100 Best Story Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

5.0

Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. What starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treas

Recommended by Tony Robbins, Anthony Robbins, Brené Brown, and 27 others.

Brené Brown

There's a great quote in this book: When you're on the right path the universe conspires to help you! [source]

Daniel Ek

It was fascinating to talk to the author about how this book came to be such a hit—he never backed down, and he allowed people to read it for free in order to then boost sales—much like how Spotify’s freemium model was perceived in the early days. [source]

Eric Ripert

Speaks of everyone having an ultimate goal in life, but most of us are too afraid to pursue it. The encouragement to fulfill your dreams is very inspirational! [source]

2

Interpreter of Maladies

Jhumpa Lahiri

4.8

Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, this stunning debut collection unerringly charts the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations. "A writer of uncommon sensitivity and restraint...Ms. Lahiri expertly captures the out-of-context lives of immigrants, expatriates, and first-generation Americans" (Wall Street Journal). In stories that tra

Recommended by Jane Kamensky and Leah Lizarondo.

Jane Kamensky

Lahirihas a great knack for showing both the closeness and the distance of peoples and cities. They seem so close together at the same time, they’re incredibly far apart. [source]

Leah Lizarondo

Given free time to do anything I would read fiction. This book took me out of a long dry spell because it is a collection of short stories that I could read while in the bath. Each story is written so beautifully, I still remember putting the book down from time to time, just to close my eyes and absorb what I just read. [source]

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3

Nine Stories

J. D. Salinger

4.7

Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger published in April 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor". (Nine Stories is the U.S. title; the book is published in many other countries as For Esmé - with Love and Squalor, and Other Stories.)

The stories are:

"A Perfe

Recommended by Ben Stiller.

Ben Stiller

When I was a teenager, my mother gave me this book. The story 'For Esmé—with Love and Squalor' affected me deeply. [source]

4

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee, Sissy Spacek, et al

4.7

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mocki

Recommended by Adam Lawrence, Antonio Villaraigosa, Clive Stafford Smith, and 6 others.

Adam Lawrence

It's just the best. [source]

Antonio Villaraigosa

Even though I know we’ve made great strides in America, and have come from the reality of Maycomb, we still suffer today from the lingering effects of the bigotry of that era. At the same time, it’s a lesson in standing tall in the face of tremendously hostile circumstances. [source]

Clive Stafford Smith

The book touches on so many issues and deals with so many prejudices – prejudices towards the mentally ill, racial stuff. It’s a book that was way ahead of its time in many ways. It’s also a wonderfully written book – a joy to read. [source]

5

The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)

Suzanne Collins

4.7

WINNING MEANS FAME AND FORTUNE.
LOSING MEANS CERTAIN DEATH.
THE HUNGER GAMES HAVE BEGUN. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and once girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in

Recommended by Bill Gates and Robert Muchamore.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

Robert Muchamore

A brutal, exciting, action-based sci-fi novel. Hugely popular and excellent fun. [source]

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6

Dubliners

James Joyce, Terence Brown, Roman Muradov, Colum McCann

4.6

For the centennial of its original publication, an irresistible Graphic Deluxe Edition of one of the most beloved books of the 20th century

Perhaps the greatest short story collection in the English language, James Joyce’s Dubliners is a vivid and unflinching portrait of “dear dirty Dublin” at the turn of the twentieth century. These fifteen stories, including such unforgettable ones as “Araby,” “

Recommended by David Grossman.

David Grossman

It is the perfect story—you can almost touch the characters, and yet it is told from a remote point of view, from a distance but not without affection [source]

7

The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien

4.6

Preview Summary

A classic, life-changing meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling, with more than two-million copies in print

Depicting the men of Alpha Company—Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three—the stories in T

Recommended by Caroline Paul, Eugene Gu, Karl Marlantes, and 2 others.

Caroline Paul

A beautiful book by a writer who fought in Vietnam. [source]

Eugene Gu

@realDonaldTrump Tim O’Brien is the author of the book The Things They Carried, which was about the Vietnam War. Must be very triggering for Trump since he dodged the draft multiple times with fraudulent doctors’ notes for fake bone spurs like a coward. [source]

Karl Marlantes

But when O’Brien wrote The Things They Carried he came down to absolute real brass tacks. It was no longer surreal, it was like here’s a list of what a grunt carries, an infantry soldier… [source]

8

1984

George Orwell

4.6

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell’s 1984 takes on new life in this hardcover edition.

“Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”—The New Yorker

In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania

Recommended by Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Emma Watson, and 16 others.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

called this book "one of his favorite" and recommended it to the hires. The book also inspired one the greatest TV ad (made by Jobs) [source]

Andra Zaharia

These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way. [source]

9

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

J. K. Rowling

4.6

Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of invisibility.

All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley - a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry’s room is a tiny closet at t

Recommended by Joe Lycett.

Joe Lycett

guys i just read this book called harry potter well worth checking out it’s about a really interesting magic lad [source]

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10

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders

Neil Gaiman

4.5

This is a stunning collection of short stories by acclaimed fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. His distinctive genius has been championed by writers as diverse as Norman Mailer and Stephen King. With The Sandman Neil Gaiman created one of the most sophisticated, intelligent, and influential graphic novel series of our time. Now after the recent success of his latest novel Anansi Boys, Gaiman has produced

11

Animal Farm

George Orwell and Christopher Hitchens

4.5

Animal Farm is one of the most famous warnings ever written. Orwell's immortal satire - 'against Stalin' as he wrote to his French translator - can be read on many levels. With its piercing clarity and deceptively simple style it is no surprise that this novel is required reading for schoolchildren and politicians alike. This fable of the steadfast horses Boxer and Clover, the opportunistic pigs S

Recommended by Daniel Pink, Whitney Cummings, Vlad Tenev, and 4 others.

Whitney Cummings

Whitney Cummings recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

Vlad Tenev

When I was in sixth grade I remember being very upset by the ending of this book. [source]

Heather Brooke

I picked Animal Farm because it is an allegory about power and its seductive and corruptive influence on people regardless of their initial good intentions. [source]

12

The Illustrated Man

Ray Bradbury

4.4

The Illustrated Man, a seminal work in Ray Bradbury’s career, whose extraordinary power and imagination remain undimmed by time’s passage, is available from Simon & Schuster for the first time. A peerless American storyteller, Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. In these eighteen startling visions of humankind’s destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin, living cities take their vengeanc

Recommended by Brian Moran.

Brian Moran

@BrittMichaelian One of my favorite authors! Have you read the Illustrated Man recently? The first story in the book is titled "The Veldt." It was written in 1950 but is ALL ABOUT technology we are talking about today (#AI, #VR). Every story in the book is great. [source]

13

Jesus' Son: Stories

Denis Johnson

4.4

The unnamed narrator in Jesus' Son lives through a car wreck and a heroin overdose. Is he blessed? He cheats, lies, steals--but possesses a child's (or a mystic's) uncanny way of expressing the bare essence of things around him. In its own strange and luminous way, this linked collection of short fiction does the same. The stories follow characters who are seemingly marginalized beyond hope, drift

Recommended by James Altucher and Jim Shepard.

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

There was a movie about it and it's a beautiful collection of short stories about this total drug addict. [source]

Jim Shepard

What I love about Denis’s fiction is the way it’s populated by people who are marginal. His characters are like truants from life. [source]

14

The Little Prince Family Storybook: Unabridged Original Text

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

4.4

Rediscover Antoine de Saint-Exupery's universal masterpiece with original text and magnificent new illustrations created by masters of film animation. This wise and enchanginting fable teaches the secret of what is really important in life.

Recommended by Ryan Holiday, Brandon Stanton, Evan Goldberg, and 1 others.

Ryan Holiday

Author

Equally allegorical, I read The Little Prince for the first time which for some reason I’d never been exposed to before. If you’re in the same boat, read it. It’s short but great. [source]

Brandon Stanton

Brandon Stanton recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

Evan Goldberg

Phenomenal. [source]

15

Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)

Frank Herbert

4.4

A deluxe hardcover edition of the best-selling science-fiction book of all time—part of Penguin Galaxy, a collectible series of six sci-fi/fantasy classics, featuring a series introduction by Neil Gaiman.

Science fiction’s supreme masterpiece, "Dune" will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, it is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who will become t

Recommended by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Adam Savage, and 15 others.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Brilliant. The author advocates placing limits on machine intelligence. [source]

Jeff Bezos

Founder/Amazon

I’m a big science-fiction fan. I love this book. [source]

Adam Savage

If you haven't read it, just go read it. It is amazing! [source]

16

The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Hogwarts Library Book)

J.K. Rowling

4.4

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a Wizarding classic, first came to Muggle readers’ attention in the book known as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now, thanks to Hermione Granger’s new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J. K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore.

Never before have Muggles been p

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17

The Complete Stories

Flannery O'Connor and Robert Girou

4.4

This is the original cover edition of ISBN: 0374515360 (ISBN13: 9780374515362

Winner of the National Book Award

The publication of this extraordinary volume firmly established Flannery O'Connor's monumental contribution to American fiction. There are thirty-one stories here in all, including twelve that do not appear in the only two story collections O'Connor put together in her short lifetime - Eve

18

The Hobbit

J. R. R. Tolkien

4.4

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilb

Recommended by Richard Branson, Cressida Cowell, Lev Grossman, and 5 others.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Cressida Cowell

The Hobbit is such a richly imagined fantasy that, especially as a child, you can live in it. It is so completely immersive. [source]

Lev Grossman

First up, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, by JRR Tolkien. But you knew I was going to say that. This one book, which was published in 1937, defined so many variables for the fantasy tradition that are still in place today. Tolkien’s extraordinary achievement was to recover the epic landscapes of Anglo-Saxon myth, bring them back to life, and then to take us through them on foot, so we could see the details up close, at human scale. The Hobbit is both mythic and relatable at the same time – The New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik recently called it “an arranged marriage between the Elder Edda and The Wind in the Willows”, and I think that’s entirely fair. Though I would give more credit to the bass register of Tolkien’s imagination, its abyssal depths. Mole never delved as deep as the Mines of Moria. [source]

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19

Tenth of December

George Saunders

4.4

One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet.

In the taut opening, "Victory Lap," a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years o

Recommended by Dave Elitch.

Dave Elitch

Dave Elitch recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

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20

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)

Suzanne Collins

4.3

SPARKS ARE IGNITING.
FLAMES ARE SPREADING.
AND THE CAPITAL WANTS REVENGE.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are wh

Cover unavailable

21

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Raymond Carver

4.3

Alternate-cover edition can be found here

In his second collection, Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated and beloved short-story writers in American literature—a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s way through the dark.

22

Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings

Jorge Luis Borges, James E. Irby, Donald A. Yates, Andre Maurois

4.3

Although his work has been restricted to the short story, the essay, and poetry, Jorge Luis Borges of Argentina is recognized all over the world as one of the most original and significant figures in modern literature. In his preface, Andre Maurois writes: "Borges is a great writer who has composed only little essays or short narratives. Yet they suffice for us to call him great because of their w

Recommended by Caterina Fake, John King, and Nicholas Shakespeare.

John King

If you are going to think about Latin American literature, Borges is always a good place to start. [source]

Nicholas Shakespeare

No writer embodied libraries more than the immobile, blind Argentine, Jorge Luis Borges. [source]

23

Different Seasons

Stephen King

4.3

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption--the most satisfying tale of unjust imprisonment and offbeat escape since The Count of Monte Cristo.

Apt Pupil--a golden California schoolboy and an old man whose hideous past he uncovers enter into a fateful and chilling mutual parasitism.

The Body--four rambunctious young boys venture into the Maine woods and in sunlight and thunder find life, death, and inti

24

Night Shift

Stephen King

4.3

NIGHT SHIFT -- Stephen King's first collection of stories -- is an early showcase of the depths that King's wicked imagination could plumb. In these 20 tales, we see mutated rates gone bad ("Graveyard Shift"); a cataclysmic virus that threatens humanity ("Night Surf," the basis for The Stand); a smoker who will try anything to stop ("Quitters, Inc."); a reclusive alcoholic who begins a gruesome tr

Recommended by Aaron Nagler.

Aaron Nagler

@DustyEvely LOVE that book [source]

25

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)

J.K. Rowling

4.3

For Twelve long years, the dread fortress of Azkaban held an infamous prisoner named Sirius Black. Convicted of killing thirteen people with a single curse, he was said to be the heir apparent to the Dark Lord, Voldemort.

Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who was Black's downfall as well. And the Azkaban guards heard Black m

Recommended by Maude Garrett.

Maude Garrett

@GeekBomb Best use of time travel in a book or series to date [source]

26

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales

Stephen King

4.3

The first collection of stories Stephen King has published since Nightmares & Dreamscapes nine years ago, Everything's Eventual includes one O. Henry Prize winner, two other award winners, four stories published by The New Yorker, and "Riding the Bullet," King's original e-book, which attracted over half a million online readers and became the most famous short story of the decade.

"Riding the Bu

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27

Ficciones

Jorge Luis Borges, John Sturrock

4.3

Jorge Luis Borges was one of those very rare creators who changed the face of an art form—in his case, the short story. His work has been paid the ultimate honor of being appropriated and imitated by innumerable writers on every continent of the world. The seventeen brief masterpieces of FICCIONES explode the boundaries of genre, offering up labyrinthine libraries, a fictional encyclopedia entry t

Recommended by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Kate Marvel, Mohsin Hamid, and 2 others.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Author

This is something very hard to find, almost by definition: a literary writer who thinks in abstract terms (the only other such author I've read is Stanislaw Lem). These are philosophical thought experiments in their purest form, yet somehow magically delivered in a playful literary athmosphere. Borges is a mathematical philosopher, first and last. Ignore the "Latin American" categorization and the nonsense about his background and personal life: one should resist embedding him in a socio-cultural framework; he is as universal as they come. It is good to read a short story once in a while to see how literature and philosophy can be saved by the parable. [source]

Kate Marvel

I don’t think there will ever be a better writer on uncertainty and science than Borges [source]

Mohsin Hamid

There is a transnational quality to Borges’s writing. [source]

28

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

4.3

A young man, newly rich, tries to recapture the past and win back his former love, despite the fact that she has married.

Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Ev Williams, and 4 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

When he got to high school, the president said, his tastes changed and he learned to enjoy classics like “Of Mice and Men” and “The Great Gatsby.” [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Melinda and I really like this book. When we were first dating, she had a green light that she would turn on when her office was empty and it made sense for me to come over. [source]

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

For Non-Business, I'd have to say Dune (Herbert), Emergency (Strauss), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) or Flint (L'Amour). I re-read these books every year because they are just so well written & great stories that I get new perspective & details every time I read them. [source]

29

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)

J.K. Rowling

4.3

The Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike

And strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and

30

The Shining

Stephen King

4.3

Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he'll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote...and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible force

Recommended by Daisy Johnson and R J Ellory.

Daisy Johnson

If you think you know the story because you’ve seen the film then you’d be wrong. This book is an absolute classic and a great way into the vast King oeuvre. [source]

R J Ellory

I have always rated Stephen King. I think he is so much more than just a commercially successful horror writer. [source]

31

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)

J. K. Rowling, Mary GrandPré

4.3

Harry Potter is leaving Privet Drive for the last time. But as he climbs into the sidecar of Hagrid’s motorbike and they take to the skies, he knows Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters will not be far behind.

The protective charm that has kept him safe until now is broken. But the Dark Lord is breathing fear into everything he loves. And he knows he can’t keep hiding.

To stop Voldemort, Harry knows

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32

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)

J.K. Rowling

4.3

The war against Voldemort is not going well; even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the obituary pages of the Daily Prophet, looking for familiar names. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses.

And yet . . .

As in all wars, life goes on. The Weasley twins expand their business. Sixth-year students learn to Appar

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33

The Elephant Vanishes

Haruki Murakami

4.3

In these stories, a man sees his favorite elephant vanish into thin air; a newlywed couple suffers attacks of hunger that drive them to hold up a McDonald’s in the middle of the night; and a young woman discovers that she has become irresistible to a little green monster who burrows up through her backyard. By turns haunting and hilarious, in The Elephant Vanishes Murakami crosses the border betwe

Recommended by Susan J Napier.

Susan J Napier

Murakami is writer who creates wonderful visions the stranger aspects of our mundane world. Some people call him a magical realist; Murakami has our normal world being invaded by, by strange things. [source]

34

Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut and Kevin Power

4.3

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.

Recommended by Bernard Tan, Carlos Eire, and Dan Christensen.

Bernard Tan

I’m also a Murakami and Vonnegut fan, Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, Slaughterhouse-Five, etc. Now that I look at the books listed, they seem to carry an existential theme. I guess I like to understand humanity and human behaviour ultimately to better understand myself. I find reading a means to connect with people who may have lived before my time, or in a distant country, that I may never have had the chance to connect with in real life. As three-dimensional humans, we are all made up of so many faces and emotional layers that we find it hard to dissect them all, and when we find writers who can explain these thought processes in a way that’s tangible and digestible, there’s this incredibly comforting eureka moment of feeling understood. [source]

Carlos Eire

Even though he is no philosopher Vonnegut is still able to ask the questions that all of us think about – how time affects our lives. [source]

Dan Christensen

@MetaHumean Love that book. [source]

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35

Her Body and Other Parties

Carmen Maria Machado

4.3

In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the

Recommended by Eva Victor.

Eva Victor

@jourdayen BEST BOOK [source]

36

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)

J. K. Rowling

4.3

Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. 'It is time,' he said, 'for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything.'

Harry Potter is due to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry. He is desperate to get back to school and find out why his friends Ron and Hermione

Recommended by Shami Chakrabarti.

Shami Chakrabarti

It’s all about the War on Terror as far as I’m concerned. [source]

37

The Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger

4.3

The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story

Recommended by Bill Gates, Ev Williams, Woody Allen, and 7 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

One of my favorite books ever. [source]

Woody Allen

Film Director

It was such a relief from the other books I was reading at the time, which all had a quality of homework to them. [source]

Audrey Russo

So many novels; Lord of the Flies, Great Gatsby, Great Expectations; all the Nancy Drew books; Catcher in the Rye, Books written by Zora Neale Hurston; Pat Conroy – all because of the view about different people who endure despite adversity while kindling the hearts of the human spirit. [source]

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38

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories

Alice Munro

4.3

A superb new collection from one of our best and best-loved writers. Nine stories draw us immediately into that special place known as Alice Munro territory-a place where an unexpected twist of events or a suddenly recaptured memory can illumine the arc of an entire life.
The fate of a strong-minded housekeeper with a "frizz of reddish hair," just entering the dangerous country of old-maidhood, is

Recommended by Ron Conway, Ryan Holiday, David Cancel, and 1 others.

Lauren Mechling

Any Alice Munro story is a horrid story to boil down to an elevator pitch. I still don’t even know what the story Nettles is about, except I know that it’s about a woman who feels at home in the Alice Munro universe: she’s a writer, she’s a Canadian, she’s a mother, she’s sexually alive. [source]

39

Lord of the Flies

William Golding

4.3

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo

Recommended by Elon Musk, Ev Williams, Audrey Russo, and 5 others.

Audrey Russo

So many novels; Lord of the Flies, Great Gatsby, Great Expectations; all the Nancy Drew books; Catcher in the Rye, Books written by Zora Neale Hurston; Pat Conroy – all because of the view about different people who endure despite adversity while kindling the hearts of the human spirit. [source]

Chigozie Obioma

William Golding imbues some of these children with wisdom that would read, in the hands of a lesser author, as implausibly knowing [source]

Disco Donnie

@JoshRHernandez1 I love the book “Lord of the Flies” so just started watching The Society [source]

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40

No One Belongs Here More Than You

Miranda July

4.3

Screenwriter, director, and star of the acclaimed film Me and You and Everyone We Know, Miranda July brings her extraordinary talents to the page in a startling, sexy, and tender collection.

41

Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim

David Sedaris

4.3

David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his sister's wedding. He mop's his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all sounds normal, doesn't it? In his new book David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary lif, revealing the absurdity teeming

Recommended by Adam Kay.

Adam Kay

@penceyprepmemes How about David Sedaris, for starters - "Dress your family in corduroy and denim" is an amazing book. [source]

42

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Max Brooks

4.3

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet.

Recommended by Bradley Voytek, Geoffrey Miller, Greg Garrett, and 1 others.

Bradley Voytek

World War Z is told from multiple different perspectives and multiple different cultures. It’s about how they respond to the impending apocalypse: what the Americans do and what happens in the Middle East, how individuals respond. So you have a couple of people who are already preparing for the end of the world and you’ve got the military view. It’s great because Max Brooks really pulls together this multi-cultural viewpoint, it’s not just a Brad Pitt action-movie vehicle. [source]

Geoffrey Miller

World War Z (the book, not the movie) by @maxbrooksauthor is an incredibly well-researched, thoughtful, horrifying page-turner that explores the many ways that people, media, & gov'ts are likely to mismanage global pandemics. Highly prescient must-read. https://t.co/04YMqnu06e https://t.co/7dyx0F9qqB [source]

Greg Garrett

World War Z is a novel that bridges the gap between pulp and high literature. It takes a subject matter which we would think of as mainstream geek culture, but it finds universal human themes, develops characters that you care about, and also manages to be culturally critical. It is clearly critical of many of the post-9/11 choices made by the United States and Britain. [source]

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43

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

Angela Carter

4.3

Angela Carter was a storytelling sorceress, the literary godmother of such contemporary masters of supernatural fiction as Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell, Audrey Niffenegger, J. K. Rowling, and Kelly Link, who introduces this edition of Carter's most celebrated book, published for the seventy-fifth anniversary of her birth.

In The Bloody Chamber - which includes the story that is the basis of Neil Jor

Recommended by Emma Watson and Jack Zipes.

Jack Zipes

Yes. Angela Carter played a very important role in my life because I was born in 1937, a few years before she was born, and although we didn’t grow up together, we both grew up in a world where sexism was out in the open. There was no critique of the type of sexism that I experienced when I grew up, and I think the same is true for her. And we both experienced what a lot of people called the second wave of feminism in the 20th century. [source]

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44

Unaccustomed Earth

Jhumpa Lahiri

4.3

Eight stories—longer and more emotionally complex than any Lahiri has yet written—that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers.

From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories—longer and more emotion

45

Stories of Your Life and Others

Ted Chiang

4.3

Ted Chiang's first published story, "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF.

Now, collect

Recommended by Naval Ravikant, Meltem Demirors, and Ryan Len.

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

I’m rereading Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. It’s one of my favorite sci-fi novels. [source]

Meltem Demirors

finally reading Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and i have basically been crying since i opened my kindle such a beautiful writer and such profound topics. division by zero was my favorite of the collection, but the story the book is titled after is stunning 😍 https://t.co/2c5SuDEfkh [source]

Ryan Len

One of the best sci-fi books I’ve read in my life! [source]

46

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini and Simon & Schuster Audi

4.3

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacri

Recommended by James Altucher, Ann Miura-Ko, Magda Marcu, and 1 others.

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

Excellent novel. [source]

Ann Miura-Ko

Ann Miura-Ko recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

Magda Marcu

I’m currently reading “The Kite Runner”. I never have expectations from books, I let them surprise me as I get into the story. Learning about characteristics of different cultures, in this case the Afghan one, it’s one aspect I am interested in. [source]

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47

The Lottery and Other Stories

Shirley Jackson

4.3

The Lottery, one of the most terrifying stories written in this century, created a sensation when it was first published in TheNew Yorker. "Power and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery:" with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson's remarkable

48

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)

J.K. Rowling

4.3

It is the summer holidays, and one night Harry Potter wakes up with his scar burning. He has had a strange dream, one that he can't help worrying about...until a timely invitation from Ron Weasley arrives: to nothing less than the Quidditch World Cup!

Soon Harry is reunited with Ron and Hermione and gasping at the thrills of an international Quidditch match. But then something horrible happens whic

Recommended by Big Structural Change.

Big Structural Change

@siriusclaw Azkaban ftw! Goblet is the worst of the series. Great book though. [source]

49

Catch-22

Joseph Heller, Christopher Buckley

4.2

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Now a Hulu limited series starring Christopher Abbott, George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, and Hu

Recommended by Brian Burkhart, Charles Glass, Kate McLoughlin, and 5 others.

Brian Burkhart

This book is a masterpiece and absolutely hilarious. In subtle ways, you realize the main character is questioning not just the notion of authority, but the way authority thinks and how we must react to it. To me, a guy with the core belief “make waves,” it has a great message, which is, “It’s okay to question the status quo.” For people just starting their careers, it’s easy to think our superiors know everything—they’re not quick to admit their insecurities, flaws, and blind spots, but they have them. And having a healthy dose of skepticism isn’t such a terrible thing. Plus, it’s just a fun read. [source]

Charles Glass

It’s one of the funniest books ever written. It’s about the insanity of military life and the absurdity of a big institution. Heller was very good on the absurdity of big institutions. Catch 22 has every character in it that the American military did have at the time and still has today in Iraq and Afghanistan: The money-makers, the crooks, the officers who were trying to claw their way to the top where they get their men killed, the placing in order of priority the pretence of military success at the cost of many civilian lives. [source]

Kate McLoughlin

It gets you to the point where you can’t apply your reason any more and laughter takes over. It’s the laughter of the absurd. [source]

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50

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and Illusions

Neil Gaiman

4.2

In the deft hands of Neil Gaiman, magic is no mere illusion... and anything is possible. In this, Gaiman's first book of short stories, his imagination and supreme artistry transform a mundane world into a place of terrible wonders -- a place where an old woman can purchase the Holy Grail at a thrift store, where assassins advertise their services in the Yellow Pages under "Pest Control," and wher

51

The Martian Chronicles

Ray Bradbury

4.2

The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.

The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fi

Recommended by Orson Scott Card.

Orson Scott Card

Author

This is language that is meant, like ancient Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse, to be read aloud. It contains its own music. It is music. [source]

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52

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, Margaret Atwood

4.2

IT TAKES A GRAVEYARD TO RAISE A CHILD.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy - an ancient indigo man, a gateway to aban

Recommended by Meghan Camarena and Simon Smith.

Meghan Camarena

While I was walking to the gym I finished the last chapter of The Graveyard Book by @neilhimself. I must’ve looked like a mad woman because I was balling my eyes out in public. Damn, what an incredible story. [source]

Simon Smith

@carveresque ...but The Graveyard Book is one of the best books ever. [source]

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53

The Stories of John Cheever

John Cheever

4.2

Here are sixty-one stories that chronicle the lives of what has been called "the greatest generation." From the early wonder and disillusionment of city life in "The Enormous Radio" to the surprising discoveries and common mysteries of suburbia in "The Housebreaker of Shady Hill" and "The Swimmer," Cheever tells us everything we need to know about "the pain and sweetness of life."

Goodbye, my broth

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54

Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)

Suzanne Collins

4.2

My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel

55

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

4.2

This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators?

Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world’s motor — and the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when

Recommended by Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Ev Williams, and 14 others.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

A counterpoint to communism and useful as such, but should be tempered with kindness. [source]

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

is said by his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, to have regarded Atlas Shrugged as one of his “guides in life”. [source]

Travis Kalanick

Travis Kalanick mentioned this book in a Washington Post interview. [source]

56

The Stranger

Albert Camus, Jonathan Davis, et al

4.2

Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." First published in English in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.

Recommended by David Heinemeier Hansson and Kyle Maynard.

David Heinemeier Hansson

Seminal novel on existentialism and the absurd by Albert Camus from 1946. Explores that feeling of disconnectedness from society, its norms, and the absurdity of every day life. Striking first-person account in a powerful, direct language. [source]

Kyle Maynard

Kyle Maynard said this is one of his most-recommended books. [source]

57

Skeleton Crew

Stephen King

4.2

In this brilliant collection of stories, Stephen King takes readers down paths that only he could imagine. A supermarket becomes the place where humanity makes its last stand against destruction. A trip to the attic becomes a journey to hell. A woman driver finds a scary shortcut to paradise. An idyllic lake harbors a bottomless evil. And a desert island is the scene of the most terrifying struggl

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58

The Complete Stories and Poems

Edgar Allan Poe

4.2

This single volume brings together all of Poe's stories and poems, and illuminates the diverse and multifaceted genius of one of the greatest and most influential figures in American literary history.

59

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

4.2

Now reissued in a gorgeous hardcover edition: "one of the most prophetic dystopian works of the 20th century" (Wall Street Journal) must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit in the face of our "brave new world." Huxley's masterpiece has become a bestseller once again after the American election.

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature,

Recommended by Sam Altman, Yuval Noah Harari, Andra Zaharia, and 9 others.

Yuval Noah Harari

Historian

The most prophetic book of the 20th century. Today many people would easily mistake it for a utopia. [source]

Andra Zaharia

These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way. [source]

Catherine Mayer

It shows the ways in which technology, our need for certain creature comforts and consumer culture can be used to manipulate us. [source]

60

I, Robot

Isaac Asimov

4.2

The three laws of Robotics:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

With these three, simple directives, Isaac A

Recommended by Laurie Voss.

Laurie Voss

@ThePenguinLemma @MusingsOfDeimos The I, Robot book (actually a short story collection) is amazing if you've not read it. Enough ideas to make a dozen movies. [source]

61

Full Dark, No Stars

Stephen King

4.2

"I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger..." writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up "1922." the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of

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62

Naked

David Sedaris

4.2

Welcome to the hilarious, strange, elegiac, outrageous world of David Sedaris. In Naked, Sedaris turns the mania for memoir on its proverbial ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, his family, and his unique worldview—a sensibility at once take-no-prisoners sharp and deeply charitable. A tart-tongued mother does dead-on imitations of her young son's nervous tics, to the great amusem

Recommended by David Blaine.

David Blaine

It’s hilarious. [source]

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63

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories

Lucia Berlin, Stephen Emerson, Lydia Davis

4.2

A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboar

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64

Just After Sunset

Stephen King

4.2

Just after sunset—call it dusk; call it twilight; it’s a time when human life takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you.

Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love?

65

Four Past Midnight

Stephen King

4.1

At midnight comes the point of balance. Of danger. The instang of utter stillness when between two beats of the heart, an alternative reality can slip through, like a blade between the ribs, and swithc you into a new and terrifying world.

Four Past Midnight: four heart-stopping accounts of that moment when the familiar world fractures beyond sense, the fragments spinning away from the desperate, cl

66

Death; An Inside Story: A book for all those who shall die

SADHGURU

4.1

Preview Summary

What is death? Is it the cessation of life or a part of the continuum of existence?
Is it to be feared, or loved and embraced?
What are these relationships that we carry through our lives and beyond them?
How can one gain enough spiritual knowledge and experience that one comes out of this cycle of rebirth?
These are just a few of the many aspects that Sadhguru explores in Death. He is talking from a

67

A Visit from the Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan

4.1

Jennifer Egan’s spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other’s pasts, the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many

Recommended by Dan Ariely, Adam Roberts, Adam Roberts, and 1 others.

Adam Roberts

I love this novel. It is wonderfully written, brilliantly imaginative and engaging, funny and sad and smart. I also love it because of what it says about SF. That in a genre often caricatured (by those who don’t know it very well) as being about the wish-fulfillment fantasies of adolescent boys – huge space weapons, scantily clad astro-girls and so on – some of the very best work is being written by women. [source]

Adam Roberts

I love this novel. It is wonderfully written, brilliantly imaginative and engaging, funny and sad and smart. I also love it because of what it says about SF. That in a genre often caricatured (by those who don’t know it very well) as being about the wish-fulfillment fantasies of adolescent boys – huge space weapons, scantily clad astro-girls and so on – some of the very best work is being written by women. [source]

Lee Pace

@Egangoonsquad @EW I loved this book. Great pick. [source]

68

The Giver (The Giver, #1)

Lois Lowry

4.1

Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community.

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69

Runaway

Alice Munro

4.1

The incomparable Alice Munro’s bestselling and rapturously acclaimed Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises, from the title story about a young woman who, though she thinks she wants to, is incapable of leaving her husband, to three stories about a woman named Juliet and the emotions that complicate the luster of her intimate relationships. I

70

It

Stephen King

4.1

They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made 28 years ago calls them to reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city's children. Now children are being murdered again, and their repressed mem

71

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Auste

4.1

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268

Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud

Recommended by Meg Rosoff.

Meg Rosoff

It’s a coming-of-age story, because she throws aside her prejudices but also sees the house and realises that she could be quite comfortable and maybe realises how important that is. [source]

72

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)

C. S. Lewis, Kenneth Branagh, et al

4.1

Narnia...the land beyond the wardrobe door, a secret place frozen in eternal winter, a magical country waiting to be set free.

Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first her brothers and sister don't believe her when she tells of her visit to the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund, then Peter and Susan step through the wardrobe themselves. In

Recommended by Chris Anderson, Chris Anderson, Chris Anderson, and 3 others.

Chris Anderson

As a child, they exploded my imagination. [source]

Chris Anderson

As a child, they exploded my imagination. [source]

Chris Anderson

As a child, they exploded my imagination. [source]

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73

Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories

Flannery O’Connor, Bronson Pinchot, et al

4.1

Flannery O'Connor was working on Everything That Rises Must Converge at the time of her death. This collection is an exquisite legacy from a genius of the American short story, in which she scrutinizes territory familiar to her readers: race, faith, and morality. The stories encompass the comic and the tragic, the beautiful and the grotesque; each carries her highly individual stamp and could have

74

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Stephen King

4.1

From the Flap:

A solitary finger pokes out of a drain. Novelty teeth turn predatory. Flies settle and die on an old pair of sneakers in New York, and the Nevada desert swallows a Cadillac. Meanwhile the legend of Castle Rock returns . . . and grows on you. What does it all mean? What else could it mean? First there was Night Shift (1978), then Skeleton Crew (1985), and now Stephen King is back with

75

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

4.1

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, wit

Recommended by Lydia Ruffles.

Lydia Ruffles

The [source]

76

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green

4.1

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author

Recommended by Elon Musk, Emma Watson, and James Comey.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Must admit to liking this book. Sad, romantic and beautifully named. [source]

James Comey

@johngreen You should not be. It is a great book. Was recently in Amsterdam and walked some of the scenes with your huge fan, my youngest daughter. Loved hearing from you and meeting you at Kenyon. [source]

77

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov

4.1

When it was published in 1955, Lolita immediately became a cause célèbre because of the freedom and sophistication with which it handled the unusual erotic predilections of its protagonist. But Vladimir Nabokov's wise, ironic, elegant masterpiece owes its stature as one of the twentieth century's novels of record not to the controversy its material aroused but to its author's use of that material

Recommended by Ev Williams, Bryan Callen, Ella Berthoud, and 3 others.

Bryan Callen

So here are my three must read books. I've been reading a lot of great books like: Outsmart Your Instincts, The Culture Code, and Antonio Damasio’s The Strange Order, and sometimes when you read a lot of nonfiction it’s very enriching, sometimes you need a novel. I really believe you should take a minute and read something beautiful. Listen, listen to Lolita by Nabokov. But also listen to Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and listen to Richard Poe narrate that. Those are two of the greatest feats of the english language that I can think of. Then there’s Fortress of Solitude, an amazing book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, these are great novels. Cold Mountain is a beautiful novel, Snow Falling On Cedars, I mean they’ve been around for a while. But goddamnit, get those under your belt. Those are the novels I think you should read. You know Love In The Time Of Cholera it just makes you ache. Kind of like a Hemingway thing, where Hemingway “ahh!”, it’s the same thing, you know. So I don’t know, I’m a fan of all those books. Those are my 3 slash 20 books. [source]

Ella Berthoud

Even though it’s wrong, you sympathise with him because he can’t help himself and writes about it in such a passionate and empathetic way. [source]

Richard Cohen

It’s more imbued with references to the sun and using the sun as symbol or metaphor – almost a kind of character in the novel – than any other work in literature. [source]

78

The Complete Stories

Franz Kafka, Nahum N. Glatzer, John Updike

4.1

The Complete Stories brings together all of Kafka’s stories, from the classic tales such as “The Metamorphosis,” “In the Penal Colony,” and “A Hunger Artist” to shorter pieces and fragments that Max Brod, Kafka’s literary executor, released after Kafka’s death. With the exception of his three novels, the whole of Kafka’s narrative work is included in this volume.
--penguinrandomhouse.com

Two Introd

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79

Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories

Raymond Carver

4.1

By the time of his early death in 1988, Raymond Carver had established himself as one of the greatest practitioners of the American short story, a writer who had not only found his own voice but imprinted it in the imaginations of thousands of readers.

'Where I'm Calling From', his last collection, encompasses classic stories from 'Cathedral', 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' and earli

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80

The Metamorphosis and Other Stories

Franz Kafka, Donna Freed, Jason Baker

4.1

The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, by Franz Kafka, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to

81

If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood

Gregg Olsen

4.0

Preview Summary

A shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters determined to survive their mother’s house of horrors.

After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.

For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadisti

82

The Wonky Donkey

Craig Smith, Katz Cowley

4.0

Kids will love this cumulative and hysterical read-aloud that features a free downloadable song!
"I was walking down the road and I saw...
a donkey,
Hee Haw!
And he only had three legs!
He was a wonky donkey."

Children will be in fits of laughter with this perfect read-aloud tale of an endearing donkey. By the book's final page, readers end up with a spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-t

Recommended by Alex Stojkovic, Alvin Lindsay, and Hannah Fry.

Alex Stojkovic

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates Both Say This is the Best Business Book in the World https://t.co/4xVWetLsvF [source]

Alvin Lindsay

ATTENTION: Do you hate your job? "HOW TO ESCAPE THE JOB YOU HATE" FREE Sunday Times Best Seller Book & DVD package will show you a simple way. https://t.co/uLzyBw429W #england #UK #Unitedkingdom shipping ONLY! #business #marketing 😉 ❤ https://t.co/JddHTMJaJj [source]

Hannah Fry

@robeastaway @icecolbeveridge P.s. you know this is basically the plot to objectively the best book of all time - the wonky donkey [source]

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83

Cathedral

Raymond Carver

4.0

Raymond Carver’s third collection of stories, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, including the canonical titular story about blindness and learning to enter the very different world of another. These twelve stories mark a turning point in Carver’s career and “overflow with the danger, excitement, mystery and possibility of life. . . . Carver is a writer of astonishing compassion and honesty. . . .

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84

The Green Mile

Stephen King

4.0

When it first appeared, one volume per month, Stephen King's THE GREEN MILE was an unprecedented publishing triumph: all six volumes ended up on the New York Times bestseller lists—simultaneously—and delighted millions of fans the world over.

Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk the Green Mile, keeping

Recommended by Clive Stafford Smith.

Clive Stafford Smith

It’s an immensely courageous book for such a famous author to write. It’s written from the perspective of the warder, whose job is to supervise death row and the execution of prisoners. The story is ultimately about a guy called John Coffey, a Christ-like figure who gets executed. [source]

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85

After the Quake

Haruki Murakami and Jay Rubi

4.0

The six stories in Haruki Murakami’s mesmerizing collection are set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, when Japan became brutally aware of the fragility of its daily existence. But the upheavals that afflict Murakami’s characters are even deeper and more mysterious, emanating from a place where the human meets the inhuman.

An electronics salesman who has been abruptly deserted b

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86

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

4.0

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930)
was a Scottish author most noted for his stories about the
detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major
innovation in the field of crime fiction, and the adventures of
Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works
include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and
romances, poetry, an

87

Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck

4.0

The compelling story of two outsiders striving to find their place in an unforgiving world.

Drifters in search of work, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie have nothing in the world except each other and a dream -- a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch in California’s Salinas Valley, but their hopes are doomed as Lennie, struggling

Recommended by Barack Obama and Steve Benjamins.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

When he got to high school, the president said, his tastes changed and he learned to enjoy classics like “Of Mice and Men” and “The Great Gatsby.” [source]

Steve Benjamins

I think all of John Steinbeck’s books are uplifting. He sees the best in humanity and it leaves me feeling warm and generous. I always love this paragraph in Of Mice and Men that hints at the tension between business and humanity: "It has always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honestly, understanding, and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second." [source]

88

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel, Jay Rubin

4.0

Collection of twenty-four stories that generously expresses Murakami’s mastery of the form. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit his ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and relentlessly entertaining. Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an iceman, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might w

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89

The Shining, Carrie and Misery

Stephen King

4.0

For the first time ever in one volume three nightmarish tales of horror from the best selling author Stephen King.

Recommended by Rob Anderson For Louisiana.

Rob Anderson For Louisiana

@CrazyVetDem80 @blu_joon Great book, great movie (“Misery”). Nice reference. We are all in this together. I’m honored to have your support - y’all are the important ones. [source]

90

Crime and Punishment: A Russian Realistic Novel

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

4.0

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the

Recommended by Ben Domenech, Esther Perel, Irvine Welsh, and 3 others.

Ben Domenech

@SohrabAhmari @li88yinc @jgcrum @BlueBoxDave @InezFeltscher @JarrettStepman Maybe the best book ever written. [source]

Esther Perel

You can reread the Russians. They are timeless. [source]

Irvine Welsh

It is not a crime book in the way that we understand crime fiction today. Instead it is like an existential psychological thriller. [source]

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91

Exhalation: Stories

Ted Chiang

4.0

An alternate cover edition for this book can be found here.

From an award-winning science fiction writer (whose short story "The Story of Your Life" was the basis for the Academy Award-nominated movie Arrival), the long-awaited new collection of stunningly original, humane, and already celebrated short stories

This much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revela

92

Me Talk Pretty One Day

David Sedaris

4.0

David Sedaris' move to Paris from New York inspired these hilarious pieces, including the title essay, about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section. His family is another inspiration. You Can't Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother, who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no

Recommended by Ev Williams.

93

Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)

Elizabeth Strout

4.0

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.

At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn

Recommended by Alina Varlanuta.

Alina Varlanuta

I don’t have a favourite book. But I do have favourite characters: The flawed and broken Olive Kitteridge assembled by Elizabeth Strout. [source]

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94

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

4.0

THE ONLY COMPLETE COLLECTION BY THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR

In this definitive collection of Ernest Hemingway's short stories, readers will delight in the author's most beloved classics such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and will discover seven new tales published for the first time in this collection. For Hemingway fans The Comp

Recommended by Sonia Micu.

Sonia Micu

When I need something that is soothing, I read anything by Hemingway and life starts to feel like some sort of an adventure I shouldn’t miss. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway is one way I got a taste of it. The Strange Country is my favourite. [source]

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95

Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen

4.0

Winner of the 2007 BookBrowse Award for Most Popular Book.

An atmospheric, gritty, and compelling novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932, by the bestselling author of Riding Lessons.

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during t

96

The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure

William Goldman

4.0

A Tale of true love and high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts - The Princess Bride is a modern storytelling classic.

As Florin and Guilder teeter on the verge of war, the reluctant Princess Buttercup is devastated by the loss of her true love, kidnapped by a mercenary and his henchmen, rescued by a pirate, forced to marry Prince

Recommended by Neil Gaiman and A.r. Moxon (Julius Goat).

Neil Gaiman

Anybody who loved the movie should go read the novel. And anybody who has never heard of the movie, should go read the novel. It’s William Goldman, at his best, writing for the sheer joy of it and that joy manifests on every page. [source]

A.r. Moxon (Julius Goat)

@TByrne75 I think the book of the Princess bride is pretty great actually [source]

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97

The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories, #1)

Chris Colfer

4.0

Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairy tales.
The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they

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98

Drown

Junot Díaz

4.0

With ten stories that move from the barrios of the Dominican Republic to the struggling urban communities of New Jersey, Junot Diaz makes his remarkable debut. Diaz's work is unflinching and strong, and these stories crackle with an electric sense of discovery. Diaz evokes a world in which fathers are gone, mothers fight with grim determination for their families and themselves, and the next gener

99

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Patrick Radden Keefe

4.0

14 hours, 40 minutes

From award-winning New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions

In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abducti

Recommended by Carrie Johnson, Margot Wallström, Mikko Takkunen, and 3 others.

Carrie Johnson

The best book I read last year. 📚 https://t.co/CULq9zZHEU [source]

Margot Wallström

I recommend the book ”Say nothing” about Northern Ireland and IRA. It makes fascinating reading about memories, murder, mourning and making peace. [source]

Mikko Takkunen

Just finished reading this remarkable book by @praddenkeefe. I was baffled getting this from @VeronicaSanchis as I don’t remember ever showing particular interest in the Troubles, but she obviously knows me better than I do. https://t.co/KlBCF41y47 https://t.co/PnJlLCZyQD [source]

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100

Birds of America

Lorrie Moore

4.0

A long-awaited collection of stories--twelve in all--by one of the most exciting writers at work today, the acclaimed author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help. Stories remarkable in their range, emotional force, and dark laughter, and in the sheer beauty and power of their language.

From the opening story, "Willing", about a second-rate movie actress in her thirties who has moved bac