The Book List
(or the 778 Best Books of All-Time)


You'll never need to seek out book recommendations again!  Here we present to you the 778 best books of all-time, as ranked by readers, visitors, friends, and the creator of the Blue Pyramid.  This compilation is the result of 46 individuals' lists of their 25 favorite books.  1 point is awarded for a 25th ranking, while 25 points for a 1st ranking.

We invite you to join the effort of perfecting this list by submitting your own ranked list of 25 best books to storey@bluepyramid.org.
(All genres welcome, no compilations, no series as one book.)

[List of Sumbitters]   [Storey Clayton's Top 25]   [Original Note for this List]   [Back to the Library]

(#) indicates first-place votes
*-book on the Book Quiz, which was based on an earlier version of this list.


Rank
Title Author
Points
1
To Kill a Mockingbird* (4) Harper Lee
246
2
Hamlet* William Shakespeare
222
3
1984* George Orwell
206
4
The Fellowship of the Ring* J.R.R. Tolkien
174
5
Lolita* (2) Vladimir Nabokov
170
6
The Return of the King* J.R.R. Tolkien
161
7
Catch-22* Joseph Heller
152
8
The Catcher in the Rye* J.D. Salinger
141
9
Ender's Game* (2) Orson Scott Card
139
10
Night* Elie Wiesel
125
11
The Hobbit* (2) J.R.R. Tolkien
121
12
The Bible (2) ?
115
The Great Gatsby* F. Scott Fitzgerald
115
14
A Prayer for Owen Meany* John Irving
114
15
Brave New World* (1) Aldous Huxley
111
16
The Handmaid's Tale* Margaret Atwood
107
17
One Hundred Years of Solitude* (1) Gabriel Garcia Marquez
99
18
I, Robot* Isaac Asimov
97
19
The Grapes of Wrath* (1) John Steinbeck
94
20
Dune* Frank Herbert
93
21
Love in the Time of Cholera* Gabriel Garcia Marquez
88
Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
88
23
Stranger in a Strange Land* (2) Robert Heinlein
87
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* Douglas Adams
87
25
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe* C.S. Lewis
85
26
Siddhartha* Hermann Hesse
81
27
The Stand Stephen King
80
28
Ulysses* (2) James Joyce
77
29
Paradise Lost John Milton
72
30
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1) Robert Pirsig
71
Watership Down* (1) Richard Adams
71
32
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* Mark Twain
67
33
The Sound and the Fury* William Faulkner
65
34
Gone with the Wind (1) Margaret Mitchell
64
Roots* Alex Haley
64
36
The Giver* (1) Lois Lowry
63
The Two Towers* J.R.R. Tolkien
63
Great Expectations* Charles Dickens
63
39
Cat's Cradle* (1) Kurt Vonnegut
58
40
Cry, the Beloved Country* Alan Paton
57
Animal Farm* George Orwell
57
42
Macbeth William Shakespeare
56
43
Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
55
44
A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle
54
45
The World According to Garp (1) John Irving
53
 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
53
47
Atlas Shrugged (1) Ayn Rand
52
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* Lewis Carroll
52
49
Black Hawk Down (1) Mark Bowden
50
King Lear William Shakespeare
50
A Theory of Justice* John Rawls
50
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
50
53
Fahrenheit 451* Ray Bradbury
49
54
Moby Dick* (1) Herman Melville
48
55
Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer
47
Mrs. Dalloway* Virginia Woolf
47
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Italo Calvino
47
The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury
47
Inherit the Wind* Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee
47
60
The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck
46
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest* Ken Kesey
46
62
The Inferno Dante Alighieri
44
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare
44
64
Invisible Man* (1) Ralph Ellison
43
The Red Tent Anita Diamant
43
66
Death in Venice and Other Stories Thomas Mann
42
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone J.K. Rowling
42
Les Miserables* Victor Hugo
42
69
The Trial (1) Franz Kafka
41
Ada Vladimir Nabokov
41
Middlemarch George Elliot
41
Where the Sidewalk Ends Shel Silverstein
41
Godel, Escher, Bach* Douglas Hofstadter
41
Hocus Pocus Kurt Vonnegut
41
75
The Way Things Work David Macauly
40
Mother Night* Kurt Vonnegut
40
A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
40
Jurassic Park* Michael Crichton
40
79
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson
39
 Confessions* St. Augustine of Hippo
39
Thus Spoke Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche
39
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil John Berndt
39
David Copperfield* Charles Dickens
39
A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
39
My Name is Asher Lev Chaim Potok
39
86
The Poisonwood Bible* Barbara Kingsolver
38
A People's History of the United States* Howard Zinn
38
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Robert C. O'Brien
38
89
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon
37
Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon
37
The Princess Bride William Goldman
37
Neuromancer William Gibson
37
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Robert Heinlein
37
94
Prufrock and Other Observations* T.S. Eliot
36
Run with the Horsemen Ferrol Sams
36
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque
36
97
The Guns of August* Barbara Tuchman
35
Exodus Leon Uris
35
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More Roald Dahl
35
Anarchy, State and Utopia* Robert Nozick
35
101
Pale Fire* (1) Vladimir Nabokov
34
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
34
Winnie the Pooh A.A. Milne
34
104
A Light in the Attic Shel Silverstein
33
Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood
33
106
The Chosen Chaim Potok
32
Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson
32
All Creatures Great and Small James Herriot
32
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Tom Stoppard
32
The Lord of the Flies William Golding
32
111
The Hours Michael Cunningham
31
Traveling Mercies Anne Lamott
31
A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
31
114
The Iliad Homer
30
Now We are Six A.A. Milne
30
Starship Troopers Robert Heinlein
30
The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe
30
118
Anne of Green Gables* (1) L.M. Montgomery
29
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman Richard Feynman
29
The Whisper of the River Ferrol Sams
29
A Ring of Endless Light Madeleine L'Engle
29
The Things They Carried* Tim O'Brien
29
Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
29
124
Calvin and Hobbes Bill Watterson
28
The Silver Chair C.S. Lewis
28
The Federalist Papers James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, & John Jay
28
The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka
28
The Winds of War Herman Wouk
28
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
28
130
The Mists of Avalon* Marion Zimmer Bradley
27
Snow Crash Neal Stephenson
27
A Little Princess Frances Hodgson Burnett
27
133
Beach Music (1) Pat Conroy
26
Compassion Fatigue* Susan Moeller
26
Waiting for Godot* Samuel Beckett
26
And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
26
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
26
The Last Battle C.S. Lewis
26
139
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1) Sherman Alexie
25
The Loom of Language (1) Frederick Bodmer
25
Cathedral (1) Raymond Carver
25
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1) Anne Tyler
25
Babar the King* (1) Jean De Brunhoff
25
"Master Harold"...and the Boys* (1) Athol Fugard
25
Creating Minds (1) Howard Gardner
25
Random House Dictionary of the American Language* (1) Jess Stein (ed.)
25
The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman (1) Abbie Hoffman
25
Tao Te Ching (1) Lao Tzu
25
Anna Karenina (1) Leo Tolstoy
25
Leaves of Grass (1) Walt Whitman
25
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1) Robert Burton
25
The Bloody Sun (1) Marion Zimmer Bradley
25
At Dawn We Slept (1) Gordon W. Prange
25
Naked Lunch (1) William S. Burroughs
25
Everything is Illuminated (1) Jonathan Safran Foer
25
Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
25
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn
25
158
The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
24
The Urantia Book Urantia Foundation
24
Ravelstein Saul Bellow
24
Childhood's End Arthur C. Clarke
24
The Foxfire Book Eliot Wigginton (ed.)
24
The Great American Novel Philip Roth
24
Surprised by Joy C.S. Lewis
24
V Thomas Pynchon
24
Reagan: A Life in Letters Ronald Reagan
24
The Awakening Kate Chopin
24
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich William L. Shirer
24
The History of Love Nicole Krauss
24
The Godfather Mario Puzo
24
The Confusion Neal Stephenson
24
How the Grinch Stole Christmas Dr. Seuss
24
Franny and Zooey J.D. Salinger
24
174
Summer of My German Soldier Bette Greene
23
The 12 Chairs Ilya Ilf & Evgeni Petrov
23
Fathers and Crows William T. Vollman
23
A Separate Peace John Knowles
23
Endgame Samuel Beckett
23
Chuang Tsu Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English (trans.)
23
Ficciones Jorge Luis Borges
23
Six Easy Pieces Richard Feynman
23
The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Really Are Alan Watts
23
When We Were Very Young A.A. Milne
23
Love's Executioner Irvin D. Yalo
23
Tuesdays with Morrie Mitch Albom
23
The Secret History Donna Tartt
23
The Four Loves C.S. Lewis
23
Long Walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela
23
Remembrance of Things Past Marcel Proust
23
Master and Commander Patrick O'Brian
23
The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman Laurence Sterne
23
The Valley of Adventure Enid Blyton
23
Burr Gore Vidal
23
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
23
American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis
23
John Adams David McCullough
23
Charlotte's Web E.B. White
23
The Tao of Pooh Benjamin Hoff
23
199
Dubliners James Joyce
22
Dicey's Song Cynthia Voight
22
Personal History Katharine Graham
22
King Matt the First Janusz Korczak
22
Duino Elegies Rainer Maria Rilke
22
Illuminatus! Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea
22
Purple America Rick Moody
22
Testament of Youth Vera Brittain
22
Tree In the Trail Holling Clancy Holling
22
The Cider House Rules John Irving
22
The Missing Piece Shel Silverstein
22
Chronicle of a Death Foretold Gabriel Garcia Marquez
22
My Land, My People the Dalai Lama
22
Man on Superman George Bernard Shaw
22
Profiles in Courage John F. Kennedy
22
The Stranger Beside Me Ann Rule
22
The Origin of Species Charles Darwin
22
My Life in Christ St. John of Kronstadt
22
Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner
22
The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil
22
Beowulf ?
22
It's a Magical World Bill Watterson
22
The Blessing of Pan Lord Dunsany
22
Island of the Blue Dolphins Scott O'Dell
22
The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein
22
Cunt Inga Muscio