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This collection includes the titles of the 20th century considered the most vital to a personal library, all in a beautiful, compact format.
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 1 |
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The Great Gatsby
by
3.93 avg rating — 5,782,902 ratings
score: 551,
and
6 people voted
|
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| 2 |
|
A Clockwork Orange
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 758,121 ratings
score: 485,
and
5 people voted
|
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| 3 |
|
Invisible Man
by
3.92 avg rating — 199,715 ratings
score: 483,
and
5 people voted
|
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| 4 |
|
Tender Is The Night
by
3.77 avg rating — 147,692 ratings
score: 440,
and
5 people voted
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| 5 |
|
Dubliners
by
3.84 avg rating — 171,756 ratings
score: 418,
and
5 people voted
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| 6 |
|
The Man in the High Castle
by
3.59 avg rating — 231,144 ratings
score: 406,
and
5 people voted
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| 7 |
|
Lolita
by
3.87 avg rating — 926,937 ratings
score: 392,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 8 |
|
A Room with a View
by
3.89 avg rating — 198,973 ratings
score: 379,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 9 |
|
The Day of the Triffids
by
4.01 avg rating — 115,885 ratings
score: 376,
and
5 people voted
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| 10 |
|
Breakfast at Tiffany's
by
3.67 avg rating — 18,629 ratings
score: 370,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 10 |
|
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
by
4.04 avg rating — 536,846 ratings
score: 370,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 12 |
|
The Thin Man
by
3.90 avg rating — 37,667 ratings
score: 368,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 13 |
|
On the Road
by
3.61 avg rating — 441,774 ratings
score: 349,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 14 |
|
Cold Comfort Farm
by
3.88 avg rating — 54,181 ratings
score: 346,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 15 |
|
Hideous Kinky
by
3.53 avg rating — 4,073 ratings
score: 345,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 16 |
|
The Diary of a Nobody
by
3.69 avg rating — 17,815 ratings
score: 344,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 17 |
|
The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)
by
3.94 avg rating — 166,359 ratings
score: 341,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 18 |
|
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by
3.70 avg rating — 59,843 ratings
score: 334,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 19 |
|
Wide Sargasso Sea
by
3.59 avg rating — 104,418 ratings
score: 323,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 20 |
|
Steppenwolf
by
4.13 avg rating — 209,346 ratings
score: 319,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 21 |
|
Brideshead Revisited
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 124,672 ratings
score: 318,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 22 |
|
Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog
by
3.83 avg rating — 78,905 ratings
score: 308,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 23 |
|
Lucky Jim
by
3.75 avg rating — 31,666 ratings
score: 303,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 24 |
|
Love in the Time of Cholera
by
3.94 avg rating — 539,316 ratings
score: 302,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 25 |
|
A Passage to India
by
3.68 avg rating — 84,830 ratings
score: 277,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 26 |
|
Mrs. Dalloway
by
3.78 avg rating — 346,752 ratings
score: 264,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 27 |
|
My Family and Other Animals (Corfu Trilogy, #1)
by
4.17 avg rating — 62,346 ratings
score: 258,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 28 |
|
In the Country of Men
by
3.75 avg rating — 7,436 ratings
score: 245,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 29 |
|
Cat's Cradle
by
4.15 avg rating — 431,047 ratings
score: 240,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 30 |
|
I'm the King of the Castle
by
3.49 avg rating — 3,685 ratings
score: 238,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 31 |
|
A Handful of Dust
by
3.89 avg rating — 28,488 ratings
score: 236,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 32 |
|
A Kestrel for a Knave
by
4.07 avg rating — 7,822 ratings
score: 230,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 33 |
|
Regeneration
by
4.02 avg rating — 33,233 ratings
score: 225,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 34 |
|
Out of Africa
by
Isak Dinesen (Pseudonym)
3.91 avg rating — 47,325 ratings
score: 223,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 35 |
|
Heart of Darkness
by
3.43 avg rating — 549,459 ratings
score: 221,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 36 |
|
In Cold Blood
by
4.09 avg rating — 715,727 ratings
score: 218,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 37 |
|
Everything is Illuminated
by
Jonathan Safran Foer (Goodreads Author)
3.89 avg rating — 183,176 ratings
score: 214,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 38 |
|
Moon Tiger
by
3.91 avg rating — 18,643 ratings
score: 184,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 39 |
|
A Month in the Country
by
4.09 avg rating — 24,969 ratings
score: 176,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 40 |
|
Bonjour Tristesse
by
3.74 avg rating — 69,243 ratings
score: 166,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 40 |
|
Billy Liar
by
3.72 avg rating — 2,258 ratings
score: 166,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 42 |
|
A Confederacy of Dunces
by
3.89 avg rating — 293,671 ratings
score: 162,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 43 |
|
The History of Love
by
3.92 avg rating — 139,760 ratings
score: 161,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 44 |
|
Eva Luna
by
Isabel Allende (Goodreads Author)
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 58,165 ratings
score: 157,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 45 |
|
Goodbye to All That
by
3.93 avg rating — 15,387 ratings
score: 152,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 46 |
|
Lady Chatterley's Lover
by
3.50 avg rating — 135,714 ratings
score: 149,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 47 |
|
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
by
4.09 avg rating — 123,478 ratings
score: 144,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 48 |
|
The Millstone
by
3.90 avg rating — 3,892 ratings
score: 129,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 49 |
|
Foe
by
3.42 avg rating — 12,312 ratings
score: 128,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 50 |
|
Junky
by
3.85 avg rating — 70,382 ratings
score: 123,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 51 |
|
Embers
by
3.99 avg rating — 42,097 ratings
score: 113,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 52 |
|
The Help
by
Kathryn Stockett (Goodreads Author)
4.47 avg rating — 2,978,671 ratings
score: 108,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 53 |
|
Asylum
by
3.97 avg rating — 39,711 ratings
score: 91,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 54 |
|
Hell's Angels
by
3.98 avg rating — 53,989 ratings
score: 82,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 55 |
|
The Mosquito Coast
by
3.81 avg rating — 13,739 ratings
score: 76,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 56 |
|
An Ice-cream War
by
3.92 avg rating — 4,427 ratings
score: 69,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 57 |
|
What a Carve Up!
by
Jonathan Coe (Goodreads Author)
4.11 avg rating — 12,876 ratings
score: 55,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 58 |
|
The Periodic Table
by
4.14 avg rating — 18,962 ratings
score: 48,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 59 |
|
How Many Miles to Babylon?
by
3.63 avg rating — 2,092 ratings
score: 45,
and
1 person voted
|
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59 books ·
10 voters ·
list created May 25th, 2016
by Not Well Read (votes) .
Not Well Read
3537 books
98 friends
98 friends
Sue
10659 books
82 friends
82 friends
Phillip
5729 books
139 friends
139 friends
Maria
5489 books
404 friends
404 friends
BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...)
5441 books
64 friends
64 friends
Saturday's
2227 books
67 friends
67 friends
Edmund
2038 books
6 friends
6 friends
Catherine
1187 books
5 friends
5 friends
More voters…
Comments Showing 1-3 of 3 (3 new)
date
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message 1:
by
BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...)
(new)
Apr 01, 2019 11:13AM
Is this the same as (the later) Penguin Essentials?
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|
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Booklovinglady wrote: "Is this the same as (the later) Penguin Essentials?"It looks like they're the same to me, but the other one has some newer additions.
Erica wrote: "It looks like they're the same to me, but the other one has some newer additions."Thanks! I noticed it had more books on it than this one but I wasn't sure it was the same.
Anyone can add books to this list.
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