Plutarch's Lives by PlutarchTwo Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr.The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin FranklinOedipus Rex by SophoclesAntigone by Sophocles
Harvard Classics
114 books — 13 voters
The Holy Bible by AnonymousThe Origin of Species by Charles Darwinالقرآن الكريم by AnonymousThe Complete Works by William ShakespeareThe Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
The Most Influential Books
1,479 books — 5,285 voters

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezThe Stranger by Albert CamusThe Old Man and the Sea by Ernest HemingwaySiddhartha by Hermann HesseLord of the Flies by William Golding
Nobel Laureates
659 books — 566 voters
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne FrankCatherine the Great by Robert K. MassieMarie Antoinette by Antonia FraserThe Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison WeirEleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir
Female Biographies
1,249 books — 410 voters

The Essential Writings by Meister EckhartThe Gospel of the Rauschmonstrum by Nick LaTorreWaiting for God by Simone WeilThe Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo TolstoyGiordano Bruno by Ingrid D. Rowland
Not your local parish's Christianity
36 books — 11 voters
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldWinnie-the-Pooh by A.A. MilneAll Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria RemarqueThe Sun Also Rises by Ernest HemingwaySiddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Best Books of the Decade: 1920s
764 books — 1,131 voters

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan SwiftCandide by VoltaireRobinson Crusoe by Daniel DefoeThe Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheLes Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Best Books of the 18th Century
375 books — 1,008 voters
Pride and Prejudice by Jane AustenJane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëThe Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeWuthering Heights by Emily BrontëCrime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Best Books of the 19th Century
1,704 books — 6,871 voters

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee1984 by George OrwellHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. RowlingAnimal Farm by George OrwellThe Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
Best Books of the 20th Century
7,807 books — 49,783 voters