Going on adventures by reading books is the cheapest way to go on adventures! All jokes aside, reading makes impossible adventures possible and great writing makes come to life in your head. We decided to list the ten best adventure books of all time to see which books deserve the title as the best of the best!
Choosing only ten seems unfair to all of the amazing books that won’t be able to compete with the classics. We created a list for the best adventure books of all time so they got their time in the spotlight. These are the ten best adventure books that have shaped the genre.
The Ten Best Adventure Books of All Time
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
- The Call of the Wild by Jack London
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
- Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
- Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Gulliver’s Travels by Dr Jonathan Swift
Jules Verne Dominates the List
Jules Verne makes the list three times and that is just incredible. The crazy part is that there are some more Verne novels that could have made it here. This whole list can just be books by Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson and nobody would bat an eye.
Other notable mentions include The Call of the Wild by Jack London, Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. These are books that shaped the genre and who knows which direction adventure books would have gone without them.
Lastly, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, and Life of Pi by Yann Martel are novels I loved a lot. Not only is it some of the best writing, but the adventures are as crazy as you can imagine!
Conclusion
These are the ten best adventure books of all time and I think they hold up well against any other list. I’m sure some other notable books were overlooked but that is just how these lists go. What books should have been on the list but weren’t? Let us know in the comments below. Until next time, happy reading!
“This whole list can just be books by Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson and nobody would bat an eye.” True, hah!
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Kidnapped, The Little Prince
The curse of Challion by Lois McMaster Bujold.
Alive, a bit disturbing but true.
Robinson Crusoe should have definitely made the list. Endurance and The Martian are not classics but are my favorite adventure stories.
Life of Pi? Seriously? What about The Martian by Andy Weir or Roger Zelazny’s magnum opus Lord of Light? And where is Melville’s Moby Dick? Or Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court? All of these—every one—is vastly superior to Martel’s Life of Pi.
Hear hear!!! And King Solomon’s Mines.
My comment was in response to Dennis Grace! Especially Melville.
Merci beaucoup.
The Odyssey is just a poem but perhaps needs mentioning.
It’s in the best adventure books list. I didn’t want this to be all Greek mythology stuff.
No Kipling? Not “Kim” or “The Man Who Would Be King?”