The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DíazBeloved by Toni MorrisonInvisible Man by Ralph EllisonUnaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa LahiriLove Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Best Multi-Ethnic American Literature
296 books — 142 voters
The Sound and the Fury by William FaulknerMoby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman MelvilleAbsalom, Absalom! by William FaulknerMrs. Dalloway by Virginia WoolfBeloved by Toni Morrison
Most Difficult Novels
592 books — 2,047 voters

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Grapes of Wrath by John SteinbeckThe Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. TolkienLolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Best Books of the 20th Century
7,899 books — 49,787 voters
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood AndersonThe Killer Angels by Michael ShaaraThe Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chesnutt
Best American Historical Fiction
450 books — 341 voters

The Road by Cormac McCarthyThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg LarssonThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DíazNo Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthyNever Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Best Books of the 21st Century
9,849 books — 22,120 voters
War and Peace by Leo TolstoyTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee1984 by George OrwellAnna Karenina by Leo TolstoyUlysses by James Joyce
I Should Probably Read This Sometime...
11,849 books — 10,462 voters

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeThe Diary of a Young Girl by Anne FrankPride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once
31,959 books — 121,317 voters
The Grapes of Wrath by John SteinbeckHerzog by Saul BellowThe Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
The Best by Nobel Prize Authors
380 books — 283 voters

The Road by Cormac McCarthyThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Best Page-Turners with Redeeming Social Value
8,081 books — 5,765 voters