Top Books

By Author

It’s hard to come up with a list of the top novels of all time.  No one agrees on what they are.  The best you can do is come up with a combination of lists from different sources.  This is a list of the top 272 books from a combination of lists. The list is numbered, but this is not meant to imply a ranking system. Instead they are in order by title. If you want to see how I rank the novels, you would have to see if it is listed on my personal reading page. I've put a checkmark next to the ones I've read.

This list is a combination of 7 different sources; one of those in fact a consolidation on its own.  I count them as 5 sources.  They are as follows:

(1) MODERN LIBRARY book publishers.

(2) Time Magazine

(3) The Novel 100: A Ranking of Greatest Novels All Time (Checkmark Books/Facts On File, Inc.: New York, 2004), written by Daniel S. Burt

(4) NYTimes - Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo pick the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.

(5) The Friendswood library has consolidated four sources' lists:

a. Harvard Bookstore's Top 100 Recommended Titles,

b. Modern Library's 100 Best Novels, - which means this got twice the weight.. hum...

c. Koen Book Distributors' Top 100 Books of the Past Century, and

d. Library Journal's 150 20th-century Most Influential Fiction. (list includes only English-language books written in the 1900's)

The colors mean:

RED – The book appears on all 5 lists

ORANGE – The book appears on 4 lists

YELLOW– The book appears on 3 lists

GREEN – The book appears on 2 lists

Checked means I've read it. A review on my books page.

The movie projector symbols mean 2 things.. Unseen Movie means there is a movie and Movie means I've seen it. NOTE: You can click on the projector to see the IMDB link to that movie. Also, I did not include TV productions (for example Their Eyes Were Watching God)

(#) - next to the Author's name indicates that the author appears more than once on the list, and how many times.

And it should be obvious what..Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down mean

How to use this page

I use this page to explore books and authors when deciding what to read next. Every author and every title is linked to it's matching WIKIPEDIA entry. The Wikipedia is a free on-line encyclopedia of information available to all. The articles will contain information about the author, plot summaries, analysis, etc. that will make the reading more enjoyable.

1 Things Fall Apart Checked Achebe, Chinua     2,3,4
2 Watership DownThumbs Up Checked Adams, Richard     5
3 Death in the Family (A)   Agee, James     4,5
4 Bastard out of Carolina Checked Allison, Dorothy     5
5 Lucky Jim Checked Amis, Kingsley     2,4
6 Money   Amis, Martin     2,4
7 Winesburg, Ohio Checked Anderson, Sherwood     1,5
8 Kane and Abel   Archer, Jeffrey     5
9 The Blind Assassin Checked Atwood, Margaret (2)     2,4
10 The Handmaid's Tale Thumbs Up Checked Atwood, Margaret (2)     Banned 5
11 Emma   Austen, Jane (2)     3
12 Pride and PrejudiceThumbs UpThumbs Up Checked Austen, Jane (2)     3
13 Go Tell It on the Mountain  Checked Baldwin, James     1,4,5
14 The Sot-Weed Factor   Barth, John     2,4
15 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Checked Baum, Frank L.     5
16 Molloy; Malone Dies; The Unnamable   Beckett, Samuel     3
17 Zuleika Dobson Checked Beerbohm, Max     1,5
18 Adventures of Augie March (The)   Bellow, Saul (3)     1,2,4
19 Henderson the Rain King   Bellow, Saul (3)     1,5
20 Herzog   Bellow, Saul (3)     3,4
21 Petersburg   Bely, Andrey     3
22 The Old Wives' Tale   Bennett, Arnold     1
23 Are You There God? It's Me Margaret.   Blume, Judy     2,4
24 The Death of the Heart   Bowen, Elizabeth     1,4
25 The Sheltering Sky Checked Bowles, Paul     1,2,4
26 Fahrenheit 451Thumbs Up Checked Bradbury, Ray     5
27 The Mists of Avalon   Bradley, Marion Zimmer     5
28 Jane Eyre   Bronte, Charlotte     3
29 Wuthering heights   Bronte, Emily     3
30 The Good Earth   Buck, Pearl S. (2)     5
31 The Rainbow   Buck, Pearl S. (2)     5
32 A Clockwork Orange Thumbs Up Checked Burgess, Anthony     1,2,4,5
33 Cold Sassy Tree   Burns, Olive Ann     5
34 Naked Lunch Burroughs, William     2,4
35 The Way of All Flesh   Butler, Samuel     1,5
36 Possession   Byatt, A.S.     2,4,5
37 The Postman Always Rings Twice   Cain, James M.     1
38 Tobacco Road Checked Caldwell, Erskine     1
39 The Stranger  Checked Camus, Albert     3
40 Death Comes for the Archbishop Checked Cather, Willa (2)     1,2,4,5
41 My Antonia Checked Cather, Willa (2)     3,5
42 Don Quixote Checked Cervantes, Miguel de     3
43 The Big Sleep   Chandler,Raymond     2,4
44 Falconer   Cheever, John (2)     4
45 The Wapshot Chronicles   Cheever, John (2)     1,5
46 The Awakening Checked Chopin, Kate     3
47 2001: A Space OdysseyThumbs Up Checked Clarke, Arthur C.     5
48 The Woman in White   Collins, Wilkie     3
49 Heart of DarknessThumbs Up Checked Conrad, Joseph (4)     1,5
50 Lord JimThumbs Up Checked Conrad, Joseph (4)     1
51 Nostromo   Conrad, Joseph (4)     1,3,5
52 The Secret Agent   Conrad, Joseph (4)     1,5
53 The Red Badge of CourageThumbs Up Checked Crane, Stephen     3,5
54 Le Pere Goriot   de Balzac, Honore     3
55 Robinson CrusoeThumbs Up Checked Defoe, Daniel     3
56 White Noise Checked DeLillo, Don     2,4,5
57 Ubik Checked Dick, Philip K.     2,4
58 Bleak House Checked Dickens, Charles (3)     3
59 Great ExpectationsThumbs Up Checked Dickens, Charles (3)     3
60 The Pickwick Papers   Dickens, Charles (3)     3
61 Deliverance Checked Dickey, James     1,4,5
62 Play It As It Lays   Didion, Joan     2,4
63 Berlin, Alexanderplatz   Doblin, Alfred     3
64 RagtimeThumbs Up Checked Doctorow, E. L.     1,2,4,5
65 The Ginger Man Checked Donleavy, J.P.     1
66 The Brothers Karamazov   Dostoevsky, Feodor (2)     3
67 Crime and PunishmentThumbs Up Checked Dostoevsky, Feodor (2)     3
68 The Hound of the BaskervillesThumbs Up Checked Doyle, Arthur Conan     3,5
69 Sister Carrie   Dreiser, Theodore     1,5
70 An American Tragedy   Dreiser, Theodore (2)     1,2,3,4,5
71 The Three MusketeersThumbs Up Checked Dumas, Alexandre     3
72 The Alexandria Quartet   Durrell, Lawrence     1,5
73 Middlemarch   Eliot, George     3
74 Invisible ManThumbs Up Checked Ellison,Ralph     1,2,3,4,5
75 The Studs Lonigan Trilogy Checked Farrell, James T.     1,5
76 Absalom, Absalom!   Faulkner, William (4)     3
77 As I Lay Dying Checked Faulkner, William (4)     1,5
78 Light in August   Faulkner, William (4)     1,2,4,5
79 The Sound and the Fury   Faulkner, William (4)     1,2,3,4,5
80 Tom Jones   Fielding, Henry     3
81 Tender Is the Night   Fitzgerald, F. Scott (3)     1,5
82 The Grapes of WrathThumbs Up Checked Fitzgerald, F. Scott (3)     1,3,4,5
83 The Great Gatsby Checked Fitzgerald, F. Scott (3)     1,3,4,5
84 Madame Bovary   Flaubert, Gustave     3
85 Parade's End   Ford, Ford Madox (2)     1,5
86 The Good Soldier   Ford, Ford Madox (2)     1,3,5
87 The Sportswriter   Ford, Richard     2,4
88 Howards End   Forster, E. M. (3)     1,5
89 A Passage to India Checked Forster, E. M. (3)     1,2,3,4,5
90 A Room With a View   Forster, E. M. (3)     1,5
91 The French Lieutenant's Woman   Fowles, John (2)     4
92 The Magus   Fowles, John (2)     1
93 The Corrections   Franzen, Jonathan     2,4
94 The Death of Artemio Cruz   Fuentes, Carlos     3
95 The Recognitions   Gaddis, William     2,4
96 Ellen FosterThumbs Up Checked Gibbons, Kaye     5
97 Neuromancer Checked Gibson, William     2,4
98 The Counterfeiters   Gide. Andre     3
99 The Sorrows of Young Werther   Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von     3
100 Dead Souls   Gogol, Nikolai     3
101 Lord of the FliesThumbs Up Checked Golding, William     1,2,4,5
102 Oblomov   Goncharov, Ivan     3
103 The Burger's Daughter   Gordimer, Nadine     5
104 The Tin Drum   Grass, Gunter     3
105 I, Claudius   Graves, Robert     1,4,5
106 Loving   Green, Henry     1,2,4
107 The Power and the Glory   Greene, Graham (2)     2,4
108 The Heart of the Matter   Greene, Graham (2)     1,4,5
109 Snow Falling on Cedars   Guterson, David     5
110 Roots   Haley, Alex     5
111 The Maltese FalconThumbs Up Checked Hammett, Dashiell (2)     1,5
112 Red Harvest   Hammett, Dashiell (2)     2,4
113 Hunger   Hamsun, Knut     3
114 Tess of the D'Urbervilles   Hardy, Thomas     3
115 The Scarlet Letter   Hawthorne, Nathaniel     3
116 Stranger in a Strange LandThumbs Up Checked Heinlein, Robert     5
117 Catch-22Thumbs Up Checked Heller, Joseph     1,2,4,5
118 A Farewell to Arms  Checked Hemingway, Ernest (4)     1,3,5
119 For Whom the Bell Tolls   Hemingway, Ernest (4)     5
120 The Old Man and the Sea Checked Hemingway, Ernest (4)     5
121 The Sun Also Rises Checked Hemingway, Ernest (4)     1,2,4,5
122 DuneThumbs Up Checked Herbert, Frank     5
123 A High Wind in Jamaica Checked Hughes, Richard     1,5
124 Les Miserables   Hugo, Victor     3
125 Their Eyes Were Watching God Checked Hurston, Zora Neale     2,3,4,5
126 Brave New WorldThumbs Up Checked Huxley, Aldous (2)     1,5
127 Point Counter Point   Huxley, Aldous (2)     1,5
128 A Prayer for Owen Meany   Irving, John (2)     5
129 The World According to Garp Checked Irving, John (2)     5
130 The Berlin Stories   Isherwood, Christopher     2,4
131 Never Let Me Go   Ishiguro, Kazuo (2)     2,4
132 The Remains of the Day   Ishiguro, Kazuo (2)     5
133 Last of the Mohicans   James Fenimore Cooper     3
134 The Ambassadors   James, Henry (4)     1,3,5
135 The Golden Bowl   James, Henry (4)     1,5
136 The Portrait of a Lady   James, Henry (4)     3
137 The Wings of the Dove   James, Henry (4)     1,5
138 From Here to Eternity   Jones, James     1,5
139 Finnegan's Wake   Joyce, James (3)     1,3
140 Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man   Joyce, James (3)     1,3,5
141 Ulysses   Joyce, James (3)     1,3,5
142 The Trial   Kafka, Franz     3
143 Ironweed   Kennedy, William     1,5
144 On the Road Checked Kerouac, Jack     1,2,3,4,5
145 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Checked Kesey, Ken     2,4,5
146 The Bean TreesThumbs Up Checked Kingsolver, Barbara     5
147 Kim Checked Kipling, Rudyard     1
148 Darkness at Noon Checked Koestler, Arthur     1,5
149 The Painted Bird Checked Kosinski, Jerzy     2,4
150 The Princess of Cleves   Lafayette, Madame de     3
151 The Leopard   Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi di     3
152 Lady Chatterley's Lover   Lawrence, D. H. (4)     5
153 The Rainbow   Lawrence, D. H. (4)     1
154 Sons and Lovers   Lawrence, D. H. (4)     1,5
155 Women in Love   Lawrence, D. H. (4)     1,3,5
156 To Kill a MockingbirdThumbs Up Checked Lee, Harper     2,4,5
157 The Golden Notebook   Lessing, Doris     3,4,5
158 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe   Lewis, C.S.     2,4,5
159 Main Street   Lewis, Sinclair     1,5
160 The Call of the Wild Checked London, Jack     1,5
161 Under the Volcano Checked Lowry, Malcolm     1,2,3,4,5
162 The Naked and the Dead   Mailer, Norman     1,5
163 The Assistant   Malamud, Bernard     2,4
164 Buddenbrooks   Mann, Thomas (2)     3
165 The Magic Mountain   Mann, Thomas (2)     3
166 The Betrothed   Manzoni, Alessandro     3
167 One Hundred Years of Solitude   Marquez, Gabriel Garcia     3
168 Of Human Bondage   Maugham, W. Somerset     1,5
169 Rebecca   Maurier, Daphne du     5
170 Blood Meridian   McCarthy, Cormac     2,4
171 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter   McCullers, Carson     1,4,5
172 Atonement   McEwan, Ian     2,4
173 Lonesome Dove   McMurtry, Larry     5
174 Moby-DickThumbs UpThumbs Up Checked Melville, Herman     3
175 Tropic of Cancer Checked Miller, Henry     1,2,4,5
176 Winnie-the-PoohThumbs Up Checked Milne, A. A.     5
177 Gone with the Wind   Mitchell, Margaret     3,4,5
178 WatchmenThumbs Up Checked Moore, Alan & Gibbons, Dave     2,4
179 Beloved Checked Morrison, Toni (2)     2,3,4,5
180 Song of Solomon   Morrison, Toni (2)     5
181 Cities of Salt   Munif,'Abd al-Rahman     3
182 Under the Net Checked Murdoch, Iris     1,2,4
183 The Man Without Qualities   Musil, Robert     3
184 LolitaThumbs Up Checked Nabokov, Vladimir (2)     1,2,3,4,5
185 Pale Fire   Nabokov, Vladimir (2)     1,2,4,5
186 A Bend in the River   Naipaul, V. S (2)     1
187 A House for Mr. Biswas   Naipaul, V.S. (2)     1,4
188 Appointment in Samarra Checked O' Hara, John     1,2,4,5
189 At Swim Two Birds   O'Brien, Flann     2,4
190 Good Man is Hard to Find (A)   O'Connor, Flannery     5
191 1984Thumbs Up Checked Orwell, George (2)     Unseen Movie 1,2,3,4,5
192 Animal Farm Checked Orwell, George (2)  
 		 1,2,4,5
193 U.S.A. (trilogy)   Passos, John Dos     1,3,5
194 Cry the Beloved Country Checked Paton, Alan     5
195 The Moviegoer Checked Percy, Walker     1,2,4,5
196 The Bell Jar Checked Plath, Sylvia     5
197 Pale Horse, Pale Rider   Porter, Katherine Anne     5
198 A Dance to the Music of Time - 12 Volumns   Powell, Anthony     1,2,4,5
199 The Shipping News Checked Proulx, Annie     5
200 In Search of Lost Time   Proust, Marcel     3
201 The Godfather Thumbs Up Checked Puzo, Mario     5
202 The Crying of Lot 49 Checked Pynchon, Thomas (2)     2,4
203 Gravity's Rainbow   Pynchon, Thomas (2)     3,4
204 Atlas Shrugged Checked Rand, Ayn (2)     5
205 The Fountainhead   Rand, Ayn (2)     5
206 All Quiet on the Western FrontThumbs Up Checked ReMarque, Erich Maria     5
207 Wide Sargasso Sea Checked Rhys, Jean     1,2,4,5
208 Clarissa   Richardson, Samuel     3
209 Housekeeping   Robinson, Marilynne     4
210 Call It Sleep   Roth, Henry     2,3,4,5
211 American Pastoral Checked Roth, Phillip (2)     2,4
212 Portnoy's ComplaintThumbs Up Checked Roth, Phillip (2)     1,2,4,5
213 Midnight's Children   Rushdie, Salman     1,2,4
214 The Catcher in the Rye Checked Salinger, J. D.     1,2,3,4,5
215 Waverley   Scott, Sir Walter      3
216 Where the Wild Things Are Checked Sendak, Maurice     5
217 The Killer Angels Checked Shaara, Michael     5
218 Frankenstein Checked Shelley, Mary     3
219 Stone Diaries   Shields, Carol     5
220 The Tale of Genji   Shikibu, Murasaki     3
221 The Jungle Checked Sinclair, Upton     5
222 Thousand Acres   Smiley, Jane     5
223 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn   Smith, Betty     5
224 White TeethThumbs Up  Checked Smith, Zadie     2,4
225 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Checked Spark, Muriel     1,2,4,5
226 The Man Who Loved Children   Stead, Christina     2,4
227 Angle of Repose   Stegner, Wallace     1,5
228 East of Eden   Steinbeck, John (2)     5
229 Of Mice and MenThumbs Up Checked Steinbeck, John (2)     5
230 The Red and the Black   Stendhal     3
231 Snow Crash   Stephenson, Neal     2,4
232 Tristram Shandy   Sterne, Laurence     3
233 Dracula Checked Stoker, Bram     3
234 Dog Soldiers   Stone, Robert     4
235 Uncle Tom's Cabin Checked Stowe, Harriet Beecher     3
236 Sophie's Choice   Styron, William     1,5
237 The Confessions of Nat Turner   Styron, William (2)     2,4
238 The Joy Luck ClubThumbs Up Checked Tan, Amy     5
239 The Magnificent Ambersons   Tarkington, Booth     1
240 Vanity Fair   Thackeray, William Makepeace     3
241 The Hobbit Checked Tolkien, J.R.R. (2)     5
242 The Lord of the RingsThumbs Up Checked Tolkien, J.R.R. (2)     2,4,5
243 Anna Karenina   Tolstoy, Leo (2)     3
244 War and Peace   Tolstoy, Leo (2)     3
245 A Confederacy of Dunces   Toole, John K     5
246 The Last Chronicle of Barset   Trollope, Anthony     3
247 Fathers and Sons   Turgenev, Ivan     3
248 Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThumbs Up Checked Twain, Mark     3
249 Rabbit, Run   Updike, John     2,4,5
250 Exodus   Uris, Leon     5
251 Candide Checked Voltaire     3
252 Slaughterhouse FiveThumbs Up Checked Vonnegut, Kurt     1,2,4,5
253 The Color Purple   Walker, Alice     5
254 Infinite Jest   Wallace, David Foster     2,4
255 All the King's Men   Warren, Robert Penn     1,2,4,5
256 Brideshead Revisited   Waugh, Evelyn (3)     1,2,3,4,5
257 A Handful of Dust   Waugh, Evelyn (3)     1,4,5
258 Scoop   Waugh, Evelyn (3)     1
259 The Day of the Locust   West, Nathanael     1,2,4
260 The Age of Innocence   Wharton, Edith (3)     1,3,5
261 Ethan Frome   Wharton, Edith (3)     5
262 The House of Mirth   Wharton, Edith (3)     1,5
263 Charlotte's Web   White, E. B.      5
264 Little House on the Prarie   Wilder, Laura Ingalls     5
265 The Bridge of San Luis ReyThumbs Up Checked Wilder, Thornton     1,2,4,5
266 Look Homeward, Angel   Wolfe, Thomas     5
267 Mrs. Dalloway Checked Woolf, Virginia (2)     2,4
268 To the Lighthouse Checked Woolf, Virginia (2)     1,2,3,4,5
269 Native Son   Wright, Richard     1,2,3,4,5
270 Dream of the Red Chamber   Xueqin, Cao     3
271 Snow Country   Yasunari, Kawabata     3
272 Revolutionary Road   Yates, Richard     2,4
273 Germinal   Zola, Emile     3