The Color Purple by Alice WalkerInvisible Man by Ralph EllisonSophie's Choice by William StyronThe Shipping News by Annie ProulxThe Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
National Book Award Winners
241 books — 204 voters
Life of Pi by Yann MartelThe God of Small Things by Arundhati RoyThe Remains of the Day by Kazuo IshiguroMidnight’s Children by Salman RushdieThe Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Booker Prize Winners
60 books — 1,986 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 — 49,785 voters
House of Leaves by Mark Z. DanielewskiIce by Anna KavanNaked Lunch by William S. BurroughsGravity’s Rainbow by Thomas PynchonUlysses by James Joyce
Avant Garde books
114 books — 71 voters

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodJane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëThe Bell Jar by Sylvia PlathThe Color Purple by Alice WalkerThe Awakening by Kate Chopin
Best Feminist Fiction
1,504 books — 2,674 voters