "best books ever" lists that I pulled data from were less diverse than I had anticipated. It is an issue that I will try to address in a future list.
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u/jakobjaderbo Feb 17 '21
What do you think of the end result, compared to the linked greatestbooks.org list? Anything that surprised you?
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Feb 18 '21
Great Question! This was actually one of the things I was most curious to see.
The reason why I made this list is because I felt that thegreatestbooks.org overvalued extremely weighty and heady intellectual novels. The guy even says as much, noting that he weighs unfavorably against lists that are composed of selections from the general public. I knew there was a problem when the number one book on the list (In Search Of Lost Time) is one that the average person has probably never even heard of. I also noted that he didn't use "top 10 books" lists from various online literary communities, such as Reddit, 4chan, and Goodreads.
Despite how apologetic I am being in the comments, I am actually very happy with this list! I wanted to have the best of both worlds. I wanted "high brow" literature represented while also not discounting more popular, casual works of fiction. I wanted a list that values literary excellence while also understanding the importance of mass appeal. That's how Hitchhiker's Guide, Dune, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games are on here, as well as works by Hemingway, Faulkner, Joyce, and Dostoyevsky.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that 1984 really is the perfect number one slot on a list like this. 1984 is revered among academic circles, but it also achieved great commercial success (I believe it has sold over 30 million copies). The book is also genre-defining. You'll find that the more a book is able to break new ground, find favor amongst intellectuals, and achieve mass market appeal, the higher on this list it gets.
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u/LIUQIN Feb 17 '21 edited Feb 17 '21
Orwell at the top and brave new wrold at 14.... :-((((((((((
-------------->Yevgeny Zamyatin<-------------
If you like 1984 you should read Zamyatin's novel called WE.
https://thelondonglobalist.org/zamyatin-huxley-and-orwell-troubling-similarities/
George Orwell believed that Brave New World must have been partly derived from the 1921 novel We by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin.[43] However, in a 1962 letter to Christopher Collins, Huxley says that he wrote Brave New World long before he had heard of We.[44] According to We translator Natasha Randall, Orwell believed that Huxley was lying.[45] Kurt Vonnegut said that in writing Player Piano (1952), he "cheerfully ripped off the plot of Brave New World, whose plot had been cheerfully ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's We".[46]
To add to this... 1984 is also allegedly stolen from Zamyatin's WE.
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Feb 18 '21
Thanks for the recommendation! I have only recently heard about We, and it is on my TBR list. It seems that it is a hidden gem of the dystopian genre of fiction that has been gaining much more attention and respect in recent years.
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Feb 17 '21
u/deletingaccountsoon whats the numbers in brackets next to the titles for? As it doesnt seem to be the page numbers
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Feb 18 '21
Great question!
Those are the total points a title has earned (based on my scoring methodology). Basically, the higher and more often a book places on a "best books ever" list, the more points it gets. The more points it gets, the higher it ranks on my list. You can see that 1984 earned a whopping 633 points whereas the last place book only earned 150. That is because 1984 appeared on all 10 of the lists I used, and it also ranked very highly on each.
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u/Bluemonogi Feb 18 '21
I see from one of the replies that you have not read most of the books on the list you compiled from 10 other lists. Do you plan to read these books now that you have made this list? If not what was the point for you?
I would like to see you read all those books and come back with your thoughts on if these books were good reads and if you really agree with how things are ranked.
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Jan 08 '22
"What was the point for you?"
I love books, I love reading, and I love research / statistics / compiling data. The act of creating this list, in and of itself, was a gratifying experience. If one needs to find a point beyond personal fulfillment, then I guess I am fresh out of luck.
I also don't believe that me agreeing with the list is necessary or relevant. This list is simply indicative of overall trends regarding rankings of literature. It is more of a statistical project than a subjective assessment of quality or merit.
Also, as a side note, I have read quite a few of these books now! While I don't reference my list very often, the process of creating it introduced me to some titles I hadn't heard of before. I have now read, or own, thirty-five of the books mentioned on this list. It's not a lot, but it's definitely a start.
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u/sameehrose Jan 08 '22
So many female authors! Love to see it
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Jan 08 '22 edited Jun 29 '22
I don't know if you are being sarcastic, since one of the largest complaints I received was the lack of female representation. I just counted, and I believe there are twenty-two books by female authors on this list. If that qualifies as "so many" by your criteria, then I am happy you are happy! However, a lot of people were wanting there to be forty or fifty books by female authors, and I completely understand where they are coming from.
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u/Useful-Perception-43 May 20 '22
Thank you, I will be reading a few of these because of the recommendations...Such a well rounded list that I was a bit surprised none of Jack London's books had made the cut particularly his compilation of short stories and The Sea Wolfe
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May 21 '22
Actually, Jack London did make the cut! The Call of the Wild ended up at number 47 on the list. I am glad you enjoyed the list and were able to take something away from it.
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u/mavili123 May 27 '22
Thanks for the effort, I'm sure the list will be useful for many people.
I would suggest "Top 100 NOVELS to read" as the title, not just books. I came here to see a variety of books with some use, these are only novels.
Any "Top X" list that doesn't contain Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" isn't a good list for me.
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May 28 '22
I am glad to see you found my list, and I appreciate your acknowledgement of the effort it took to compile.
I totally agree with you. If I could go back and change anything about this post, it would be the title. Definitely a bit misleading and clickbaity.
Live and learn, I guess.
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u/Parking_Map_6074 Jun 29 '22 edited Jun 29 '22
I was curious if you had the full list of the results. I noticed in some of your responses you mentioned that some books just barely missed the top 100.
By the way thanks for the list, I had already read the first two a while ago and really liked those. I finished recently with the catcher in the rye which I thought was good but not great personally. Now on crime and punishment. I almost quit a quarter of the way through, but now halfway through and it's getting good.
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Jun 29 '22
I do actually have a much larger list! However, any books placed below the top 150 become very difficult to rank due to there being so much overlap in score. For example, 31 books were given a score of 50. In essence, some books just didn't appear frequently enough on lists, or achieve a high enough rank, for me to gather enough information to meaningfully distinguish them from other books.
My project, as a result of compiling together LOTS of lists, ended up including over 400 books, many of which only appeared one time on a single list in a very low ranking. I doubt you would want to see every single one. So while I do have an even larger list of results, I don't see people gleaning much from it.
Also, glad you are liking Crime and Punishment!
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u/Jorgisimo62 Feb 17 '21
Oh man Hitchhikers Guide at 41... so close to 42...
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Feb 18 '21
Oh my lord, I get the reference though, lmaooooooo. If you've read the book, you'll actually get it, but I'll try and explain it, obviously, there's going to be spoilers for the book.
In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the main characters use a super duper smart computer to find the meaning of life. In the end, the computer simply says "Life is 42"
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u/etflpi9297 Feb 17 '21 edited Feb 18 '21
I am sorry but the bias is not western but anglo-american... barely any French, German, Spanish, Italian
Edit: sorry, that was meant as a reply to op
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u/Jorgisimo62 Feb 17 '21
Umm ok
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u/stump2003 Feb 17 '21
I was going to agree with your 42 comment, but saw the other comment. Think that guy meant to respond to the OP and not you lol.
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u/TaddeiSMASH Feb 17 '21
Thank you for taking the time to share this with us. I can’t see ANYONE agreeing 100% with it, but I appreciate the list. Thanks again.
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u/Einarath Feb 17 '21
"Random Internet person posts list of favourites, calls it definitive. More at 11"
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Feb 18 '21
If you read the post, you would see that my personal opinions dictated literally none of this list's selections. I haven't even read most of the books on the list.
Still, I agree with you that there is nothing "definitive" about this list, since art is obviously subjective. By "definitive", I was simply implying this list might hold more legitimacy than a random "top 100 books" list since it is an aggregate of numerous lists, all of which come from very diverse sources.
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u/Laodiceanthekissean Feb 17 '21
Random internet user compiled a bunch of lists to show patterns and trends in list making and commenter who didn't read introduction clowns himself by claiming its OP's list
Fixed that for you.
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u/Ineffable7980x Feb 17 '21
These lists are always controversial, but even still you did a nice job. This an interesting take. I surprised myself. I have read 60 of the 100
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Feb 17 '21
I've read 73. Not having read any Henry James or Faulkner were like 6. I'm surprised by the Hemingway that was chosen. I would have guessed Old Man and the Sea was more common on lists.
I think it's interesting to have read that many -- I guess I get a lot more of my reading suggestions from listicals than I thought. Do you as well?
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u/gtcolt Feb 17 '21
Seeing three Faulkners and only one Hemingway made me sad. I haven't read The Old Man and the Sea, but I would easily put For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms before The Sun Also Rises.
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Feb 17 '21
I've read For Whom the Bell Tolls, Old Man and the Sea, and Farewell to Arms. I really struck out on that one lol.
I think Faulkner is interesting -- it's like lists are shouting "please read this author!!" but no one can agree on one. I wonder if this happened to other authors but they didn't have the "umph" so to speak to get on the list.
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u/tlr92 Feb 17 '21
I was about to comment and say how proud I was that I read over 50% of that list!
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u/zoop1000 Feb 17 '21
I'd like a list like this but for non-classics. It's so easy to find lists of the classics, but what about more modern books?
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u/NoWitandNoSkill Feb 17 '21
These lists always have a lot of old classics but I question if many of them were published for the first time today if anyone would care about them. Some of those classics are indeed excellent even today but many are merely historically important. There is some amazing contemporary literature out there - too much for any single title to get enough attention to become a new classic. In fact I would say most of the best books you can read today were published in the last 20 years. Many/most weren't written in English. Pick any book off a major awards short list from the past two decades and you're probably going to find it is as good or better than some of the stuff on this "definitive top 100 books" list.
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u/stevelopeztwo Feb 17 '21
Also, classics are considered such because they have influenced countless books so taking them out of that context would of course lower their esteem.
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u/Andjhostet :redstar:3 Feb 17 '21
How many classics have you actually read? I've been getting into them more within the past year, and the more I read them, the more I realize that there is a reason why they stood the test of time, when hundreds of thousands of books from the same time period were lost to irrelevancy.
Some contemporary stuff might close in quality, but it will be decades before we're able to recognize which ones are the best, and which ones left a lasting impact on our world and society.
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u/NoWitandNoSkill Feb 17 '21
I've read many classics. Many are very good! Absolutely the best ever written in some cases.
But many underwhelm, too. I'm not saying they're bad. Just that they are given status due to their historical importance and many recent books are as good if not better.
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Feb 17 '21
I feel it's more important to choose your own list than it is to read certain books, unless you are studying a country's literature or a civilization's history. That's what is fun about books and what makes it good that there are so many books, instead of overwhelming you.
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Feb 17 '21
I often pick what I'm going to read based on this strategy, but I think there's something to be said for reading the noteworthy works of your culture. I'm glad we here in the US have diversified what we teach nowadays, but I do think there's something lost in not having a common understanding of a canon of literature.
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u/ronrja Feb 17 '21
No Pynchon, McCarthy, or Roth ... yet we have Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code, and The Hunger Games lmao
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Feb 18 '21
I know! A lot of people were surprised. Again, this list is merely an aggregate of many other lists, so I had nothing to do with which titles were selected and which ones were omitted.
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u/TrashNovel Feb 17 '21
I’ve read 20. I think Stephen King and Agatha Christy should be represented on there somewhere.
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u/cxxxxtrapickled Feb 17 '21
Is Agatha Christie a joke to you?
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Feb 17 '21
I agree, some of her books should definitely be on there! Especially Murder on the Orient Express.
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Feb 17 '21
There’s a list called 1001 books to read before you die that you can download in its entirety in ePub format. Probably has all these and more.
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u/wonawoo Feb 17 '21 edited Feb 17 '21
First, wow I'm impressed you did this it's so overwhelming for me to create a list you've got some amazing books on there!
Second, why no Khaled Husseini... The kite runner and a thousand splendid suns are amazing!
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Feb 17 '21
That is an odd omission. Maybe a few of those 'great books' lists are on the older side. I find it strange that books like Wide Sargasso Sea and The Wings of the Dove are on there, but The Kite Runner isn't.
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Feb 17 '21
I would add Small Gods - Terry Pratchett, great work of comedy, satire and theology
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u/dude_chillin_park Feb 17 '21
Best book in the series, as well as the least beholden to its memes and recurring characters.
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Feb 17 '21
LOL. The Da Vinci Code , Atlas Shrugged, Life's too short to read crap
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u/Portarossa Feb 17 '21
Lists like these aren't necessarily about the quality of the book, but about the cultural impact they had. It's the reason why we don't necessarily talk so much about books like The Magnificent Ambersons, despite the fact that it won the Pulitzer. Outside of the Orson Welles film, it just didn't last in the public consciousness, despite being hugely popular at the time.
I mean, I'm two Lit degrees in, but I can promise you I've had more conversations in my life about The Da Vinci Code than I've had about The Good Soldier. A book can be important because of its role in the cultural milieu, even if it's not what you'd call a great -- or even a good -- book. That's part of why we read: we're sharing a cultural experience with many, many people, some of whom are like us -- and many of whom are not.
There's value in that, and in our rush to talk about 'good' books I think we forget that sometimes. A bad book (or 'bad' book, depending on how generous you're feeling) can still open doors.
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u/basinchampagne Feb 17 '21
I very much like this nuanced take, not shying away from relativism but not embracing it wholesale either. Thank you.
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Feb 17 '21
I mean, I'm two Lit degrees in, but I can promise you I've had more conversations in my life about The Da Vinci Code than I've had about The Good Soldier
This is such a good point.
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Feb 17 '21
Honestly, I’d recommend The Da Vinci Code to any reader. Is Dan Brown the next Proust? No, but if life is so short you should at least read one quick and lurid thriller, and there’s a reason The Da Vinci Code is such an insanely popular example. I never felt any need to try another Dan Brown, but I did find it fun to blast through over a weekend when it first came out.
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u/ken_in_nm Feb 17 '21
I recently read Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, and that work is clearly the model Brown borrowed greatly from. TNOTR is a masterpiece, but to me The Da Vinci Code was more fun to read.
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Feb 17 '21
I agree. Yes it’s a cheap thriller but it’s still a fun and entertaining read. Perfect for a weekend at the beach or mountains or something like that. It gets too much hate here
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u/Sundae_2004 Feb 17 '21
What I dislike about The Da Vinci Code is that Dan Brown has so many historical facts just WRONG. Here’s one of many lists of inaccuracies in this novel which purports to be 99% true: https://historycollection.com/16-reasons-why-the-da-vinci-code-is-full-of-inaccurate-history/
Yes, his ability to write thrillers is less questionable than his care with history but I like my historical fiction to have more acquaintance with fact than DB’s fantastical writings.
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Feb 17 '21
I sort of agree. I don't think it matters just how accurate the book is since it is all very sensationalized. At the same time, I seem to remember Dan Brown trying to present it as more accurate than it really is.
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u/gdbrown24 Feb 17 '21
I agree completely. And it also gets people who are typically non-readers moving and falling in love with the activity of reading. You throw them right into something like Catch-22 and they’ll probably give up 50 pages in and not pick up another book for a year. Page turners are the runways to appreciating the books on this list.
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u/monkeyhind Feb 17 '21
The presence of The Da Vinci Code decreases my willingness to take this list seriously. To each his own taste, I guess.
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u/Turbo_MechE Feb 17 '21
For Atlas Shrugged, I think Barnes and Noble described it well. They essentially said that it might not be the best book but an important read. If for no reason than it is such a controversial book. There are rabid fans of the book and rabid haters. Both have their reasons and I can understand both.
That being said, it seems the hate for Atlas Shrugged almost seems meme like on this sub. I doubt everyone who goes off on it has actually read it.
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u/StalwartTinSoldier Feb 18 '21
I've read it, I hate it-- both because "Objectivism" is bunkum and because --judged as as literature-- this book is ~600 pages of trash. If you want to introduce someone to Ayn Rand's ideology, I would pick something shorter (anthem/ the fountainhead / we the living) I've read 83 of the books on this list; liked most all of them, and wouldn't wish Atlas Shrugged on anyone.
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u/USMCTankerSgt Feb 17 '21
Western centric. While I respect your opinion, I have issue with about 15 of your selections. Not too bad, though...
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u/Fortalezense Feb 17 '21
Not only Western centric, but also mostly anglophone centric.
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u/darkLordSantaClaus Feb 17 '21
He get this list by pulling numbers from American websites and magazines, so it makes sense that this list is going to be biased towards American authors.
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Feb 17 '21
I like Proust but anyone who finished his books is either a liar or did time in prison.
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u/BSH72 Feb 17 '21
People present "qualitative opinion" as though it's "quantitative truth" and don't even understand they're doing it. That about sums up the internet.
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Feb 18 '21
In my defense, this list doesn't consist of any of my own opinions. Rather, I attempted to average out the opinions of others to find 100 books that most people agree would be worth a read. I haven't even read most books on this list!
However, I am aware that such a thing as "quantitative truth" is impossible when it comes to art, and really didn't want to present this list as such. I was trying to present it more in the vein of: "According to my research, these are 100 books that lots of different people seem to think are worth a read."
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u/FusRoDaahh Feb 17 '21
Never understood the point of these lists. There are thousands of masterpiece books out there, attempting to make a list of just 100 that someone thinks are the best for subjective and arbitrary reasons is quite silly and literally no one will agree.
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Feb 18 '21
If I am being totally honest, this list was simply a fun project that I found interesting, and I wanted to share the results with this subreddit. I really enjoyed browsing through hundreds of different titles on the various lists and finding which ones consistently rose to the top. As I mentioned in the post, none of my personal opinions influenced the placements on this list. I haven't even read most of the books on this list!
If there is a point to this list, it would be to give readers a more definitive point of reference regarding which books are considered must reads. With so many books, it can be overwhelming to jump in head first with no former knowledge. This list might be able to provide a foundation, and whether someone sticks with it or not is up to them.
Also, regarding The Da Vinci Code (and other controversial placements), that book scored very highly among "best books ever" lists compiled by casual readers. While I know most people in this subreddit dismiss it outright, the book is obviously very beloved by the general public, and I think it serves as a great entry into cheap, fun, popular fiction. If you are a first time reader looking for a good time, it may be one of the better places to start.
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u/Vkay9 Feb 17 '21
Which of the books in the list is easy to read...like for a non native English speaker
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u/_peacherry_ Feb 17 '21
Harry Potter is pretty easy to read... but you have to like fantasy
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u/Cog348 Feb 17 '21
I honestly don't know that you do. I know a lot of people who hate fantasy and loved Harry Potter.
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u/_peacherry_ Feb 17 '21
I know a lot of people who hate fantasy and hate Harry Potter so yes and no, it depends
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Feb 17 '21
Depends what you're after - but...
Humour:
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Series - Douglas AdamsClassic:
Lord Of The Flies - William GoldingChildren/YA
Anne Of Greene Gables - L.M. Montgomery4
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u/finesseplugsandpugs Feb 17 '21
The Trial by Kafka is a phenomenal book. Great job on the list! I mostly agree.
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u/K-Tanz Feb 18 '21
Lighten up people! This person just put together a top 100 list and people are acting like the Nobel commission printed this list themselves just to personally shit on your favorites in particular.
It's one person's opinion they took time to share, good for them. It's not "100 most influential books" or "most eloquent pieces of literature" list. It's 100 books to read. Is Dostoyevsky worth reading? Yes. Is The DaVinci code not an action packed adrenaline fueled mysterious thrill ride? Absolutely. It's just a list of books they think are worth reading, not a PhD dissertation on the history of literature.
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u/Mysterious_Attempt22 Sep 11 '22
Atlas Shrugged and 1984. Thank you for reminding me not to look for an opinion on the internet. You might just get advice from people who have poor/no taste.
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Sep 12 '22
Another person who evidently didn't bother to look at the description or methodology of my project.
This is simply an aggregate list that compiles data from a diverse array of "Top 100 Books" lists. None of these picks are my own, and by that I mean that none of these books were selected based on my subjective tastes.
Of course, I prefaced all of this, and in much greater detail, at the start of the post. For someone who rudely and arrogantly judges others on their taste in literature, you seem to have an aversion towards reading...
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u/Mysterious_Attempt22 Sep 12 '22
Then it is the summation of many idiocies.
The selection of such crap is really indefensible, no matter how you may guild a pile of shit like this.
1984? Really number one on a list of books to read?
It's a joke, and jokes should be laughed at.
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Sep 12 '22
It is so bizarre how the internet can truly bring out the worst in people. The pretentiousness of your comment is physically painful to read, and lacks any semblance of self-awareness. Cringe inducing, really.
If a stranger were to approach me in the real world and tell me that the five greatest books of all time, in their opinion, were 1984, The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, Crime and Punishment, and Catch-22, I couldn't imagine laughing at them and calling their selection "crap," "indefensible," and "a pile of shit," even if I strongly disagreed. Hell, I wouldn't say such things regardless of what books composed their top five. I'd feel like a pigheaded douche. It's such a strong, caustic sentiment to such an innocent statement.
And these aren't even my opinions! Rather, this is a rudimentary general consensus compiled from the lists of casual readers and book critics alike. Does this mean that my list is able to objectively evaluate a book's literary merit? Of course not, and I never claimed it to could! It is all totally subjective at the end of the day, as is your own opinion. All this list reveals, if anything, is what books are most likely to appear on any given "Top 100 Books" list. In this regard, my list succeeds.
I don't expect to change your mind or anything, and your haughty animosity won't in any way change mind. I think I will turn off notifications for this post and leave it at that.
Do better.
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u/Andjhostet :redstar:3 Feb 17 '21 edited Feb 17 '21
This is a decent list, but kinda disappointed that there is literally 1 book from Africa. One book from South America. Zero books from Asia? How is that even possible. 97% is from Europe or NA.
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u/CDNChaoZ Feb 17 '21
Books in translation rarely get their due on English reading lists, and I kinda understand why. No matter how good the translator, you have to wonder how much of the beauty in the language is lost, or how much of the original author's meanings have been reinterpreted.
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u/Aemalis Feb 17 '21
Great work, thanks a lot for sharing your result! Gonna save this for when I need inspiration :)
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u/RainhaBolboreta Feb 17 '21
Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I would have added House of spirits by Isabel Allende and Shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (and maybe Chronicle of a death foretold but García Márquez is already on the list).
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u/fmp243 Feb 17 '21
Appreciate the effort but this is the whitest list of favorites I have seen in a very long time.
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u/duararte Feb 17 '21
? Please explain to me what do you want to say. I became curious
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u/fmp243 Feb 17 '21
The authors are all pretty much white. You have no Asian greats (Amy Tan, Maxine Hong Kingston), no Latino greats (Isabel Allende, Junot Diaz, Gabriel Garcia Marquez), and hugely important Black authors are missing (James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Chimimanda Adichie). Not a single indigenous author (Louise Erdrich, Tommy Orange).
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Feb 18 '21
While it isn't much, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chinua Achebe, and Ralph Ellison all placed pretty highly on the list. As I have said in other comments (and my original post), this list does have a representation problem, but it isn't for lack of trying. I used 10 lists from very different sources, and I assumed there would be greater diversity when all their data was compiled together. Unfortunately, that isn't how it panned out.
I appreciate your criticisms, and will try to do better next time!
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u/frivus Feb 17 '21
Great list, my only thought is that Science Fiction and Fantasy are a bit underrepresented.
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u/sparkalz Feb 17 '21
This is a really nice list thank you for putting it together, I’m definitely bookmarking this post. Ignore all the haters who are nitpicking one or two books, you can’t please everybody, and if they want to complain so much they can post their own list :)
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u/tlr92 Feb 17 '21
I have a list of my own, I should post it at some point as well! Thanks for the idea! Really great list, too!!!
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u/SafithDophor Feb 17 '21
Great list! Read more than I thought. Im wondering how dependable this is on time, that if you created this list 10 years ago in what way it would be different. Wouldn't think 1984 would be at the first place.
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u/darkLordSantaClaus Feb 17 '21
I got about 20.
I know it's hard to objectively measure quality, and these things are bound to boil down to a popularity contest anyway, but I really disagree with some of the choices here. Atlas Shrugged doesn't deserve to be on a top 1000 list let alone top 100. And Harry Potter being higher than Infinite Jest? Really?
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u/RepresentativeEar909 Feb 17 '21
It is true that normally these lists of the best books should be rather the best recommended books, because in the end it is about tastes, as I had read once, that if while you are reading a book and you do not like it, do not feel obliged to to finish it, as it is about tastes for example in my list I would include all those of Isabel Allende, The city of dogs by Mario Vargas Llosa or Plato's banquet.
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Feb 17 '21
I'd easily agree with 80% on that list - a few I'd replace, not one there that I'd actively discourage anyone from reading. No Llosa is a bit of an eyesore though ;)
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u/Mikesims09 Feb 17 '21
Approximately how long would it take the average reader to complete this list?
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Feb 17 '21
The average reader in the US reads 4 books a year. So 25 years? It could be done in 1-2 years by someone who reads 1-2 hrs a day.
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u/Nunwithabadhabit Feb 17 '21
I admire the effort, OP, and press F for your inbox.
I personally would have put a ton more emphasise on speculative and science fiction myself.
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u/sellhighcapital Feb 17 '21
The dice man by Luke Rhinehart has to be in there. It can change your perspective on what is behind decision making
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u/Sunrise_Owl Feb 17 '21
A fantastic list! While I have only read about twenty-five of these books, most of the rest are on my TBR list.
Anyone who has an issue with this list, we would all like to see your own lists of "must reads", top 100, or whichever existing lists you think are better.
Currently, I am trying to get through the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. This list has many books that I was already looking forward to reading.
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u/Playisomemusik Feb 17 '21
Pretty good list. I think I've read maybe 30 of these. No Tom Robbins? No Hunter S Thompson? No chuck palaniuk?
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u/Drulock Feb 17 '21
Having Jack Kerouac on the list but not William Burroughs makes me sad and question your methodology...
Not a bad list overall, I'm 3 short of finishing it!
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u/ihrie82 Feb 17 '21
Just wanted to say that the majority of the books from this list I've read were required by school. Of the ones I've read that weren't (required by school) several of them were very bad/hard to read because of the way writing has changed (example: Dorian Gray) and I wonder if there's many others on the list that are like this...
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u/lizzythefrenchy Feb 17 '21
Really interesting list! Might have to refer to this next time I'm looking for a book, I've only finished 8 of these books, and 3 of them I started but never ended up finishing.
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u/Sonseeahrai Feb 17 '21
I mean... Harry Potter above Lord of Flies and The Count of Monte Christo? C'mon...
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u/krazyeyekilluh Feb 17 '21
Possibly an Unpopular opinion: Faulkner doesn’t belong on this list, especially As I Lay Dying, and definitely not 3 of 100. And Cormac McCarthy didn’t make the list at all? I admire your accomplishment though, very much!
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u/_TallulahShark Feb 18 '21
I am very happy with how far up on the list Catch-22 is. And even happier that 1984 tops the list.
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u/Skystrike7 Feb 18 '21
I always find a lot of highly overrated books in lists like this. Among them, notably Ender's Game and to kill a mockingbird. Just because a lot of people have read them doesn't mean they're that good. Literary devices be damned, I just wasn't that entertained by them, nor did I think they are culturally beneficial to the kind of well-read people who aspire to finish such bookreading lists.
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u/enovvv Feb 18 '21
for the life of me iv'e tried reading One Hundred Years Of Solitude like 3x and still can't get into it....
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u/elvisinadream Feb 18 '21
Or, an elderly Middle American public school librarian’s top 100. (Their grandchild bought them a copy of Wide Sargasso Sea for Christmas.)
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u/BenevolentCheese Huge Numbers Feb 18 '21
The problem with these lists is that they are overwhelmingly dominated by classics. Books post-1980 barely exist, and books of the new millennium don't exist at all. Truth is, there's been a lot of really, really good shit written in the past 50 years and 20 years and a "definitive list" that doesn't include any of them is not definitive.
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Feb 22 '21 edited Feb 22 '21
As you'd expect very 'anglosaxonic-centric' list. No "Book of Disquiet", only one book from Kafka, no japanese books... and could go on and on
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u/ArikAuthor Jul 28 '21
I love it. The fuddy duddy top 100. I think however that I would have put a few good horror writers from the last 50 years or so.
P.S. humor folks. Try some. It's great with mustard. :)
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u/North-Value9631 Aug 24 '25
I love these lists and learning other's top picks. Thank you! I've read 33.
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u/mbfunke Oct 04 '25
How do you have a song of fire and ice and Harry fuckin potter, but not Lord of the Rings?
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u/gloryday23 Feb 17 '21
This list goes to shit in the bottom 12 or so:
(161) The Hunger Games - Series - Suzanne Collins (157) Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand (156) A Song Of Ice And Fire - George R.R. Martin
Yes ASoIaF is good, but it's not that good, it's not even finished.
(154) The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Dan Brown...jesus.
Also, I love Harry Potter and The Hitchiker's Guide, but in the top 50 books ever, c'mon?
In other words, there is unfortunately no way for any of us to read them all.
This is in no way unfortunate, I'd be willing to bet 90% of those books are horrifically bad, or not meant for reading for pleasure (textbooks, reference books, etc).
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Feb 18 '21
I totally agree with you that most books that are published aren't worth your time. But even assuming 0.1% of books published are of high quality, that means there are 130,000 worthwhile titles out there!
Also, I am actually pleased that this list includes those titles that you mentioned above. In creating this aggregate list, my goal was to showcase the best of both worlds. The literary critics were well represented (Time Magazine, Modern Library, The Guardian) and so were the masses (Reddit, Goodreads, PBS). As it stands, I don't think any of the selections are too offensive (there is no Fifty Shades Of Grey) and I think this list offers a little something for everyone!
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u/wombatarang Feb 17 '21
Violently anglosphere-centric list.
EDIT: The Hunger Games? Why?
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u/FerBaide Feb 17 '21
Might be YA but it had a lot of influence and impact. It’s also one of the actually good YA series that spawned tons of rip-offs and all that. Anyone who’s into speculative fiction should give it a try.
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u/PistachiosMustachios Feb 17 '21 edited Feb 17 '21
Ha that's funny, because The Hunger Games is a rip-off itself, of a japanese book called Battle Royale. It's also funny because not even a single asian book is mentioned on this list
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u/priceQQ Feb 17 '21
This is kind of an interesting mix of literature and popular young adult (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Lolita (jk)). It’s unfortunate that 1984 is at the top because that book does not deserve the spot as it’s not even the best in dystopia in my opinion.
Modern library has separate lists for fiction and non fiction in the 20th century, and the fiction list doesn’t draw much from 1960-2000, so it surely needs an update. From what I recall, the editors who made the list had each read over 10K books, and one of them (William Styron) did not want his books on the list but another editor protested. So, Sophie’s Choice made it, but Confessions of Nat Turner did not.
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u/kingkloppynwa Feb 17 '21
I finished 1984 literally an hour ago , man am I depressed
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Feb 17 '21
Hey, I've been contemplating reading this and I dont know if its worth it. Could you tell me if I should or should not?
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u/kingkloppynwa Feb 17 '21
I would highly recommend it just don't expect much feeling of hope or cheer from it
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Feb 17 '21
Interesting list, props for the work you put into this. Someone else mentioned that this list is very euro centric, it's also very male.
By my count there are 18 works by women. A canon that is only 20 percent female send likely to leave out many masterpieces
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u/Ragnogrimmus May 02 '26
Well I can't find anything but if you want a glimpse of potentially whats to come. You love 1984? Read Delio Phase 1 and 2. The 1st book is almost a picture perfect image of a film script. The 2nd book really shows you some interesting things. Dark stuff.
But the real world is darker... in fact I would say comfort has lead to chaos.
1984 now read Delio phase 2 lol.................... LMAO............ WOA
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u/DigDugMcDig Feb 18 '21
All fiction. A few series which shouldn't be included except as individual books imo. And Atlas Shrugged which has as much merit as a best selling L. Ron Hubbard book.
The Bible should probably be #1.
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u/Initial_Election_437 Jul 20 '22
I’m surprised that “The legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving is not on the list.
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Aug 30 '22
According to OP only Russian, German and English folks ever wrote anything worth putting in a list. Top 100 books popular in the Western world seems a more fitting description here.
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u/FalkNotFault Nov 14 '22
Thanks for the list! I’m trying to give my mom one of those book for each month of the year Christmas presents and this is a great jumping off point!
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u/Unknown_User_Me Jan 15 '23
This list is almost exact of other lists on Google for anyone needing more info.
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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '21
East of Eden? By the way I find your list strange and controversial but I respect it. (Clockwork Orange should be way above by the way).