Avant-garde lit. Formally inventive styles. So unique it hurts.
1

by
4.25 avg rating — 101,290 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.10 avg rating — 1,480,568 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
4.01 avg rating — 48,113 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
3.99 avg rating — 885,613 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
3.69 avg rating — 97,146 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.01 avg rating — 111,679 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
3.86 avg rating — 126,858 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
4.14 avg rating — 314,262 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
4.40 avg rating — 78,886 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
3.87 avg rating — 943,429 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
4.09 avg rating — 199,702 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
3.46 avg rating — 98,505 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
3.97 avg rating — 25,305 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
4.12 avg rating — 1,101,933 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
4.17 avg rating — 57,450 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
4.06 avg rating — 279,478 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
4.39 avg rating — 593,527 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
4.15 avg rating — 436,370 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
3.86 avg rating — 86,762 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
4.44 avg rating — 33,793 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
4.01 avg rating — 267,323 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.18 avg rating — 641,894 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,393,847 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
4.28 avg rating — 418,858 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
4.18 avg rating — 337,215 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
4.20 avg rating — 5,440,393 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
4.14 avg rating — 394,863 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
3.97 avg rating — 22,887 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 768,292 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
3.85 avg rating — 198,013 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
3.95 avg rating — 339,319 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
3.97 avg rating — 434,882 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
4.22 avg rating — 48,668 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
3.80 avg rating — 3,885,563 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
4.21 avg rating — 6,340 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
3.80 avg rating — 361,215 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
3.91 avg rating — 74,786 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.96 avg rating — 163,369 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
3.97 avg rating — 2,826,669 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
3.88 avg rating — 55,496 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,033,489 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
4.10 avg rating — 97,044 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
4.38 avg rating — 337,977 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
3.73 avg rating — 23,022 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
3.59 avg rating — 235,009 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
4.42 avg rating — 153 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.68 avg rating — 6,734 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
3.97 avg rating — 132,769 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.98 avg rating — 489,485 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
3.79 avg rating — 174,635 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
4.11 avg rating — 542,547 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
4.20 avg rating — 778,991 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
3.85 avg rating — 24,424 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
4.05 avg rating — 10,215 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
4.12 avg rating — 7,733 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
4.11 avg rating — 122,546 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.89 avg rating — 1,594,277 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
4.02 avg rating — 4,533,997 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
3.85 avg rating — 14,299 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
4.05 avg rating — 12,935 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
3.70 avg rating — 3,193,039 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
4.05 avg rating — 21,375 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
4.12 avg rating — 546,919 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
3.69 avg rating — 183,591 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
3.60 avg rating — 30,082 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
3.85 avg rating — 15,098 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
3.87 avg rating — 114,729 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.81 avg rating — 214,214 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
3.78 avg rating — 355,707 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
3.91 avg rating — 304,666 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
4.15 avg rating — 219,094 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
3.84 avg rating — 70,401 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
3.89 avg rating — 3,747 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
4.10 avg rating — 219,554 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
4.03 avg rating — 110,148 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
4.04 avg rating — 32,720 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
3.86 avg rating — 4,930 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
4.09 avg rating — 511,395 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
3.92 avg rating — 7,300 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
3.95 avg rating — 562,606 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
3.64 avg rating — 12,071 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
3.27 avg rating — 18,887 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
3.71 avg rating — 71,689 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
4.06 avg rating — 377,807 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
3.65 avg rating — 16,523 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
4.02 avg rating — 8,160 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
3.61 avg rating — 99,164 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
3.99 avg rating — 2,071,909 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
4.10 avg rating — 7,864 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
4.11 avg rating — 152,205 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.87 avg rating — 1,152 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
3.70 avg rating — 25,676 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
4.02 avg rating — 313,746 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
3.76 avg rating — 17,956 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
3.88 avg rating — 14,670 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
4.07 avg rating — 202,002 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
3.95 avg rating — 33,793 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
3.87 avg rating — 26,525 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
3.65 avg rating — 9,602 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
4.40 avg rating — 42,682 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
519 books · 584 voters · list created August 24th, 2010 by MJ Nicholls (votes) .
729 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


MJ 3048 books
2319 friends
Hubert 3910 books
94 friends
Jasmine 3637 books
199 friends
Mark 1378 books
113 friends
Rob 633 books
24 friends
Michael 1118 books
2382 friends
Dyuti 136 books
18 friends
Nick 381 books
20 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-17 of 17 (17 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Rayroy (new)

Rayroy great fucking list!


message 2: by Spencer (new)

Spencer Rich I'd like to suggest Ursula LeGuin's Lathe of Heaven as more suitably po-mo than her more famous Left Hand of Darkness. All the same--one of the best lists on this site.


Sentimental Surrealist The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is on here twice. Great list otherwise!


message 4: by David (new)

David Lentz The best list on Goodreads.


message 5: by Jason (new)

Jason Looks like another list of books i will have to read. Can you save these lists? Or is the only way just to bookmark the page?


message 6: by MJ (new)

MJ Nicholls Add all the books to your to-read lists. Job done.


message 7: by Jonathan (new)

Jonathan This list is awesome.


message 8: by Nate D (new)

Nate D 38 down out those first 100. Many more amazing books to go.


message 9: by Nate D (new)

Nate D White Noise also shows twice. Is there a way to just search the list when adding to avoid this? In any event, I added way way too many selections. There's very little on my top 100 ever that isn't arguably post-modern I find.


message 10: by Luke (new)

Luke If you're a librarian, you can vote through the 'add books' and check for duplicates through the edit option to avoid this. Otherwise, your best bet is to go to the most popular edition of the book and look through the lists it's on, as clicking on it through there will link you to its exact list position. There's no guarantee with the latter method, though.


message 11: by David (new)

David Lentz I just checked and ran de-dupe engine for this great list. Decided to buy this novel on Lulu: looks like an excellent value. I encourage you to support your Goodreads authors with your wallets. MJ is a devoted Goodreader and a wit. Buy and review his book on Goodreads.


message 12: by Matt (new)

Matt Can I add "The Public Burning" by Robert Coover?


message 13: by Peter (new)

Peter Stephan I dont think Don Quixote is postmodern...


message 14: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Jan 31, 2017 10:36AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Unfortunately the duplicate check isn't working at the moment :-(
I noticed 2666 being on this list twice. Removing the duplicate by hand is not an option, unfortunately, as a duplicate check would not only remove the duplicate but would also combine the votes of the two books (and removing it by hand wouldn't).

There are only five pages to go through at the moment, so please, check the pages before you decide to add...


message 15: by [deleted user] (new)

Surprised Foucault isn't on this list. Added.


message 16: by John (new)

John Some of the books on this list are modernist, not postmodernist (e.g., James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot). Most scholars say that postmodernism started in the 1960s, although there were premodern precursors like Tristram Shandy and the works of Flann O'Brien.


message 17: by MJ (new)

MJ Nicholls John wrote: "Some of the books on this list are modernist, not postmodernist."

True. That's the problem with letting the public vote on things.


back to top