1984 by George OrwellA Clockwork Orange by Anthony BurgessPerfume by Patrick SüskindAnimal Farm by George OrwellSybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
The Most Disturbing Books Ever Written
3,168 books — 11,097 voters
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor DostoevskyThe Idiot by Fyodor DostoevskyCrime and Punishment by Fyodor DostoevskyThe Master and Margarita by Mikhail BulgakovThe Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
Greatest Eastern European Classics
440 books — 249 voters

The Art of War by Sun TzuRubaiyat Of  Omar Khayyám by Omar KhayyámThe Epic of Gilgamesh by AnonymousLove in a Fallen City by Eileen ChangInanna, Lady of Largest Heart by Enheduanna
Asian Classics
183 books — 58 voters
Dialectic of Enlightenment by Max HorkheimerSpecters of Marx by Jacques DerridaThe History of Sexuality, Volume 1 by Michel FoucaultThe History of Sexuality, Volume 2 by Michel FoucaultThe History of Sexuality, Volume 3 by Michel Foucault
Mapping Critical Theory
107 books — 41 voters

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled HosseiniThe Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk KiddAtonement by Ian McEwanExtremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran FoerKafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Best Books of the Decade: 2000s
7,224 books — 28,362 voters
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe Metamorphosis by Franz KafkaThe Trial by Franz KafkaThe Man Without Qualities by Robert MusilThe Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Best German/Austrian/Swiss Literature
1,032 books — 951 voters

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef PenneyThe Silence of the Lambs by Thomas  HarrisA Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled HosseiniThe Smoke of Distant Fires by Eduardo ChirinosThe Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Most Poetic Book Titles
2,064 books — 890 voters
Predictably Irrational by Dan ArielyFreakonomics by Steven D. LevittA Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill BrysonOutliers by Malcolm GladwellThe Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Best Non-Fiction (no biographies)
6,222 books — 8,061 voters

Beloved by Toni MorrisonThe Book Thief by Markus ZusakAtonement by Ian McEwan
Recommended Historical Fiction
3,515 books — 3,524 voters
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor DostoevskyThe Name of the Rose by Umberto EcoZorba the Greek by Nikos KazantzakisCrime and Punishment by Fyodor DostoevskyThe Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Around the World One Book from Each Country
1,061 books — 957 voters

The Sacred and the Profane by Mircea EliadeThe Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious by C.G. JungThe Power of Myth by Joseph CampbellMetamorphoses by OvidBulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch
Best Books About Mythology
1,390 books — 2,211 voters

If I Should Speak by Umm ZakiyyahPainted Hands by Jennifer Zobair
Islamic Fiction
76 books — 105 voters

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieLong Walk to Freedom by Nelson MandelaCutting for Stone by Abraham   VergheseThe Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard KapuścińskiThe Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz
Africa (fiction and nonfiction)
1,743 books — 1,606 voters
The Book Thief by Markus ZusakThe Diary of a Young Girl by Anne FrankSchindler’s List by Thomas KeneallyThe Pianist by Władysław SzpilmanThe Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Well-Written Holocaust Books
883 books — 2,870 voters

Beloved by Toni MorrisonThe Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel HawthorneMrs. Dalloway by Virginia WoolfMacbeth by William ShakespeareTheir Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Best Female Lead Characters
4,826 books — 5,822 voters
A Room of One's Own by Virginia WoolfI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya AngelouMemoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de BeauvoirThe Diary of a Young Girl by Anne FrankBone Black by bell hooks
Memoirs by Women
2,943 books — 2,991 voters

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest HemingwayA Passage to India by E.M. ForsterThe Kite Runner by Khaled HosseiniTwilight in Italy by D.H. LawrenceA Room with a View by E.M. Forster
Life in a Foreign Country
790 books — 388 voters
Beloved by Toni MorrisonThe Sound and the Fury by William FaulknerThe Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor DostoevskyThe Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeThe Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Best Books Ever
74,782 books — 277,478 voters

Beloved by Toni MorrisonNative Son by Richard WrightGiovanni’s Room by James BaldwinThe Color Purple by Alice WalkerTar Baby by Toni Morrison
Best African American Books
991 books — 1,136 voters
Zami by Audre LordeGender Outlaws by Kate BornsteinOf Woman Born by Adrienne RichThe Age of Scientific Sexism by Mari RutiFifty Shades of Feminism by Lisa Appignanesi
Women & Gender Studies
1,459 books — 544 voters

Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill CollinsFeminism Is for Everybody by bell hooksFeminist Theory by bell hooksPlaying in the Dark by Toni MorrisonGender Outlaws by Kate Bornstein
Feminism & Gender & Stuff
80 books — 34 voters
Playing in the Dark by Toni MorrisonInvisible Man by Ralph EllisonThe Meaning of Freedom by Angela Y. DavisImagined Communities by Benedict AndersonCulture and Imperialism by Edward W. Said
Books for and About Activists
326 books — 306 voters