For each year before Jan 1, 1700, select among the books with the most ratings. The books must have at least 1000 ratings.

One book per year - The book with the most number of ratings on goodreads. Books with less ratings in that year will be deleted. This list uses goodreads publication years NOT actual publication years. If the book in goodreads is wrong, you should fix it.

If you find a book with more ratings than what is already on the list - please add a message in the discussion.

This list is an outgrowth of Most Rated Book By Year which eventually became unmanageable

Most Rated Books by Year By Century
21st, 20th, 19th, 18th, BEFORE 18th

Best Books By Century:
21st, 20th,
19th, 18th, 17th, 16th, 15th,14th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th,
9th, 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 4th


See also:
Most Rated Book by Country
Best Books of the Ancient World
1

by
3.53 avg rating — 239,085 ratings
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2

by
4.05 avg rating — 130,118 ratings
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3

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4.10 avg rating — 79,025 ratings
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4

by
3.94 avg rating — 579,109 ratings
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5

by
3.82 avg rating — 14,402 ratings
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6

by
3.84 avg rating — 1,208,003 ratings
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7

by
3.73 avg rating — 239,431 ratings
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8

by
3.94 avg rating — 14,537 ratings
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9

by
4.10 avg rating — 15,218 ratings
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10

by
3.69 avg rating — 179,085 ratings
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11

by
3.94 avg rating — 62,862 ratings
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12

by
3.89 avg rating — 1,031,315 ratings
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13

by
3.93 avg rating — 515,639 ratings
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14

by
4.25 avg rating — 113,108 ratings
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15

by
3.91 avg rating — 239,335 ratings
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16

by
3.80 avg rating — 72,991 ratings
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17

by
3.89 avg rating — 440,225 ratings
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18

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,063,879 ratings
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19

by
3.84 avg rating — 387,084 ratings
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20

by
3.77 avg rating — 204,246 ratings
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21

by
3.94 avg rating — 582,672 ratings
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22

by
3.73 avg rating — 181,558 ratings
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23

by
3.88 avg rating — 43,920 ratings
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24

by
3.76 avg rating — 78,659 ratings
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25

by
4.26 avg rating — 12,642 ratings
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26

by
3.50 avg rating — 349,499 ratings
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27

by
3.82 avg rating — 11,526 ratings
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28

by
3.85 avg rating — 17,428 ratings
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28

by
3.75 avg rating — 16,699 ratings
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30

by
3.94 avg rating — 25,773 ratings
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31

by
3.88 avg rating — 12,974 ratings
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32

by
3.88 avg rating — 144,910 ratings
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33

by
3.87 avg rating — 53,961 ratings
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34

by
4.29 avg rating — 184,174 ratings
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35

by
4.09 avg rating — 91,669 ratings
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36

by
4.33 avg rating — 59,806 ratings
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36

by
3.95 avg rating — 88,486 ratings
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38

by
3.78 avg rating — 24,324 ratings
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39

by
3.01 avg rating — 17,224 ratings
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40

by
3.35 avg rating — 19,068 ratings
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41

by
4.10 avg rating — 21,602 ratings
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42

by
3.84 avg rating — 22,927 ratings
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43

by
3.76 avg rating — 25,791 ratings
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44

by
3.66 avg rating — 43,683 ratings
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45

by
3.94 avg rating — 21,931 ratings
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46

by
3.73 avg rating — 29,906 ratings
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47

by
3.77 avg rating — 37,095 ratings
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48

by
4.15 avg rating — 9,944 ratings
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49

by
3.63 avg rating — 18,926 ratings
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50

by
4.45 avg rating — 321,413 ratings
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51

by
3.60 avg rating — 12,054 ratings
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51

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 71,236 ratings
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53

by
3.73 avg rating — 19,707 ratings
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54

by
3.71 avg rating — 44,253 ratings
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54

by
3.80 avg rating — 24,271 ratings
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56

by
3.67 avg rating — 31,646 ratings
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57

by
3.96 avg rating — 195,915 ratings
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58

by
3.71 avg rating — 221,284 ratings
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59

by
4.06 avg rating — 260,078 ratings
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59

by
4.03 avg rating — 82,260 ratings
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61

by
3.74 avg rating — 2,842,529 ratings
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62

by
3.76 avg rating — 120,481 ratings
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63

by
3.72 avg rating — 34,888 ratings
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64

by
3.59 avg rating — 17,385 ratings
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65

by
4.23 avg rating — 22,288 ratings
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66

by
4.27 avg rating — 20,003 ratings
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67

by
4.14 avg rating — 11,920 ratings
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68

by
3.55 avg rating — 84,047 ratings
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69

by
3.83 avg rating — 20,601 ratings
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70

by
3.92 avg rating — 39,645 ratings
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71

by
4.63 avg rating — 98,349 ratings
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72

by
4.24 avg rating — 27,183 ratings
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73

by
4.16 avg rating — 10,608 ratings
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74

by
4.03 avg rating — 208,287 ratings
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75

by
4.30 avg rating — 10 ratings
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76

by
4.15 avg rating — 15,913 ratings
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77

by
3.52 avg rating — 15,030 ratings
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78

by
4.17 avg rating — 23,218 ratings
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79

by
4.05 avg rating — 18,228 ratings
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80

by
3.95 avg rating — 13,852 ratings
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81

by
4.38 avg rating — 13,031 ratings
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82

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 75,314 ratings
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83

by
4.37 avg rating — 15,996 ratings
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84

by
4.28 avg rating — 358,456 ratings
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85

by
3.88 avg rating — 18,722 ratings
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86

by
4.24 avg rating — 37,372 ratings
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87

by
4.32 avg rating — 57,884 ratings
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88

by
3.97 avg rating — 14,685 ratings
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89

by
4.02 avg rating — 13,705 ratings
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90

by
4.16 avg rating — 46,657 ratings
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91

by
3.83 avg rating — 29,941 ratings
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92

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 61,337 ratings
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93

by
4.16 avg rating — 24,483 ratings
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94

by
4.19 avg rating — 68,144 ratings
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95

by
3.95 avg rating — 40,866 ratings
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96

by
4.02 avg rating — 19,449 ratings
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97

by
4.01 avg rating — 56,052 ratings
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98

by
4.25 avg rating — 17,857 ratings
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99

by
4.43 avg rating — 22,041 ratings
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100

by
4.19 avg rating — 20,881 ratings
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100 books · 4 voters · list created October 11th, 2025 by Mitchell Friedman (votes) .
3 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


People Who Voted On This List (4)

Mitchell 11650 books
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Anneka 2350 books
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Sengoku 1802 books
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Tamuna 844 books
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Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman -1200, The Epic of Gilgamesh
-851, The I Ching or Book of Changes
-801, The Iliad by Homer
-800, The Arabian Nights
-701, The Odyssey by Homer
-551, If Not Winter by Sappho
-501, The Upanishads
-481, Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus
-476, The Analects by Confucius
-473, Agamemmnon by Aeschylus
-451, The oedipus Cycle by Sophocles
-442, Antigone by Sophocles
-432, Medea by Euripides
-431, The Histories by Herodotus
-430, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
-429, Medea and other Plays by Euripides
-424, Lysistrata and other Plays by Aristophanes
-416, The Trojan Women by Euripides
-412, The Landmark Thucydides by Thucydides
-411, Electra by Sophocles
-406, The Bacchae by Euripides
-402, Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles
-401, Art of War by Sun Tzu
-400, Apology by Plato
-386, Five Dialogues by Plato
-381, The Symposium by Plato
-351, The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
-336, Poetics by Aritotle
-331, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
-20, The Aeneid
8, Metamorphoses by Ovid
49, On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
51, The Conquest of Gaul by Gaius Julius Caesar
56, On the Nature of the Universe by Lucretius
64, Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
125, The Art of Living by Epictetus
159, The Golden Ass by Apuleius
170, Cupid and Psyche by Apuleius
180, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
251, Jason and the Golden Fleece by Apollonius of Rhodes
318, On the Incarnation by Athanasius of Alexandria
378, Confessions by Augustine of Hippo
400, The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali by Satchidananda
426, City of God by Augustine of Hippo
524, The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
561, Aesop's Fables by Aesop
1000, Beowulf by Unknown
1120, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Omar Khayyam
1170, The Momance of Tristan and Iseult by Joseph Bedier
1220, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology by Snorri Sturluson


message 2: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman 1270, The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes
1273, The Essential Rumi by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
1320, Inferno by Dante Alighieri
1349, The Decameron by Givanni Boccaccio
1350, The Tibeta Book of the Dead by Padmasambhava
1375, Sir Gawain and the Green Night
1400, The Canterbury Tales
1427, The Imitation of Chist by Thomas a Kempis
1455, Holy Bible: New International Version
1485, Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory
1508, Praise of Folly by Erasmus
1513, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
1516, Utopia by Thomas More
1536, Institues of the Christian Religion 2vols by John Calvin
1563, Foxe's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe
1580, The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne
1588, Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
1590, The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
1593, The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
1594, The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
1595, A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
1596, The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
1597, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
1598, Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
1599, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
1601, Hamlet by William Shakespeare
1602, Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
1603, Othello by William Shakespeare
1604, Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
1605, King Lear by William Shakespeare
1606, Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
1608, Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
1609, Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare
1610, Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
1611, The Holy Bible: King James Version
1614, he Duchess of Malfi by John Webster
1623, Macbeth by William Shakespeare
1633, The Complete English Poems by John Donne
1637, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes
1641, Mediations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes
1645, A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
1664, Tartuffe by Moliere
1666, The Misanthrope by Moliere
1670, Pensees by Blaise Pascal
1677, Ethics by Baruch Spinoza
1678, The Princesse de Cleves by Madame de La Fayette
1688, Oroonoko by Aphra Behn
1689, Second Treatise of Government by John Locke
1692, The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
1697, Perrault's Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault


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