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The 5 Best Book Lists

1. Top 100 Works In World Literature
If you’ve thought the Top 100 lists to this point were too English-centric, you’re absolutely right. So, to top off this list of lists, here is a list developed in 2002 that includes the best 100 novels from all over the world. Writers from China, Spain, Japan, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Brazil, and many other countries are represented on this list. It’s really great! Though the editors didn’t rank the novels, they did reveal that Don Quixote received the most votes. (Here’s one more Top 100 world literature list — this one developed by teachers. And here’s a great list of the Top 25 foreign language novels.)


2. Goodreads Top 100 Literary Novels Of All Time
Voted on by readers (as opposed to developed by critics), this list is similar to the Modern Library list in a lot of ways — with the notable exception that it’s of “all time” instead of 20th century. And it’s more current — I love it because it includes Infinite Jest at No. 41.


3. The Modern Library Best 100 Novels of the 20th Century
Ah, the venerable one. Since it first appeared in 1998, this list has inspired more attempts to systematically conquer it than just about any other list of things that can be systematically conquered in all of history. I mean, why else have so many people not working on a doctorate in Irish Lit attempted to read Ulysses? While this list does seem a tad stuffy and dated these days, it’s a paragon compared to the abomination that is the companion Reader’s List. You have to giggle at any list that includes Battlefield Earth at No. 3 — presumably the Scientologists voted early and often, as there are two other L. Ron titles in the Top 10! (Side note: The companion Radcliffe’s Rival 100 Best Novels List is quite interesting as well — it was developed as a response to the Modern Library list.)


4. 100 Major Works of Modern Creative Nonfiction
Eschewing nonfiction lists from Modern Library, TIME Magazine, and The Guardian, I like this nonfiction list best. It includes Bill Bryson and David Sedaris — and that’s never a bad thing.


5. TIME’s List of of the 100 Best Novels
Though it’s very American-centric, and only includes books published after 1923 (so no Ulysses) this is one of my favorite lists — and one I refer to it much more frequently than the Modern Library list (No. 3, below). It includes a smattering of much more popular novels, like Neuromancer, by William Gibson and Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson, and more recent novels (the list was published in 2005) like Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, and Philip Roth’s American Pastoral.