Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand CélineL'écume des jours by Boris VianIn Search of Lost Time by Marcel ProustLe Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier
Best French Literature
871 books — 1,554 voters
The Martian Chronicles by Ray BradburyWaiting for Godot by Samuel BeckettI Am Legend and Other Stories by Richard MathesonCat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee WilliamsNine Stories by J.D. Salinger
Best Books of the Decade: 1950s
1,181 books — 1,509 voters

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest HemingwayA Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee WilliamsCannery Row by John SteinbeckThe Glass Menagerie by Tennessee WilliamsThe Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Best Books of the Decade: 1940s
819 books — 1,144 voters
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver1984 by George OrwellLord of the Flies by William GoldingThe Metamorphosis by Franz KafkaOf Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Most Disturbing Books Ever Written
3,191 books — 11,286 voters

Pride and Prejudice by Jane AustenLord of the Flies by William GoldingLolita by Vladimir NabokovOf Mice and Men by John SteinbeckSophie’s Choice by William Styron
Best Literary Fiction
1,548 books — 1,328 voters