From the New York Times Readers’ Survey
This list was published on Sunday, November 28, 2021, in the New York Times Book Review, distilled from readers’ submissions from all over the world. The survey was conducted in celebration of the Book Review turning 125 years old. Next the readers voted on the final “best book ever,” and the results were published in December 2021. If there is a book or two in this list that you would like to read but haven’t yet, here are some handy links below! [Disclosure: links to Audible.com/Amazon.com books, and Adobe Stock images, are affiliate links, meaning I’ll earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.]
1984, by George Orwell
All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White
A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
The Fellowship of the Ring, by J. R. R. Tolkien
A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry
A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling
Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabakov
Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez
The Overstory, by Richard Powers
A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
Ulysses, by James Joyce
