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Ultimate Best Books

All Novels

Explore rankings, reviews, and reader lists for every book in the catalog.

Little, Big

Little, Big

John Crowley

3.5 (4)

On a certain day in June, 19--, a young man was making his way on foot northward from the great City to a town or place called Edgewood, that he had been told of but had never visited.

#526
RANK
518
POINTS
Manhattan Transfer

Manhattan Transfer

John Dos Passos

3.5 (2)

Three gulls wheel above the broken boxes, orangerinds, spoiled cabbage heads that heave between the splintered plank walls, the green waves spume under the round bow as the ferry, skidding on the tide, crashes, gulps the broken water, slides, settles slowly into the slip.

#524
RANK
528
POINTS
A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking

4.0 (3)

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy.

#240
RANK
2,776
POINTS
Candide

Candide

Voltaire

4.13 (8)

There lived in Westphalia, at the country seat of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, a young lad blessed by Nature with the most agreeable manners.In the castle of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh in Westphalia there lived a youth, endowed by Nature with the most gentle character.

#177
RANK
4,263
POINTS
The Sheltering Sky

The Sheltering Sky

Paul Bowles

4.0 (4)

He awoke, opened his eyes.Si svegliò, aprì gli occhi. La stanza gli diceva poco o niente, profondamente immerso com'era nel non-essere da cui era appena affiorato. Se l'energia di accertare la propria collocazione nel tempo e nello spazio gli mancava, gliene mancava anche il desiderio. Sapeva soltanto di esistere, d'avere attraversato vaste regioni per ritornare dal nulla; c'era, al centro della sua coscienza, la certezza di una tristezza infinita e al tempo stesso rassicurante, perché era la sola ad essergli familiare.

#452
RANK
855
POINTS
Popol Vuh

Popol Vuh

Anonymous

4.0 (2)

#534
RANK
493
POINTS
Time and Again

Time and Again

Jack Finney

4.0 (2)

In shirt-sleeves, the I generally worked, I sat sketching a bar of soap taped to an upper corner of my drawing board.

#466
RANK
770
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Moravagine

Moravagine

Blaise Cendrars

3.0 (1)

In 1900 I completed my medical studies.

#595
RANK
309
POINTS
The Left Hand of Darkness

The Left Hand of Darkness

Ursula K. Le Guin

4.0 (4)

I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic jewel of our seas, which grows brighter as one woman wears it and, worn by another, dulls and goes to dust. Facts are no more solid, coherent, round, and real than pearls are. But both are sensitive.

#352
RANK
1,548
POINTS
Double Act

Double Act

Jacqueline Wilson

3.25 (4)

#364
RANK
1,440
POINTS