Taken from a poll by the Norwegian Book Clubs editors and the Norwegian Nobel Institute to outstanding authors from 54 different countries. The question asked them to list what they considered the “best and most central works in world literature.”
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138 books · 84 voters · list created April 30th, 2012 by tm1906 (votes) .
72 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


tm1906 1290 books
7 friends
C. 451 books
370 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3388 books
851 friends
Bettie 15685 books
19 friends
Judy 879 books
8 friends
Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) 546 books
365 friends
Thom 6022 books
293 friends
╟ ♫ Tima ♪ ╣ ♥ 3351 books
207 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-6 of 6 (6 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Ben (new)

Ben This list is a duplicate of: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/94...


message 2: by Thom (new)

Thom Dunn Is the Odyssey on this list ? If so, I missed it. Somewhat surprised that the Torah and the Gospels are not on this list, but then again, one would have to find a book for each title...a frequent drawback of GoodReads posting. Short stories also. This feels more like a list of Great Books. How "influential" are Things Fall Apart, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Invisible Man, really ?


message 3: by Ben (last edited May 08, 2012 03:54PM) (new)

Ben Thom wrote: "Is the Odyssey on this list ? If so, I missed it. Somewhat surprised that the Torah and the Gospels are not on this list, but then again, one would have to find a book for each title...a frequent ..."

Thom, the title of this list is inaccurate. The writers who voted on it intended it as the greatest books of all time. This list is also a duplicate of a pre-existing list in Goodreads. See the link in my note above.


message 4: by Andrew (new)

Andrew Obrigewitsch The most influential books in the world are actually:

The Ramayana
The Bible
The Quran
The Analects of Confucius

Millions upon millions have been influenced by these books over thousands of years.


message 5: by DavidO (new)

DavidO Seems this has the wrong title. Should have been "best and most central works in world literature." Calling those 4 literature might be insulting?


message 6: by Andrew (new)

Andrew Obrigewitsch Yes, that would be more fitting.


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