Best Books Ever Written

13 "Best Books" lists combined and condensed into one master best books list, for the benefit of your reading pleasure. 623 of the best books ever written - can you collect them all?

  • The Recognitions

    #291

    The Recognitions

    by William Gaddis

    (3 Reviews)

    74 Points

    "Even Camilla had enjoyed masquerades, of the safe sort where the mask may be dropped at the critical moment it presumes itself as reality."

  • On the Origin of Species

    #292

    On the Origin of Species

    by Charles Darwin

    (4 Reviews)

    74 Points

    "When on board HMS Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past..."

  • Sula

    #293

    Sula

    by Toni Morrison

    (3 Reviews)

    73 Points

    "In that place, where they tore the nightshade and blackberry patches from the roots to make room for the Medallion City Golf Course, there was once a neighborhood."

  • Daniel Deronda

    #294

    Daniel Deronda

    by George Eliot

    (2 Reviews)

    73 Points

    "Was she beautiful or not beautiful? and what was the secret of form or expression which gave the dynamic quality to her glance?"

  • The Tartar Steppe

    #295

    The Tartar Steppe

    by Dino Buzzati

    (1 Review)

    72 Points

    "One September morning, Giovanni Drogo, being newly commissioned, set out from the city for Fort Bastiani; it was his first posting."

  • Young Lonigan

    #296

    Young Lonigan

    by James T. Farrell

    (2 Reviews)

    72 Points

  • On the Social Contract

    #297

    On the Social Contract

    by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    (3 Reviews)

    72 Points

    "My purpose is to consider if, in political society, there can be any legitimate and sure principle of government, taking men as they are and laws as they might be."

  • Sea of Poppies

    #298

    Sea of Poppies

    by Amitav Ghosh

    (1 Review)

    72 Points

    "The vision of a tall-masted ship, at sail on the ocean, came to Deeti on an otherwise ordinary day, but she knew instantly that the apparition was a sign of destiny for she had never seen such a..."

  • Portnoy's Complaint

    #299

    Portnoy's Complaint

    by Philip Roth

    (4 Reviews)

    71 Points

    "She was so deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seemed to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise."

  • Shadow of the Torturer

    #300

    Shadow of the Torturer

    by Gene Wolfe

    (4 Reviews)

    71 Points

    "It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future.To those who have preceded me in the study of the posthistoric world, and particularly to those collectors - too numerous to name here -..."