Big Books of 2026

Listopia > Book Lists Voted on by Eric Bruen (19 Lists)



Lolita by Vladimir NabokovAnd the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick CaveChild of God by Cormac McCarthyThe Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeThe Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Best Transgressive Fiction
868 books — 967 voters
Ulysses by James JoyceAnna Karenina by Leo TolstoyIn Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Most Begun "Read but Unfinished" (Started) book ever
2,606 books — 13,135 voters

1984 by George OrwellDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. DickBrave New World by Aldous HuxleyFahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Best Dystopian Fiction of All Time
459 books — 1,294 voters
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio MishimaDeath in Midsummer and Other Stories by Yukio MishimaConfessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima
The Best of Yukio Mishima
23 books — 76 voters

Catch-22 by Joseph HellerMrs Dalloway by Virginia WoolfFahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyOrlando by Virginia WoolfThe Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Folio Society Editions
446 books — 66 voters
Lolita by Vladimir NabokovWuthering Heights by Emily BrontëLove in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
31 Books
31 books — 9 voters

Giovanni’s Room by James BaldwinThe Kreutzer Sonata by Leo TolstoyBonjour Tristesse by Françoise SaganThe Virgin and the Gipsy by D.H. LawrenceMagnetism by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Penguin Great Loves
21 books — 36 voters
Ulysses by James JoyceThe Sound and the Fury by William FaulknerBlood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthyHeart of Darkness by Joseph ConradThe Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Most Difficult Novels
588 books — 2,043 voters

The Complete Stories by Franz KafkaEverything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'ConnorThe Complete Stories by Flannery O'ConnorTales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl
Collections of Short Stories
2,895 books — 2,040 voters
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezLolita by Vladimir NabokovThe Road by Cormac McCarthyHard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Best Books Ever
76,158 books — 283,118 voters

The Metamorphosis by Franz KafkaThe Stranger by Albert CamusThe Trial by Franz KafkaThe Plague by Albert CamusThe Fall by Albert Camus
Best Existential Fiction
449 books — 767 voters
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki MurakamiHard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki MurakamiConfessions of a Mask by Yukio MishimaDeath in Midsummer and Other Stories by Yukio MishimaBlind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
Japanese Literature
310 books — 388 voters

1984 by George OrwellThe Stranger by Albert CamusDance Dance Dance by Haruki MurakamiAnimal Farm by George OrwellMoby-Dick by Herman Melville
White as the Driven Snow
1,766 books — 256 voters
The Sound and the Fury by William FaulknerA Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'ConnorEverything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'ConnorOther Voices, Other Rooms by Truman CapoteWise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
Best Southern Gothic Literature
337 books — 500 voters

Maurice by E.M. ForsterBrokeback Mountain by Annie ProulxOther Voices, Other Rooms by Truman CapoteThe City and the Pillar by Gore VidalGiovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Best Gay Fiction
2,662 books — 3,867 voters
Midnight’s Children by Salman RushdieThe Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Best Diasporic Fiction
20 books — 17 voters

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeDracula by Bram StokerMiddlemarch by George EliotCrime and Punishment by Fyodor DostoevskyWuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Penguin Clothbound Classics
97 books — 362 voters
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck1984 by George OrwellOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezThe Stranger by Albert CamusCatch-22 by Joseph Heller
The ACTUAL 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century
218 books — 319 voters

The Comforters by Muriel Spark
Book within a book
77 books — 64 voters