With so many books to read, choosing the right ones is not always easy. That is why we have curated a list of the 40 must read books of all time. Keep reading to find out which books made the list!
Creating this list was not easy as many great books were omitted. The good news is that you don’t have to read every book on this list. If you like the writing style of an author, you can binge read them. That is what makes reading fun.
If reading doesn’t entertain you, the you are probably reading the wrong books. This list includes many amazing books and we know not every book is going to be to your liking. Finding which books and authors we like is a part of the journey. You can see the full list below!
The 40 Must Read Books of All Time
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Must Read Books
The top two novels on the list are books that define their respective genres. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best works of fiction and still as popular and relevant as ever. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is the best fantasy series of all time and its popularity seems to still be growing.
Some of my personal favorites on this list are The Count of Monte Cristo, The Book Thief, and The Lord of the Rings. Adventure novels are some of the best books when done right. And no matter how many times I read The Book Thief, I will always be in my feelings after finishing it.
Other novels we included are novels such as Dracula, Catch-22, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. A novel that readers either love or hate is The Great Gatsby. Or Coraline may be more to your liking as it is an amazing fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman.
Conclusion
That ends this list of the 40 must read books of all time. How many of these books have you read? Which books should we include in our next list? Let us know in the comments below!
Just noticed that Gone With the Wind and Animal Farm are both on their twice, but I didn’t count to see if there were more or less than 40. It’s a pretty solid list and I have read most of them. But there’s a few that I won’t ever read. I really can’t understand why Beloved makes so many lists like this one. I read it and thought it was awful, badly written and jumping all over the place so that it hardly made sense. I’m a big reader, since I was 4 years old! I generally read more than a dozen books a month, so it’s not like it was too difficult for me. It just wasn’t well written and I really can’t understand what anybody likes about it. I feel that the story could have been told in a much better way.
You’re not Toni Morrison I assume! 😉 Read Beloved recently and was blown away by it, sensational. Really up there. But also a highly traumatic read. Also Charlotte’s Web is on there twice!
Maybe someone should read a basic math book! 40 books on the list, but two listed twice.
Actually 5 are listed twice. The 35 Must Read Books of All Time
Animal Farm and Charlotte’s Web are listed twice. I don’t take much stock in a list with poor editing.
A Tale of Two Cities listed twice.
There are 5 books duplicated on the list. Just an fyi……..
Thanks for the list.
The grapes of wrath is repeated
A poor list…
Sweden.
Perhaps if this article’s “author” spent more time proofreading this AI generated mess then they would have noticed it only has 35 titles listed.
I guess some more way more important ICF they must be read twice
Why is the Bible not listed?