50 Best Novels
This is a list of the Top 50 novels that I have read, ranked in order beginning with the most highly recommended. These rankings are based on how well written the books are, how powerful and poignant their messages are, and, to a slightly lesser extent, how entertaining they are.
Bear in mind that this is my own personal list, and will also incorporate aspects of how strongly the books affected me at the time I read them. Rereadings of some of these books may change my mind on their placement in the future!
I may update this list over time as my opinions evolve and as I read more books. This list was last modified in November 2012.
Feel free to share your opinions about what you've read, what you'd recommend, and what you think I should read that might find its way onto this list.
- Les Miserables
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The Grapes of Wrath
- Gulliver's Travels
- All Quiet on the Western Front
- Life of Pi
- The Hobbit
- Of Mice and Men
- Moby Dick
- The Fellowship of the Ring
- The Two Towers
- The Return of the King
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Perelandra
- Lord of the Flies
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- The Power of One
- The Years of Rice and Salt
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- Watership Down
- A Scanner Darkly
- The Magician's Nephew
- The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
- The Horse and His Boy
- Prince Caspian
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- The Silver Chair
- The Last Battle
- The Last Samurai
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Frankenstein
- The Book of the Dun Cow
- Red Mars
- Green Mars
- Blue Mars
- Ender's Game
- I Am Legend
- Animal Farm
- Great Expectations
- Brave New World
- Dracula
- Pride and Prejudice
- The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
- The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- A Wrinkle in Time
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- The Three Musketeers
- The Odyssey
- The Hunt for Red October
Former "Top 50" Books
- The Invisible Man
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
- Steppenwolf
Special People
Special People is serialized superhero fiction with a fistful of twists.
Special people have special problems.
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Galloway’s Hunt
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Losing Freight
Losing Freight is a serialized sci-fi novel where you get to vote on what happens next at the end of every page.
December 8th, 2010 - 09:42
I'm about a quarter of the way through Les Miserables right now, and I think it's probably going to find a place in my Top 10.
January 1st, 2011 - 07:22
Have you read All the King's Men? That's a classic.
January 1st, 2011 - 09:21
I haven't, no. If I see it in a used book store I might grab it. What's the concept?
January 1st, 2011 - 10:40
I suggest Masters of Doom (about the making of Doom) and Final Cut (about the making of Heaven's Gate, one of Hollywood's most notorious bombs).
Final Cut comes with a promise: if you read it and don't like it, I will buy the book off you at whatever cost you paid to get it.
January 3rd, 2011 - 05:07
Sounds interesting, King Kool, but I'm more of a fiction person, as this list suggests.
January 4th, 2011 - 04:40
Love that Philip K Dick is represented up there. Have you read Man in the High Castle yet?
January 4th, 2011 - 05:21
I think I have, but I don't remember specifically. I find most of Dick's writing pretty surreal and hard to get a handle on, so it's hard to say afterwards how good it was.
January 21st, 2011 - 05:22
Any chance you've read the Wheel of Time series? It's my personal favorite high fantasy series, and if you're a fan of the Lord of the Rings, the Wheel of Time series is right up your alley.
January 21st, 2011 - 05:41
I haven't read them, actually, though I've heard of them before. I have a lot on my to-read list, but I wouldn't mind giving them a try at some point.
June 7th, 2011 - 14:38
You should read Madame Bovary Tim… I think you’d enjoy it.
I need to finish Lewis’s sci-fi trilogy…
June 7th, 2011 - 14:56
There are so many books I should read! I’ll try to get around to that one at some point.
July 11th, 2011 - 18:59
East of Eden should be number one. It probably isn’t because you haven’t taken on the significant commitment it represents. But if you can be married, you can take on Steinbeck’s seminal work.
November 25th, 2012 - 06:28
I agree with Les Miserables being the best. If you haven’t already, you might want to give “Robinson Crusoe,” “The Mysterious Island,” and “Anna Karenina” a try as well.
November 25th, 2012 - 09:52
Thanks, Mike! Two of the three were already on my internal “list” of things to read. I’ll add “The Mysterious Island” to that, and hopefully get to it at some point. :)
November 26th, 2012 - 02:56
You’re welcome, Tim. :)