Top 20 Literary Top 10 Lists
by Beth Carswell
Here are 20 of our favorite literary top 10 lists, from the AbeBooks staff and some of our other favorite bookish spots. Happy reading!
10 Beloved Animals in Fiction
(Source: AbeBooks)- Charlotte the grey spider from Charlotte′s Web by E.B. White
- Wilbur the pig from Charlotte′s Web by E.B. White
- The Doubtful Guest from Amphigorey by Edward Gorey
- Hobbes the tiger, from the Calvin & Hobbes comic strips by Bill Watterson
- All of the insects from James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
- Goopy and Bagha, the Plentimaw Fish from Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
- Pigwidgeon (Pig) from the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling
- Jonathan from Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
- Clover the horse from Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Bodger the Bull Terrier from The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford
10 Tales of the American Frontier
(source: The Guardian)- Roughing It
Mark Twain - My Antonia
Willa Cather - The Plains Across
John D Unruh - Close Range
Annie Proulx - The Crossing
Cormac McCarthy - Little House on the Prairie
Laura Ingalls Wilder - Little Big Man
Thomas Berger - Mollie: the Journal of Mollie Dorsey Sanford 1857-66
Mollie Sanford - The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper - One Flew Over the Cuckoo′s Nest
Ken Kesey
Top 10 Egg Books
(source: AbeBooks.com)- Faberge′s Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces that Outlived an Empire
Tony Faber - Egg & Nest
Rosamond Purcell - Good Egg
Barney Saltzberg - Scrambled Eggs Super!
Dr. Seuss - Intricate Eggs: 45 Egg-Cellent Designs to Color
Chuck Abraham - Confessions of a Serial Egg Donor
Julia Derek - Mommy Laid An Egg!: OR Where Do Babies Come From?
Babette Cole - The Good Egg: More than 200 Fresh Approaches for Breakfast to Dessert
Marie Simmons - Fresh Eggs
Rob Levandoski - A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
Peter Nichols
Top 10 Rock Biographies
(source: the Independent)- Motley Crue: The Dirt
Motley Crue - Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan
Howard Sounes - Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd
Nick Mason - The Dark Stuff
Nick Kent - Biography of Led Zepplin: When Giants Walked the Earth
Mick Wall - Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits
Barney Hoskyns - Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon
Tony Fletcher - Meetings with Morrissey
Len Brown - Tearing Down The Wall of Sound
Mick Brown - Nirvana: the True Story
Everett True
10 Underground Reads
(source: the Guardian)- Moonfleet
J Meade Falkner - Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Jules Verne - The Underground Man
Mick Jackson - The Subterranean Railway
Christian Wolmar - The Lore of the Land
Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson - Haweswater
Sarah Hall - The Dig
John Preston - Selected Caves of Britain and Ireland
Des Marshall & Donald Rust - A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain
Daniel Defoe - The Time Machine
HG Wells
10 Recession Reads
(source: AbeBooks)- The Van
Roddy Doyle - Three Dollars
Elliot Perlman - Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens - Mr. Phillips
John Lanchester - Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen - The Prince and the Pauper
Mark Twain - Last Night at the Lobster
Stewart O′Nan - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Roald Dahl - A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens - A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry
10 Potato Books
(Source: the Guardian)- History and Social Influence of the Potato
Redcliffe Salaman - The Flounder
Gunter Grass - Star of the Sea
Joseph O′Connor - The Great Hunger
Cecil Woodham-Smith - Feast and Famine: Food and Nutrition in Ireland 1500-1920
LA Clarkson & E Margaret Crawford - The Potato
WG Burton - The Potato: Evolution, Biodiversity and Genetic Resources
JG Hawkes - Hunting the Wild Potato in the South American Andes
JG Hawkes - England′s Happiness Increased
John Forster - Potato Cookbooks
Take your pick
10 Books that Make Me Hungry
(source: AbeBooks)- Like Water for Chocolate
Laura Esquivel - Kitchen
Banana Yoshimoto - Fantastic Mr. Fox
Roald Dahl - The Godfather
Mario Puzo - The Malory Towers series
Enid Blyton - The Mrs. Pollifax Books
Dorothy Gilman - The Little House books
Laura Ingalls Wilder - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Barbara Kingsolver - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Roald Dahl - Fried Green Tomatoes
Fannie Flagg
10 Most Disturbing Books of All Time
(source: popcrunch.com)- Blindness
Jose Saramago - Requiem for a Dream
Hubert Selby Jr. - Naked Lunch
William S. Burroughs - We Need to Talk About Kevin
Lionel Shriver - The Road
Cormac McCarthy - American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis - Johnny Got His Gun
Dalton Trumbo - The 120 Days of Sodom
Marquis de Sade - The Turner Diaries
Andrew MacDonald - The Girl Next Door
Jack Ketchum
Top 10 Comedic Science Fiction Novels
(source: theendoftheuniverse.ca)- The Hitch-hiker′s Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams - The Stainless Steel Rat
Harry Harrison - Discworld
Terry Pratchett - A Scanner Darkly
Philip K Dick - Slaughterhouse Five
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - Venus On The Half-Shell
Kilgore Trout - Riverworld
Philip Jose Farmer - Ringworld
Larry Niven - Colony
Rob Grant - Backwards
Rob Grant
10 Books that Would Make Good Movies
(source: savvyreader.typepad.com)- The Political Drama:
The Weight of a Mustard Seed
Wendell Steavenson - The Period Piece:
The Other Queen
Philippa Gregory - The Blockbuster:
Next
Michael Crichton - The Foreign Film:
First Darling of the Morning
Thrity Umrigar - The Action/Drama:
Bel Canto
Ann Patchett - The Biopic:
Love, Janis
Laura Joplin - The War Story:
Lizzie′s War
Tim Farrington - The Romantic Comedy:
Getting Rid of Matthew
Jane Fallon - The Art House Indie:
Clara Callan
Richard B. Wright - The Noirish Crime Flick:
Darkness and the Stroke of Noon
Dennis Richard Murphy
10 Most Expensive Irish-Authored Books Ever Sold on AbeBooks.com
(source: AbeBooks.com)- The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts - $18,500
Robert Boyle - Ulysses - $10,000
James Joyce - The Screwtape Letters - $9,097
CS Lewis - George Bernard Shaw′s Typewriter - $8,219
John Lanchester - Out of the Silent Planet - $7,950
CS Lewis - Tales Told of Shem and Shaun - $7,500
James Joyce - A House of Pomegranates - $6,507
Oscar Wilde - Ulysses - $6,500
James Joyce - The Querist - $6,305
George Berkeley - The Silver Chair - $5,645
CS Lewis
10 Books in Which Things End Badly
(source: the Guardian)- The Bible
Various Authors - Doctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe - Villette
Charlotte Bronte - Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka - The Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys - The War of the End of the World
Mario Vargas Llosa - American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis - Heaven′s Edge
Romesh Gunesekera - Private Peaceful
Michael Morpurgo - Sheepshagger
Niall Griffiths
Top 10 Books Borrowed from Scottish Libraries
(source: news.bbc.co.uk)- The Naming of the Dead
Ian Rankin - The Overlook
Michael Connelly - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
JK Rowling - At Risk
Patricia Cornwell - Cross
James Patterson - Judge and Jury
James Patterson & Andrew Gross - The Quickie
James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge - Death′s Door
Quintin Jardine - Echo Park
Michael Connelly - The 6th Target
James Patterson
10 Snow Books
(source:the Guardian)- The Call of the Wild
Jack London - A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens - The Worst Journey in the World
Apsley Cherry-Garrard - Snow Falling on Cedars
David Guterson - Walden
Henry David Thoreau - The Snowflake: Winter′s Secret Beauty
Kenneth Libbrecht and Patricia Rasmussen - Frankenstein
Mary Shelley - Miss Smilla′s Feeling For Snow
Peter Hoeg - An Account of the Arctic Regions
William Scoresby Jr. - Snow
Ruth Kirk
10 Black History Non-fiction Books
(source: booklistonline.com)- The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood
Ta-Nehisi Coates - Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South
Robert Goodwin - Freedom′s Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers
Richard Newman - Hard Driving: The Wendell Scott Story; The American Odyssey of NASCAR′s First Black Driver
Brian Donovan - The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Annette Gordon-Reed - Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching
Paula J. Giddings - In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past
Henry Louis Gates - Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist
Nancy Goldstein - The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise
Paul Gardullo - The Slaves′ War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves
Andrew Ward
10 Best History Books
(source: independent.co.uk)- Necropolis: London and Its Dead
Catharine Arnold - Warsaw 1920: Lenin′s Failed Conquest of Europe
Adam Zamoyski - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
Dee Brown - A People′s History of the World
Chris Harman - Empires of the Sea: the Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580
Roger Crowley - Liberation: The Bitter Road to Freedom, Europe 1944-1945
William I Hitchcock - The Ascent of Money: a Financial History of the World
Niall Ferguson - Clean: An Unsanitised History of Washing
Katherine Ashenburg - Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town
Mary Beard - Henry: The Virtuous Prince
David Starkey
10 Eccentric Middle East Books
(source: the Guardian)- Jerusalem: City of Mirrors
Amos Elon - Ropes of Sand
Wilbur Crane Eveland - Secret Soldier
Muki Betser - The Chariot of Israel: Britain, America, and the State of Israel
Harold Wilson - A Tale of Love and Darkness
Amos Oz - Living With the Bible
Moshe Dayan - A People That Dwells Alone
Yaacov Herzog - My Home, My Land
Abu Iyad - Warrior
Ariel Sharon - The Iron Wall
Avi Shlaim
Stephen King′s Top 10 Picks for 2008
(source: ew.com)- The Good Guy
Dean Koontz - Old Flames
Jack Ketchum - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson - Hollywood Crows
Joseph Wambaugh - Heartsick/Sweetheart
Chelsea Cain - Nixonland
Rick Perlstein - The Tenderness of Wolves
Stef Penney - When Will There Be Good News?
Kate Atkinson - The Garden of Last Days
Andre Dubus III - The Novels of Robert Goddard
Robert Goddard
Top 10 Scandinavian Crime Novels
(source: the Guardian)- The Mind′s Eye
Håkan Nesser - Blackwater
Kerstin Ekman - Missing
Karin Alvtegen - Sun Storm
Åsa Larsson - The Fifth Woman
Henning Mankell - Unseen
Mari Jungstedt - Shame
Karin Alvtegen - Echoes from the Dead
Johan Theorin - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson - Midvinterblod
Mons Kallentoft
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