Books from various genres that help shape and contour how to conceive reality in the 21st Century.
1

by
4.20 avg rating — 5,644,571 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.03 avg rating — 4,706,635 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
4.04 avg rating — 466,905 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
3.98 avg rating — 2,123,128 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
4.37 avg rating — 915,002 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.33 avg rating — 1,301,938 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
4.19 avg rating — 881,483 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
4.17 avg rating — 605,521 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
4.01 avg rating — 906,124 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
4.16 avg rating — 195,880 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
4.09 avg rating — 270,969 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.09 avg rating — 899,647 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
4.29 avg rating — 1,125,687 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
4.22 avg rating — 430,683 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
3.84 avg rating — 392,852 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
4.01 avg rating — 123,686 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
4.32 avg rating — 5,466 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.70 avg rating — 3,270,174 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
3.93 avg rating — 39,432 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
3.66 avg rating — 196,398 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
4.09 avg rating — 180,153 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.18 avg rating — 292,891 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
4.13 avg rating — 1,951,992 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
4.08 avg rating — 10,500 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
4.14 avg rating — 1,091 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
4.19 avg rating — 68,054 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
4.38 avg rating — 12,143 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
3.95 avg rating — 294,046 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
3.73 avg rating — 2,524 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
4.23 avg rating — 14,111 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
4.13 avg rating — 82,279 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
4.09 avg rating — 50,035 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
4.11 avg rating — 17,476 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,474,375 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
4.13 avg rating — 11,618 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
3.83 avg rating — 10,997 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
3.97 avg rating — 2,929,680 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.78 avg rating — 2,501 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
4.17 avg rating — 5,386 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
3.94 avg rating — 270,552 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.94 avg rating — 411,285 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
4.08 avg rating — 145,842 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
4.45 avg rating — 324,719 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
4.21 avg rating — 27,852 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
4.05 avg rating — 28,406 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
3.92 avg rating — 1,962,265 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.83 avg rating — 87,553 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
4.13 avg rating — 221,966 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
4.39 avg rating — 403,688 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
3.77 avg rating — 206,926 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
4.95 avg rating — 37 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
4.02 avg rating — 30,683 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
4.37 avg rating — 467,149 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
4.16 avg rating — 29,877 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
4.29 avg rating — 82,054 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
4.12 avg rating — 132,463 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
4.29 avg rating — 53,434 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
4.19 avg rating — 211,647 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
3.94 avg rating — 75,351 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
4.30 avg rating — 55,419 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 134,901 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
3.90 avg rating — 286,381 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
4.21 avg rating — 66,411 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 784,256 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
3.75 avg rating — 206,836 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
3.81 avg rating — 79,192 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
4.21 avg rating — 181,533 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.99 avg rating — 21,295 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
4.10 avg rating — 75,904 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
4.14 avg rating — 30,779 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
4.17 avg rating — 373,287 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
4.16 avg rating — 835,471 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
4.08 avg rating — 103,583 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
4.10 avg rating — 59,001 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
4.09 avg rating — 42,195 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
3.84 avg rating — 18,415 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 17,181 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
4.40 avg rating — 9,678 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
4.16 avg rating — 28,009 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
4.03 avg rating — 24,088 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
4.32 avg rating — 59,413 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
4.19 avg rating — 5,908 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
4.01 avg rating — 863,133 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
4.05 avg rating — 97,104 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
4.30 avg rating — 40,295 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
86

by
3.86 avg rating — 36,407 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
4.08 avg rating — 65,574 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
4.01 avg rating — 132,505 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
4.72 avg rating — 9,045 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
4.16 avg rating — 21,948 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.84 avg rating — 82,634 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
3.74 avg rating — 8,765 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
4.18 avg rating — 7,560 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
4.07 avg rating — 120,249 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
3.69 avg rating — 102,732 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
3.94 avg rating — 20,288 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
4.09 avg rating — 25,556 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
4.02 avg rating — 7,379 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
3.90 avg rating — 273,990 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
3.96 avg rating — 114,004 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
1,350 books · 1,538 voters · list created August 14th, 2010 by Charles (votes) .
2104 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Charles 26329 books
3646 friends
Tara 734 books
61 friends
Tyler Knowlton 432 books
106 friends
Jenny 323 books
68 friends
Janet 172 books
61 friends
Jacob 2045 books
41 friends
Joe 592 books
259 friends
Steve 323 books
215 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-19 of 19 (19 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Charles (new)

Charles Thanks to everybody who has added on to this!

~Charles


message 2: by Leo (new)

Leo Walsh Excellent. I've read all of the top twenty five save the exact Chomsky titles (though I've read plenty of his work, and his key points tend to be stable), "Green Illusions," and "Hot Flat and Crowded" -- though I confess that I started the book, but never finished. Not sure why...


message 3: by Lacewing (new)

Lacewing Great list! Thank you, Charles, for starting it and everyone else for building it up. I'm tempted to put every one of 'em on my to-read list, except for the mere half dozen or so I've read.


message 4: by Charles (new)

Charles Leo wrote: "Excellent. I've read all of the top twenty five save the exact Chomsky titles (though I've read plenty of his work, and his key points tend to be stable), "Green Illusions," and "Hot Flat and Crowd..."

So what would it look like for these top titles to actually shape the thinking of leaders?


message 5: by Charles (new)

Charles Lacewing wrote: "Great list! Thank you, Charles, for starting it and everyone else for building it up. I'm tempted to put every one of 'em on my to-read list, except for the mere half dozen or so I've read."

You are welcome! How are you coming on the reading?


message 6: by Aurora (new)

Aurora Maybe add Nassim Taleb's Black Swan as a complement to the Structure of Scientific Revolutions?


message 7: by Maria (new)

Maria Fantastic list. I've added a few of these to my To Read list.


message 8: by Alisha (new)

Alisha Awesome list!! Thanks for creating it. Definitely reading some of these for my 2016 reading challenge :)


message 9: by Vincent (new)

Vincent Noel Too much Pinker, but this is a f*ing good list


message 10: by Sid (new)

Sid S Great list! I think I'll contribute a few books to this list too.


message 11: by capintraista (new)

capintraista Gotta say, this is the best list I've ever seen on the goodreads. Thank you


message 12: by Parker (new)

Parker commenting so I can remember where this list is


message 13: by Doodle (new)

Doodle Fascinating List. Thank you


message 14: by Alex (new)

Alex Great list!


message 15: by Anish (new)

Anish Sinha Such a great list!


message 16: by Valerie (new)

Valerie Brett This is like, ALL white men


message 17: by Yinzadi (last edited Jul 18, 2018 06:39AM) (new)

Yinzadi Valerie wrote: "This is like, ALL white men"

If for some reason you don't want to read European authors, just in the top 100: Jared Diamond, Naomi Klein, Viktor Frankl, Howard Zinn, Daniel Kahneman, Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker, Sigmund Freud, Christopher Hitchens, Saul Alinsky, Yuval Noah Harari, Franz Kafka, Douglas Hofstadter, Carl Sagan, Thomas Kuhn, Jared Diamond, M. Scott Peck, Dan Ariely, David Graeber, Charles Murray, William Deresiewicz, Steven Levitt, Thomas Friedman, Jonathan Haidt, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Jonathan Safran Foer are Jewish (plus the Bible, obviously), Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Daron Acemoğlu, and Edward Said are also Near Eastern but not Jewish, Malcolm Gladwell, Paulo Freire, and Gustavo Gutierrez are Hispanic, Mohandas Gandhi is Indian, and Martin Luther King, Jr. is African.

It seems like much more of a Judeocentric than a Eurocentric list to me, but I agree that it's totally androcentric.


message 18: by inside an airport (last edited Nov 19, 2018 05:50AM) (new)

inside an airport It is still mostly white men.
and one Nazi person (Martin Heidegger)

The list is so race-blind that I am guessing the author probably thought Gandhi and Martin Luther King ,Jr are also white.


back to top



Related News

Land begins with a mapmaker, his son, and an enchanted well that changes their lives forever on the western peninsula of Ireland.   Maggie...

Anyone can add books to this list.