Canon Books

Showing 1-50 of 31,036
The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby (Paperback)
by (shelved 100 times as canon)
avg rating 3.93 — 5,890,627 ratings — published 1925
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The Odyssey The Odyssey (Paperback)
by (shelved 82 times as canon)
avg rating 3.83 — 1,187,819 ratings — published -700
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The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye (Paperback)
by (shelved 81 times as canon)
avg rating 3.80 — 3,881,313 ratings — published 1951
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Pride and Prejudice Pride and Prejudice (Hardcover)
by (shelved 74 times as canon)
avg rating 4.29 — 4,779,772 ratings — published 1813
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To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird (Paperback)
by (shelved 74 times as canon)
avg rating 4.26 — 6,857,724 ratings — published 1960
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1984 1984 (Paperback)
by (shelved 72 times as canon)
avg rating 4.20 — 5,430,110 ratings — published 1949
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Frankenstein: The 1818 Text Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (Paperback)
by (shelved 70 times as canon)
avg rating 3.91 — 1,875,076 ratings — published 1818
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Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights (Paperback)
by (shelved 67 times as canon)
avg rating 3.90 — 2,035,318 ratings — published 1847
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Hamlet Hamlet (Paperback)
by (shelved 66 times as canon)
avg rating 4.03 — 1,047,046 ratings — published 1601
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Jane Eyre Jane Eyre (Paperback)
by (shelved 66 times as canon)
avg rating 4.16 — 2,315,274 ratings — published 1847
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The Metamorphosis The Metamorphosis (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 65 times as canon)
avg rating 3.90 — 1,415,269 ratings — published 1915
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The Picture of Dorian Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray (Paperback)
by (shelved 65 times as canon)
avg rating 4.13 — 1,866,768 ratings — published 1890
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Moby-Dick or, The Whale Moby-Dick or, The Whale (Paperback)
by (shelved 59 times as canon)
avg rating 3.57 — 614,433 ratings — published 1851
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The Iliad The Iliad (Hardcover)
by (shelved 57 times as canon)
avg rating 3.93 — 507,985 ratings — published -800
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Don Quixote Don Quixote (Paperback)
by (shelved 54 times as canon)
avg rating 3.91 — 304,412 ratings — published 1615
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The Stranger The Stranger (Paperback)
by (shelved 54 times as canon)
avg rating 4.03 — 1,390,439 ratings — published 1942
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Crime and Punishment Crime and Punishment (Paperback)
by (shelved 53 times as canon)
avg rating 4.29 — 1,073,684 ratings — published 1866
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Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 53 times as canon)
avg rating 3.74 — 2,815,423 ratings — published 1590
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Anna Karenina Anna Karenina (Paperback)
by (shelved 52 times as canon)
avg rating 4.10 — 928,338 ratings — published 1878
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Macbeth Macbeth (Paperback)
by (shelved 52 times as canon)
avg rating 3.89 — 1,016,893 ratings — published 1623
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The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter (Paperback)
by (shelved 51 times as canon)
avg rating 3.44 — 917,330 ratings — published 1850
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Animal Farm Animal Farm (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 51 times as canon)
avg rating 4.02 — 4,525,224 ratings — published 1945
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Of Mice and Men Of Mice and Men (Paperback)
by (shelved 49 times as canon)
avg rating 3.90 — 2,824,292 ratings — published 1937
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Adventures of Tom and Huck, #2) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Adventures of Tom and Huck, #2)
by (shelved 48 times as canon)
avg rating 3.83 — 1,335,328 ratings — published 1885
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Brave New World Brave New World (Paperback)
by (shelved 47 times as canon)
avg rating 3.99 — 2,069,442 ratings — published 1932
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Lolita Lolita (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 47 times as canon)
avg rating 3.87 — 942,415 ratings — published 1955
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The Grapes of Wrath The Grapes of Wrath (Hardcover)
by (shelved 47 times as canon)
avg rating 4.03 — 991,587 ratings — published 1939
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Great Expectations Great Expectations (Paperback)
by (shelved 46 times as canon)
avg rating 3.80 — 871,956 ratings — published 1861
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Fahrenheit 451 Fahrenheit 451 (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 45 times as canon)
avg rating 3.97 — 2,821,226 ratings — published 1953
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The Aeneid The Aeneid (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 45 times as canon)
avg rating 3.87 — 143,079 ratings — published -19
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The Old Man and the Sea The Old Man and the Sea (Hardcover)
by (shelved 44 times as canon)
avg rating 3.81 — 1,306,958 ratings — published 1952
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Ulysses Ulysses (Paperback)
by (shelved 43 times as canon)
avg rating 3.76 — 137,598 ratings — published 1922
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Madame Bovary Madame Bovary (Paperback)
by (shelved 43 times as canon)
avg rating 3.71 — 373,651 ratings — published 1856
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Paradise Lost Paradise Lost (Paperback)
by (shelved 43 times as canon)
avg rating 3.86 — 182,058 ratings — published 1667
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Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness (Paperback)
by (shelved 43 times as canon)
avg rating 3.43 — 557,086 ratings — published 1899
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Mrs. Dalloway Mrs. Dalloway (Hardcover)
by (shelved 43 times as canon)
avg rating 3.78 — 355,288 ratings — published 1925
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Dracula Dracula (Paperback)
by (shelved 42 times as canon)
avg rating 4.02 — 1,470,162 ratings — published 1897
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 40 times as canon)
avg rating 3.94 — 577,369 ratings — published 1595
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The Bell Jar The Bell Jar (Paperback)
by (shelved 40 times as canon)
avg rating 4.05 — 1,212,863 ratings — published 1963
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Little Women (Little Women, #1) Little Women (Little Women, #1)
by (shelved 40 times as canon)
avg rating 4.17 — 2,450,992 ratings — published 1868
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The Brothers Karamazov The Brothers Karamazov (Paperback)
by (shelved 40 times as canon)
avg rating 4.39 — 384,482 ratings — published 1880
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War and Peace War and Peace (Paperback)
by (shelved 39 times as canon)
avg rating 4.17 — 364,917 ratings — published 1869
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A Tale of Two Cities A Tale of Two Cities (Paperback)
by (shelved 39 times as canon)
avg rating 3.88 — 1,010,582 ratings — published 1859
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso (Hardcover)
by (shelved 39 times as canon)
avg rating 4.08 — 171,780 ratings — published 1320
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The Sound and the Fury The Sound and the Fury (Paperback)
by (shelved 39 times as canon)
avg rating 3.86 — 195,646 ratings — published 1929
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The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales (Paperback)
by (shelved 39 times as canon)
avg rating 3.53 — 237,580 ratings — published 1400
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One Hundred Years of Solitude One Hundred Years of Solitude (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 37 times as canon)
avg rating 4.12 — 1,100,465 ratings — published 1967
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Catch-22 Catch-22 (Paperback)
by (shelved 37 times as canon)
avg rating 3.99 — 885,168 ratings — published 1961
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Middlemarch Middlemarch (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 35 times as canon)
avg rating 4.04 — 178,799 ratings — published 1872
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (Paperback)
by (shelved 35 times as canon)
avg rating 4.30 — 4,441,347 ratings — published 1937
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Pride and Prejudice by Jane AustenThe Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor DostoevskyCatch-22 by Joseph HellerJane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëThe Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The betterment list
131 books — 31 voters
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken KeseyThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas AdamsThe Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Modern-day Classics
364 books — 192 voters

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Kevin J. Vanhoozer
“Sola scriptura means at least this: that the church's proclamation is always subject to potential correction from the canon. It is for this reason that we resist simply collapsing the text into the tradition of its interpretation and performance.”
Kevin J. Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical Linguistic Approach to Christian Doctrine

Harold Bloom
“Aesthetic value emanates from the struggle between texts: in the reader, in language, in the classroom, in arguments within a society. Aesthetic value rises out of memory, and so (as Nietzsche saw) out of pain, the pain of surrendering easier pleasures in favour of much more difficult ones ... successful literary works are achieved anxieties, not releases from anxieties.”
Harold Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages

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