An alternative to the popular "Best Books Ever" list, focusing on the less popular. You can vote for any book, in any genre so long as it has between 1,000 and 10,000 ratings on GRs. Before you add a book, please take a moment to look up its ratings on GRs to ensure it meets the parameters for this list.

There are lists for even more obscure books at:
Underrated Books (1,001 - 5,000 GR ratings)
Really Underrated Books (fewer than 1,000 GR ratings)
Really Seriously Underrated Books (fewer than 500 GR ratings)
REALLY Really Underrated Books (fewer than 100 GR ratings)
Super Underrated Books (fewer than 50 GR ratings)
Ridiculously Underrated Books (fewer than 20 GR ratings)
Really Underrated Children's Books (children's books with fewer than 100 GR ratings)
Just One Rating

Alternatively, see lists of books with the most ratings.
You might also want to check out obscure books worth considering: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
1

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4.14 avg rating — 6,134 ratings
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4.07 avg rating — 7,524 ratings
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3.85 avg rating — 9,986 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 6,845 ratings
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3.95 avg rating — 8,746 ratings
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3.68 avg rating — 7,110 ratings
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4.03 avg rating — 6,579 ratings
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4.19 avg rating — 8,499 ratings
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4.27 avg rating — 9,122 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 7,671 ratings
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3.84 avg rating — 9,355 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 7,314 ratings
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4.13 avg rating — 7,443 ratings
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4.02 avg rating — 9,056 ratings
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3.70 avg rating — 6,449 ratings
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3.85 avg rating — 7,723 ratings
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17

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4.18 avg rating — 4,640 ratings
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18

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3.80 avg rating — 5,417 ratings
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19

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3.94 avg rating — 8,728 ratings
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20

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4.04 avg rating — 9,466 ratings
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21

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4.12 avg rating — 7,979 ratings
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22

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4.14 avg rating — 8,266 ratings
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23

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4.05 avg rating — 8,798 ratings
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24

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3.36 avg rating — 6,152 ratings
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25

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3.81 avg rating — 5,617 ratings
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26

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3.64 avg rating — 9,018 ratings
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27

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3.70 avg rating — 6,730 ratings
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28

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3.73 avg rating — 3,993 ratings
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29

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3.63 avg rating — 7,558 ratings
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30

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4.15 avg rating — 8,252 ratings
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31

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3.74 avg rating — 6,644 ratings
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32

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4.05 avg rating — 6,736 ratings
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33

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3.41 avg rating — 6,961 ratings
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34

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4.15 avg rating — 7,166 ratings
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35

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3.87 avg rating — 9,579 ratings
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36

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4.12 avg rating — 6,244 ratings
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37

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4.08 avg rating — 9,797 ratings
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38

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3.46 avg rating — 6,764 ratings
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39

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3.75 avg rating — 7,534 ratings
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39

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3.94 avg rating — 7,228 ratings
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41

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4.12 avg rating — 6,742 ratings
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41

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3.85 avg rating — 9,412 ratings
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43

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3.87 avg rating — 6,777 ratings
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44

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3.53 avg rating — 6,547 ratings
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45

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3.74 avg rating — 9,014 ratings
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46

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3.93 avg rating — 6,186 ratings
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47

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3.80 avg rating — 7,223 ratings
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48

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3.88 avg rating — 7,821 ratings
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49

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3.95 avg rating — 2,090 ratings
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50

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4.09 avg rating — 9,138 ratings
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51

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3.94 avg rating — 7,752 ratings
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52

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3.82 avg rating — 9,220 ratings
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52

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4.32 avg rating — 8,317 ratings
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54

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4.24 avg rating — 6,791 ratings
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55

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4.19 avg rating — 8,211 ratings
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55

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3.92 avg rating — 5,456 ratings
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57

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3.65 avg rating — 4,014 ratings
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58

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3.92 avg rating — 7,702 ratings
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59

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3.76 avg rating — 5,905 ratings
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59

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4.15 avg rating — 6,666 ratings
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59

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3.86 avg rating — 6,039 ratings
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62

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3.98 avg rating — 3,558 ratings
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63

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3.78 avg rating — 8,047 ratings
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64

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3.95 avg rating — 9,174 ratings
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65

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3.86 avg rating — 6,471 ratings
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65

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4.12 avg rating — 3,240 ratings
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67

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3.71 avg rating — 9,147 ratings
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68

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4.32 avg rating — 8,121 ratings
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69

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4,494 ratings
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69

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3.84 avg rating — 7,177 ratings
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71

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3.80 avg rating — 8,648 ratings
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72

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3.52 avg rating — 4,887 ratings
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73

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3.71 avg rating — 4,121 ratings
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74

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4.20 avg rating — 6,426 ratings
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74

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4.05 avg rating — 9,709 ratings
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76

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3.54 avg rating — 3,875 ratings
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77

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4.12 avg rating — 9,570 ratings
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78

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4.20 avg rating — 8,276 ratings
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79

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4.37 avg rating — 2,592 ratings
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80

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3.93 avg rating — 3,389 ratings
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81

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4.10 avg rating — 9,666 ratings
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82

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4.19 avg rating — 9,024 ratings
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83

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4.19 avg rating — 8,880 ratings
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83

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4.10 avg rating — 7,744 ratings
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85

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3.56 avg rating — 8,068 ratings
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85

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3.74 avg rating — 8,222 ratings
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85

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4.13 avg rating — 8,676 ratings
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85

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3.69 avg rating — 3,938 ratings
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89

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4.22 avg rating — 9,268 ratings
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90

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4.10 avg rating — 6,870 ratings
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91

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3.56 avg rating — 4,780 ratings
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92

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4.38 avg rating — 8,343 ratings
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93

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3.89 avg rating — 4,026 ratings
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94

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3.62 avg rating — 7,675 ratings
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95

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4.28 avg rating — 5,840 ratings
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95

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4.18 avg rating — 8,696 ratings
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95

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3.80 avg rating — 8,905 ratings
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98

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3.94 avg rating — 7,639 ratings
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99

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3.80 avg rating — 9,546 ratings
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99

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4.23 avg rating — 7,858 ratings
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1,835 books · 267 voters · list created July 8th, 2009 by John Burns (votes) .
124 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


John 848 books
53 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3384 books
853 friends
Bettie 15670 books
19 friends
Lobstergirl 5691 books
157 friends
Lynda 23784 books
298 friends
Karen 4357 books
37 friends
Gwyn 1491 books
30 friends
Morgan 1419 books
1070 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-50 of 297 (297 new)


message 1: by John (new)

John Burns War and peace will soon cross the 10,000 mark but i think it should be left on here. Many of these books would eventually cross the 10,000 mark anyway. As long as the book had few enough votes to be eligible when it was first added, it can stay here indefinitely. A book doesnt suddenly become widely read just because the number of people who've read it slowly passes a certain point.

As goodreads becomes more popular the number of ratings for every book on this site will increase anyway, so this rule makes sense.


message 2: by Eli (new)

Eli Dorywright OK, but what about a book like Catch-22, which is at more than 4 times the max number of ratings for this list (40,000+ratings)? We need to cull books like that, or the list doesn't really mean anything at all.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Catch-22 removed.

Anything else with grossly too many reviews?


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Not necessarily GROSSLY too many, but decidedly in excess of 10,000 ratings:

Stevenson, "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde"
Wells, "The Time Machine"
Tolstoy, "War and Peace"
Dick, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
King, "Cujo"

Also, the "main" (interlinked) edition of Kafka's "Trial" -- http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17... -- has over 10,000 ratings. Does it make sense to nevertheless list a separate (as-yet unlinked) edition here?


message 5: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Themis-Athena wrote: "Not necessarily GROSSLY too many, but decidedly in excess of 10,000 ratings:

Stevenson, "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde"
Wells, "The Time Machine"
Tolstoy, "War and Peace"
Dick, "Do Androids Dream of ..."


Deleted.

As for the edition of The Trial on the list, it's a modern stage adaptation with its own playwright and thus on GR is separate from the original book. I left it because it has 14 ratings and there's no legitimate reason to delete it.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) I see -- wasn't aware that it's an adaptation. If it only has 14 ratings, shouldn't it be on the list for SERIOUSLY underrated books, though?


message 7: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Themis-Athena wrote: "I see -- wasn't aware that it's an adaptation. If it only has 14 ratings, shouldn't it be on the list for SERIOUSLY underrated books, though?"

Good point. It needs to be deleted from here, and I don't know if there is such a list.


message 8: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Or is that the other list I've been visiting? I'm so confused. At any rate, I deleted the Trial adaptation.


message 9: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Deleted: The Goats. Insufficient ratings.


message 10: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Deleted: Chaucer's Poetry and Vampire Academy Box Set.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads There's another list for books with less than 1,000 rankings, yes.


message 12: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed: The Martian Chronicles.


message 13: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed: I Am Legend.


message 14: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed: Vampire Academy (#1).


message 15: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: Oryx and Crake.


message 16: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Jan 11, 2012 09:03AM) (new)

Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Removed, but added to the list of REALLY underrated books (fewer than 1,000 ratings): The Golden Ass and The Celestial Omnibus.


message 17: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Jan 11, 2012 09:00AM) (new)


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Removed for having less than 1,000 ratings: Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol. Based on the very small number of ratings, this book would certainly qualify for inclusion in the list of REALLY underrated books, though. (Won't add it there myself as I haven't read it.)


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Removed for having less than 1,000 ratings: Alexandria: City of Memory. See previous comment on inclusion in the list of REALLY underrated books.


message 20: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Jan 11, 2012 09:05AM) (new)

Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Removed for having less than 1,000 ratings:
Spirit Bound
Popular Music from Vittula


message 21: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: Winnie the Pooh.


message 22: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: Notes From Underground.


message 23: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: Frostbite (Vampire Academy, #2).


message 24: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: White Fang.


message 25: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: The Remains of the Day.


message 26: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: The Dharma Bums.


message 27: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl And Starship Troopers is banished.


message 30: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Jan 11, 2012 09:01AM) (new)


message 31: by Deedee (new)

Deedee I don't know how much longer A Wizard of Earthsea will qualify for this list .... I just checked it and there are 9,975 ratings! 25 more and it hits 10,000!


message 32: by Deedee (new)

Deedee As of today, A Wizard of Earthsea has 10,063 ratings.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Wow. That was fast!


message 34: by Antoine (new)

Antoine Deedee wrote: "I don't know how much longer A Wizard of Earthsea will qualify for this list .... I just checked it and there are 9,975 ratings! 25 more and it hits 10,000!"

I am very surprised to read that it only just crossed over. I would have expected it to be over that line quite a while ago...


message 35: by Antoine (new)

Antoine Lobstergirl wrote: "Removed for excessive ratings: Winnie the Pooh."

Funny how few ratings The House at Pooh Corner has, considering how well known the material in it is. I wonder if many people forget that it is a separate book.


message 36: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Jun 18, 2010 03:37AM) (new)


message 37: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: This Lullaby.


message 38: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: A Brief History of Time.


message 39: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: Looking for Alaska.


message 40: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Jul 30, 2010 02:25PM) (new)

Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Love the fact that the lists now display the number of a book's ratings, which is making it much less time-consuming to track what should and what shouldn't be on this particular list and the list for seriously underrated books. It would be even nicer if the number of ratings were updated in real time, as is the case on the individual book pages ... (E.g., Henry James' "The American" is still showing only 980 ratings here, whereas when you go to the actual book page, you find that the book has in fact over 1,000 ratings and is, therefore, quite rightly placed on this list. The same is true with regard to a number of other books, where the discrepancies are sometimes even considerably greater.)

That said, removed for really NOT having enough ratings: Alone in Berlin and If This Is a Man / The Truce. (Needless to say, these may always be added to the list for seriously underrated books.)

Removed for having excessive ratings: School's Out - Forever.


message 41: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.


message 42: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Themis-Athena wrote: "Love the fact that the lists now display the number of a book's ratings, which is making it much less time-consuming to track what should and what shouldn't be on this particular list and the list ..."

T-A, I posted the question in one of the Feedback (I think) threads of why a book would have a different number of ratings in two different places. The answer was that the lower number is actual ratings, the higher number is shelvings. I guess that means people have shelved it as to-read, or currently-reading or whatever, but have not actually rated it.

So these Listopias that depend on # of ratings may not exactly be totally accurate, depending on what number people are using.


message 43: by Antoine (new)

Antoine Looking at this list is really interesting, especially in reference to other lists. Some books (Bleak House, with 5000+ ratings at present, for example) are VERY popular on Listopia—appearing in almost every list that they could conceivably qualify for—and yet do not, in fact, have very many readers. It makes me wonder: how far down the the Goodreads popularity list do you have to go—assuming there are rankings—before you hit the 10,000 mark? How much further below that is the 1,000 mark? What kind of curve do we see? And what does it mean if a book with only 5000 readers can mobilize so much enthusiasm, relative to a book with, say, 30,000?


message 44: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: Howl's Moving Castle.


message 45: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: The Idiot.


message 46: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Deleted for excessive ratings: Fairest.


message 47: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.


message 48: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: Maniac Magee.


message 49: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: Masquerade.


message 50: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed for excessive ratings: Lock and Key.


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