1000 Novels Everyone Must Read

What are the 1000 best novels? The Guardian thinks it knows. This list was put together by The Guardian’s review team and a panel of experts. As you’ll see, the definitive list is helpfully subdivided into themes: love, crime, comedy, family and self, state of the nation, science fiction and fantasy, war and travel.

On that note, I should also highlight a collection of Life-Changing Books put together by our readers. You’ll find many good reads here as well.

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by Dan Colman | Permalink | Comments (6) |

Comments (6)
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  1. Anthony says . . . | January 23, 2009 / 10:24 pm

    1000 is too many….it’s too much of a list and not one that is realistically readable. Then again…maybe that is the point.

  2. Weldon MacDonald says . . . | January 24, 2009 / 4:34 am

    The list has J K Rawlings on the same list with Cormac McCarthy and Margaret Atwood, among others. THe Harry Potter series was wonderful, but Rawlings doesn’t write nearly well enough to be on this list.

  3. Mark says . . . | January 27, 2009 / 9:52 am

    It’s “Rowling,” for Pete’s sake: “Rowling.”

  4. manoman says . . . | February 1, 2009 / 2:01 am

    what?

  5. Anon says . . . | February 1, 2009 / 2:11 pm

    The definitive list appears to contain 998 works. What are the missing 2?

  6. max22 says . . . | November 2, 2009 / 6:19 am

    The missing two spots are for the books I am about to write. Im probably the best writer ever, so they will obviosly be at the top of the list.

    Good question. They should change the name to the 998 “Novels everyone must read”. That is until Iwrite my books.

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    Open Culture editor Dan Colman scours the web for the best educational media. He finds the free courses and audio books you need, the language lessons & movies you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.

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