| Best Books of the Century | |||
| 1900-1919 | 1920-1939 | 1940-1959 | 1960-1979 | 1980-1999 | 2000-2007 | |||
| DATE | AUTHOR | TITLE | MTL CALL NO. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | Conrad, Joseph | Lord Jim | FIC Con |
| 1900 | Dreiser, Theodore | Sister Carrie | FIC Dre |
| 1901 | Kipling, Rudyard | Kim | J FIC Kip |
| 1901 | Washington, Booker T. | Up from Slavery | JB WASHINGTON |
| 1902 | Conrad, Joseph | The Heart of Darkness | FIC Con |
| 1902 | James, Henry | The Wings of the Dove | FIC Jam |
| 1902 | James, William | The Varieties of Religious Experience | 191 Jam |
| 1903 | Butler, Samuel | The Way of All Flesh | FIC But |
| 1903 | Du Bois, W.E.B. | The Souls of Black Folk | 973.049 Du B |
| 1903 | London, Jack | The Call of the Wild | FIC Lon |
| 1904 | Conrad, Joseph | Nostromo | FIC Con |
| 1905 | Wharton, Edith | The House of Mirth | FIC Wha |
| 1906 | Adams, Henry | The Education of Henry Adams | 818.4 Ada |
| 1907 | Conrad, Joseph | The Secret Agent | FIC Con |
| 1908 | Forster, E. M. | A Room with a View | FIC For |
| 1908 | Grahame, Kenneth | The Wind in the Willows | J FIC Gra |
| 1910 | Forster, E. M. | Howard's End | FIC For |
| 1913 | Lawrence, D. H. | Sons and Lovers | FIC Law |
| 1915 | Ford, Ford Madox | The Good Soldier | FIC For |
| 1915 | Lawrence, D. H. | The Rainbow | FIC Law |
| 1915 | Maugham, W. Somerset | Of Human Bondage | FIC Mau |
| 1916 | Joyce, James | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | FIC Joy |
| 1918 | Strachey, Lytton | Eminent Victorians | 941.081 Str |
| 1918 | Tarkington, Booth | The Magnificent Ambersons | FIC Tar |
| 1919 | Anderson, Sherwood | Winesburg, Ohio | FIC And |
| 1920 | Turner, Frederick Jackson | The Frontier in American History | 973 Tur |
| 1920 | Wharton, Edith | The Age of Innocence | FIC Wha |
| 1921 | Lawrence, D.H. | Women in Love | FIC Law |
| 1922 | Frazer, James George | The Golden Bough | 291 Fra |
| 1922 | Joyce, James | Ulysses | FIC Joy |
| 1924 | Forster, E. M. | A Passage to India | FIC For |
| 1924 | Twain, Mark | The Autobiography of Mark Twain | B TWAIN (MT Coll.) |
| 1925 | Dreiser, Theodore | An American Tragedy | FIC Dre |
| 1925 | Fitzgerald, F. Scott | The Great Gatsby | FIC Fit |
| 1925 | Kafka, Franz | The Trial | FIC Kaf |
| 1926 | Hemingway, Ernest | The Sun Also Rises | FIC Hem |
| 1926 | Milne, A.A. | Winnie the Pooh | JFIC Mil |
| 1926 | Tawney, R. H. | Religion and the Rise of Capitalism | 261 Taw |
| 1927 | Cather, Willa | Death Comes for the Archbishop | FIC Cat |
| 1927 | Wilder, Thornton | The Bridge of San Luis Rey | FIC Wil |
| 1927 | Woolf, Virginia | To the Lighthouse | FIC Wol (LP) |
| 1928 | Huxley, Aldous | Point Counter Point | FIC Hux |
| 1928 | Lawrence, D. H. | Lady Chatterley's Lover | FIC Law |
| 1929 | Faulkner, William | The Sound and the Fury | FIC Fau |
| 1929 | Graves, Robert | Goodbye to All That | 940 Gra |
| 1929 | Hemingway, Ernest | A Farewell to Arms | FIC Hem (Back Stacks) |
| 1929 | Hughes, Richard | A High Wind in Jamaica | FIC Hug |
| 1929 | Lippmann, Walter | A Preface to Morals | 171 Lip |
| 1929 | Remarque, Erich Maria | All Quiet on the Western Front | FIC Rem |
| 1929 | Woolf, Virginia | A Room of One's Own | FIC Wol |
| 1930 | Faulkner, William | As I Lay Dying | FIC Fau |
| 1930 | Hammett, Dashiell | The Maltese Falcon | FIC Ham |
| 1932 | Faulkner, William | Light in August | FIC Fau |
| 1932 | Huxley, Aldous | Brave New World | FIC Hux |
| 1933 | Brittain, Vera | Testament of Youth | B BRITTAIN |
| 1933 | Caldwell, Erskine | Tobacco Road | FIC Cal |
| 1933 | Orwell, George | Down and Out in Paris and London | FIC Orw |
| 1934 | Cain, James M. | The Postman Always Rings Twice | Mys Cai |
| 1934 | Fitzgerald, F. Scott | Tender is the Night | FIC Fit |
| 1934 | Graves, Robert | I, Claudius | FIC Gra |
| 1934 | Miller, Henry | Tropic of Cancer | FIC Mil |
| 1934 | O'Hara, John | Appointment in Samarra | FIC O'Ha |
| 1934 | Waugh, Evelyn | A Handful of Dust | FIC Wau |
| 1935 | du Maurier, Daphne | Rebecca | YA DuM |
| 1935 | Greene, Graham | Brighton Rock | FIC Gre |
| 1936 | Mitchell, Margaret | Gone with the Wind | FIC Mit |
| 1937 | Dinesen, Isak | Out of Africa | 967.7 Din |
| 1937 | Steinbeck, John | Of Mice and Men | FIC Ste |
| 1937 | Tolkien, J.R.R. | The Hobbit | YA Tol |
| 1938 | Orwell, George | Homage to Catalonia | 946.081 Orw |
| 1938 | Waugh, Evelyn | Scoop | FIC Wau |
| 1939 | Joyce, James | Finnegans Wake | FIC Joy |
| 1939 | Steinbeck, John | The Grapes of Wrath | FIC Ste (Book Club) |
| 1939 | West, Nathanael | The Day of the Locust | FIC Wes |
| 1940 | Greene, Graham | The Power and the Glory | FIC Gre |
| 1940 | McCullers, Carson | The Heart is a Lonely Hunter | FIC McC |
| 1940 | Wright, Richard | Native Son | FIC Wri |
| 1941 | Koestler, Arthur | Darkness at Noon | FIC Koe |
| 1942 | Camus, Albert | The Outsider (L'Etranger) | FIC Cam |
| 1942 | Markham, Beryl | West with the Night | 916.762 Mar |
| 1942 | West, Rebecca | Black Lamb and Grey Falcon | 914.97 Wes |
| 1945 | Orwell, George | Animal Farm | FIC Orw |
| 1945 | Waugh, Evelyn | Brideshead Revisited | FIC Wau |
| 1945 | Wright, Richard | Black Boy | B WRIGHT |
| 1946 | Warren, Robert Penn | All the King's Men | FIC War |
| 1947 | Frank, Anne | The Diary of a Young Girl | B FRANK |
| 1947 | Levi, Primo | If This Is a Man | 940.547 Lev |
| 1947 | Lowry, Malcolm | Under the Volcano | FIC Low |
| 1948 | Greene, Graham | The Heart of the Matter | FIC Gre |
| 1948 | Hofstadler, Richard | The American Political Tradition | 973 Hof |
| 1948 | Mailer, Norman | The Naked and the Dead | FIC Mai |
| 1948 | Paton, Alan | Cry the Beloved Country | FIC Pat |
| 1949 | Bowles, Paul | The Sheltering Sky | FIC Bow |
| 1949 | Orwell, George | 1984 | FIC Orw |
| 1950 | Lewis, C.S. | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | JFIC Lew |
| 1950 | Woodham - Smith, Cecil | Florence Nightingale | B NIGNTINGALE |
| 1951 | Jones, James | From Here to Eternity | FIC Jon |
| 1951 | Salinger, J.D. | The Catcher in the Rye | YA Sal |
| 1953 | Baldwin, James | Go Tell It on the Mountain | FIC Bal |
| 1954 | Amis, Kingsley | Lucky Jim | FIC Ami |
| 1954 | Einstein, Albert | Ideas and Opinions | 081 Ein |
| 1954 | Golding, William | The Lord of the Flies | FIC Gol |
| 1954 | Murdoch, Iris | Under the Net | FIC Mur |
| 1954 | Tolkien, J.R.R. | The Lord of the Rings | YA Tol |
| 1955 | Donleavy, J.P. | The Ginger Man | FIC Don |
| 1955 | Nabokov, Vladimir | Lolita | FIC Nab |
| 1957 | Cheever, John | The Wapshot Chronicles | FIC Che |
| 1957 | Kerouac, Jack | On the Road | FIC Ker |
| 1958 | Galbraith, John Kenneth | The Affluent Society | 330 Gal |
| 1958 | Pasternak, Boris | Doctor Zhivago | FIC Pas |
| 1959 | Bellow, Saul | Henderson the Rain King | FIC Bel |
| 1959 | Grass, Gunter | The Tin Drum | FIC Gra |
| 1959 | Lee, Laurie | Cider with Rosie | 821 Lee |
| 1959 | Strunk, W. and White, E.B. | The Elements of Style | 808 Str |
| 1960 | Lee, Harper | To Kill a Mocking Bird | YA Lee |
| 1961 | Dahl, Roald | James and the Giant Peach | JFIC Dah |
| 1961 | Gombrich, Ernest H. | Art and Illusion | 701.15 Gom |
| 1961 | Heller, Joseph | Catch-22 | FIC Hel |
| 1961 | Naipaul, V. S. | A House for Mr. Biswas | FIC Nai |
| 1961 | Percy, Walker | The Moviegoer | FIC Per |
| 1961 | Spark, Muriel | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | FIC Spa |
| 1962 | Burgess, Anthony | A Clockwork Orange | FIC Bur |
| 1962 | Carson, Rachel | Silent Spring | 632 Car |
| 1962 | Nabokov, Vladimir | Pale Fire | FIC Nab |
| 1962 | Solzhenitsyn, Alexander | A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich | FIC Sol |
| 1962 | Tuchman, Barbara | The Guns of August | 940.4 Tuc |
| 1963 | Herbert, Frank | Dune | FIC Her |
| 1963 | Plath, Sylvia | The Bell Jar | FIC Pla (Book Club) |
| 1964 | Dahl, Roald | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | JFIC Dah |
| 1965 | Capote, Truman | In Cold Blood | 364.1 Cap |
| 1965 | Fowles, John | The Magus | FIC Fow |
| 1965 | Haley, Alex & Malcolm X | The Autobiography of Malcolm X | B MALCOLMX |
| 1966 | Rhys, Jean | Wide Sargasso Sea | FIC Rhy |
| 1967 | Nabokov, Vladimir | Speak, Memory | B NABOKOV |
| 1968 | Clarke, Arthur C. | 2001 - A Space Odyssey | FIC Cla |
| 1969 | Dickey, James | Deliverance | FIC Dic |
| 1969 | Fowles, John | The French Lieutenant's Woman | FIC Fow |
| 1969 | Roth, Philip | Portnoy's Complaint | FIC Rot |
| 1969 | Vonnegut, Kurt | Slaughterhouse Five | YA Von |
| 1970 | Garcia Marquez, Gabriel | One Hundred Years of Solitude (Eng.) | FIC Gar (Book Club) |
| 1971 | Stegner, Wallace | Angle of Repose | FIC Ste |
| 1972 | Adams, Richard | Watership Down | FIC Ada |
| 1972 | McCullough, David | The Great Bridge | 624 McC |
| 1973 | Bugakov, Mikhail | The Master and Margarita | FIC Bug |
| 1974 | Caro, Robert A. | The Power Broker | 974.7 Car |
| 1974 | Dillard, Annie | Pilgrim at Tinker Creek | 813.54 Dil |
| 1974 | Foote, Shelby | The Civil War | 973.7 Foo |
| 1974 | Pirsig, Robert | Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance | B PIRSIG |
| 1974 | Turkel, Studs | Working | 331.2 Ter |
| 1975 | Doctorow, E. L. | Ragtime | FIC Doc |
| 1975 | Fussell, Paul | The Great War and Modern Memory | 940.3 Fus |
| 1976 | Keegan, John | The Face of Battle | 355.48 Kee |
| 1977 | Bate, Walter Jackson | Samuel Johnson | B JOHNSON |
| 1979 | Morris, Edmund | The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt | B ROOSEVELT |
| 1979 | Naipaul, V. S. | A Bend in the River | FIC Nai |
| 1979 | Pagels, Elaine | The Gnostic Gospels | 273.1 Pag |
| 1979 | Styron, William | Sophie's Choice | FIC Sty |
| 1979 | Wolfe, Tom | The Right Stuff | 629.45 Wol |
| 1980 | Eco, Umberto | The Name of the Rose | FIC Eco |
| 1981 | Gould, Stephen Jay | The Mismeasure of Man | 153.9 Gou |
| 1981 | Rushdie, Salman | Midnight's Children | FIC Rus |
| 1982 | Banks, Iain | The Wasp Factory | FIC Ban |
| 1982 | Dahl, Roald | The BFG | JFIC Dah |
| 1982 | Walker, Alice | The Color Purple | FIC Wal |
| 1983 | Kennedy, William | Ironweed | FIC Ken |
| 1984 | Kundera, Milan | The Unbearable Lightness of Being | 891.8 Kun |
| 1985 | Atwood, Margaret | The Handmaid's Tale | FIC Atw |
| 1985 | Garcia Marquez, Gabriel | Love in the Time of Cholera | FIC Gar |
| 1985 | Suskind, Patrick | Perfume | FIC Sus |
| 1986 | Rhodes, Richard | The Making of the Atomic Bomb | 623.4 Rho |
| 1987 | Morrison, Toni | Beloved | FIC Mor |
| 1987 | Wolfe, Tom | The Bonfire of the Vanities | FIC Wol |
| 1988 | Dahl, Roald | Matilda | JFIC Dah |
| 1988 | Hawking, Stephen | A Brief History of Time | 523.1 Haw |
| 1988 | McPherson, James M. | Battle Cry of Freedom | 973.7 McP |
| 1988 | Sheehan, Neil | A Bright Shining Lie | 959.704 She |
| 1989 | Irvine, John | A Prayer for Owen Meaney | FIC Irv |
| 1989 | Ishiguri, Kazuo | The Remains of the Day | FIC Ish |
| 1989 | Wolff, Tobias | This Boy's Life | 813.54 Wol |
| 1990 | Byatt, A. S. | Possession | FIC Bya |
| 1990 | Chernow, Ron | The House of Morgan | 292.2 Che |
| 1990 | Crichton, Michael | Jurassic Park | FIC Cri |
| 1990 | Styron, William | Darkness Visible | 616.85 Sty |
| 1991 | Gaarder, Jostein | Sophie's World | FIC Gaa |
| 1992 | Chan, Jung | Wild Swans | 952.05 (Cha) |
| 1993 | de Bernieres, Louis | Captain Corelli's Mandolin | FIC de B |
| 1993 | Doyle, Roddy | Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha | FIC Doy |
| 1993 | Faulks, Sebastian | Birdsong | FIC Fau |
| 1993 | Welsh, Irvine | Trainspotting | FIC Wel |
| 1994 | Lamott, Anne | Operating Instructions | PS 649.122 Lam |
| 1994 | Seth, Vikram | A Suitable Boy | FIC Set |
| 1995 | Evans, Nicholas | The Horse Whisperer | FIC Eva |
| 1995 | Mandela, Nelson | Long Walk to Freedom | B MANDELA |
| 2000 | Crace, Jim | Being Dead | FIC Cra |
| 2000 | Eggers, Dave | A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius | 818.54 Egg |
| 2000 | Heaney, Seamus | Beowulf - A New Verse Translation | 829.3 Beo |
| 2000 | Ridley, Matt | Genome | 599.93 Rid |
| 2000 | Roth, Philip | The Human Stain | FIC Rot |
| 2000 | Segev, Tom | One Palestine, Complete | 956.94 Seg |
| 2000 | Smith, Zadie | White Teeth | FIC Smi |
| 2000 | Updike, John | Gertrude and Claudius | FIC Upd |
| 2001 | Carey, Peter | True History of the Kelly Gang | FIC Car |
| 2001 | Fox Paula | Borrowed Finery: A Memoir | B FOX |
| 2001 | Franzen, Jonathan | The Corrections | FIC Fra |
| 2001 | McCullough, David | John Adams | B ADAMS |
| 2001 | Menard, Louis | The Metaphysical Club | 973.9 Men |
| 2001 | Munro, Alice | Hateship,Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage | FIC Mun |
| 2001 | Sacks, Oliver | Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood | 540.92 Sac |
| 2001 | Sebald, W. G. | Austerlitz | FIC Seb |
| 2002 | Carter, Miranda | Anthony Blunt: His Lives | 327.1 Car |
| 2002 | Eugenides, Jeffrey | Middlesex | FIC Eug |
| 2002 | Ferris, Timothy | Seeing in the Dark | 520 Fer |
| 2002 | Kennedy, William | Roscoe | FIC Ken |
| 2002 | MacMillan, Margaret | Paris, 1919 | 940.3 Mac |
| 2002 | McEwan, Ian | Atonement | FIC McE |
| 2003 | Alexander, Caroline | The Bounty | 996.1 Ale |
| 2003 | Ali, Monica | Brick Lane | FIC Ali |
| 2003 | Boyle, T. Coraghessan | Drop City | FIC Boy |
| 2003 | Garcia Marquez, Gabriel | Living to Tell the Tale | B GARCIA |
| 2003 | Jones, Edward P. | The Known World | FIC Jon |
| 2003 | Lethem, Jonathan | The Fortress of Solitude | FIC Let |
| 2003 | Taubman, William | Khrushchev: The Man and His Era | 947.085 Tau |
| 2003 | Tomalin, Claire | Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self | 941.06 Tom |
| 2004 | Chernow, Ron | Alexander Hamilton | B HAMILTON |
| 2004 | Dylan, Bob | Chronicles: Volume One | 782.42 Dyl |
| 2004 | Fischer, David Hackett | Washington's Crossing | 973.3 Fis |
| 2004 | Greenblatt, Stephen | Will in the World | 822.3 Gre |
| 2004 | Jin, Ha | War Trash | FIC Jin |
| 2004 | Munro, Alice | Runaway | FIC Mun |
| 2004 | Pamuk, Orhan | Snow | FIC Pam |
| 2004 | Robinson, Marilynne | Gilead | FIC Rob |
| 2004 | Roth, Philip | The Plot Against America | FIC Rot |
| 2004 | Toibin, Colm | The Master | FIC Toi |
| 2005 | Didion, Joan | The Year of Magical Thinking | 813.54 Did |
| 2005 | Gaitskill, Mary | Veronica | FIC Gai |
| 2005 | Harr, Jonathan | The Lost Painting | 759.5 Har |
| 2005 | Judt, Tony | Postwar: a History of Europe Since 1945 | 940.55 Jud |
| 2005 | McEwan, Ian | Saturday | FIC McE |
| 2005 | Murakami, Haruki | Kafka on the Shore | FIC Mur |
| 2005 | Packer, George | The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq | 956.704 Pac |
| 2005 | Sittenfeld, Curtis | Prep | FIC Sit |
| 2005 | Smith, Zadie | On Beauty | FIC Smi |
| 2006 | Ford, Richard | The Lay of the Land | FIC For |
| 2006 | Hempel, Amy | The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel | FIC Hem |
| 2006 | Messud, Claire | The Emperor's Children | FIC Mes |
| 2006 | Philbrick, Nathaniel | Mayflower: a Story of Courage, Community and War | 974.4 Phi |
| 2006 | Pollan, Michael | The Omnivore's Dilemma | 394.1 Pol |
| 2006 | Stewart, Rory | The Places In Between | 915.81 Ste |
| 2006 | Trussoni, Danielle | Falling Through the Earth: a Memoir | B TRUSSONI |
| 2006 | Wright, Lawrence | The Looming Tower:Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 | 973.931 Wri |
| 2007 | Bolano, Roberto | The Savage Detectives | FIC Bol |
| 2007 | Chandrasekaran, Rajiv | Imperial Life in the Emerald City | 956.7 Cha |
| 2007 | Colley, Linda | The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh | 910.92 Col |
| 2007 | Ferris, Joshua | Then We Came to the End | FIC Fer |
| 2007 | Johnson, Denis | Tree of Smoke | FIC Joh |
| 2007 | Kalish, Mildred Armstrong | Little Heathens | 977.7 Kal |
| 2007 | Petterson, Per | Out Stealing Horses | FIC Pet |
| 2007 | Ross, Alex | The Rest is Noise | 780.9 Ros |
| 2007 | Thomas, Michael | Man Gone Down | FIC Tho |
| 2007 | Toobin, Jeffrey | The Nine | 347.73 Too |
Compiled from New York Times Editor's Choice, New York Times 10 Best Books of the Decade (2000-20007), Modern Library: The 100 Best English-Language Novels of the 20th Century, Modern Library: The 100 Best English-Language Nonfiction Books of the 20th Century, and Waterstone's Top 100 Books of the Century |
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