Books to Know
If you don’t know how much I love books, you likely are visiting this site for the first time. I suffer from an affliction called abibliophobia, which is the fear of being without a book or something to read.
Each year, I compile a list of the very best book covers of the year. I also read numerous sources to see what books hit the various bestseller lists.
Though this community primarily is focused on leadership and success books, I am equally passionate about fiction.
Top Novels
That’s why I was excited to recently share a list of the top novels of all time.
You say, “Wait, I didn’t know there was such a list.”
OCLC’s Research team generated The Library 100 list, the list of the top novels held by the world’s libraries. Using WorldCat, our research scientists analyzed the collections of over 18,000 libraries and almost 2.7 billion items held in libraries. Libraries reflect popular, cultural, and scholarly interest over time. They are the stewards of the world’s literature. And so, they arguably represent the best place to create such a list.
Here are the top 10:
There is also a lot of information you can derive from the list itself. For instance, you will see that the list reflects the historical view of what was important. Libraries today are working hard to make sure collections represent more diverse points of view whereas the historical view would not reflect that work. You will also notice other things on the list. Charles Dickens takes six spots. Jane Austen and Mark Twain tie with four.
I talk about these facts further in this post.
If you want to read the full list of the top 100, it can be found here.
How many of the books have you read? What observations do you have about the list?
