No matter how many exciting new books are published each year, book lovers will never really escape the pull of the classics. Whether you want to relive your school days, expand your knowledge of the canon, or catch up on all the literature that didn’t fit into your busy schedule of napping, yapping, and playing, the following classic books are a great place to start.
There are many other compilations out there of the “best classic books of all time,” like the terrifying one Largest book listwhich has used an algorithm to pull beloved titles from around the world. But hardly anyone has time to sort through thousands of books, so we’ve whittled it down to 41 that we think should make the cut for your coveted TBR list.
To keep it simple, we’ve excluded poetry, short story collections and plays, and we’ve only included books published before 2000. So while you won’t find any Sally Rooney, Sarah J. MaasOrama or Pama Adapure (which has a New book coming in 2025) On this list, you’ll see plenty of familiar titles that have cemented their place in history as some of the best and most influential classic books ever written.
