The most popular books in English.
What books are currently the most popular and which are the all time classics? Here we present you with a mixture of those two criteria. We update this list once a month.

Ulrich Peltzer
It’s Berlin in the summer of 2003—sunshine for weeks on end, weather to fall in love. And that’s just what Christian Eich, the main character in Ulrich Peltzer’s acclaimed novel Part of the Solution, does; but that’s not all. Christian Eich, a thirty-something freelance …

Sten Nadolny
Freed after two thousand years of captivity, the god Hermes taps people's minds to study contemporary society, and he battles Hephaestus, the degenerate technology god. By the author of The Discovery of Slowness. "

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Originally published in 1766, the Laocoön has been called the first extended attempt in modern times to define the distinctive spheres of art and poetry.

Friedrich Schiller
The Maid of Orleans is a tragedy by Friedrich Schiller, written in 1801 in Leipzig. During his lifetime, it was one of Schiller's most frequently-performed pieces.

Peter Handke
"There was one time in my life when I experienced metamorphosis." A novel that begins with a sentence like this and also features a main character named Gregor obviously has serious ambitions from the get-go. But readers of Austrian writer Peter Handke's previous fiction would …

Thomas Glavinic
Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw is a 1998 chess novel by Austrian writer Thomas Glavinic. It was Glavinic's first novel and is about a shy and withdrawn Viennese chess master who in 1910 challenges the World Champion for his title. The book was translated into English in 1999 by …

A. J. Cronin
The Green Years is a 1944 novel by A. J. Cronin which traces the formative years of an Irish orphan, Robert Shannon, who is sent to live with his draconian maternal grandparents in Scotland. An introspective child, Robert forms an attachment to his roguish great-grandfather, who …

Aidan Chambers
The Toll Bridge is a young adult novel by Aidan Chambers. Seventeen-year-old Piers leaves home to be a toll bridge keeper. He meets Tess and Adam. Piers is trying to escape the pressures of suffocating parents and a possessive girlfriend. Adam is a charismatic wayfarer who shows …

Stefan Zweig
'This is the story of about the strangest thing that I've ever encountered, old art dealer that I am.' It is perhaps the finest art collection of its kind, acquired through a lifetime of sacrifice - but when a dealer comes to see it, he finds something quite unexpected, and is …

Heinrich Böll
The Safety Net is a 1979 novel by Heinrich Böll. An English translation by Leila Vennewitz was published in 1981.

Desmond Bagley
The Golden Keel is the debut novel by English author Desmond Bagley, first published in 1963. Written in the first person narrative, the introductory biography of the protagonist is closely patterned after that of the author.

Hans-Peter Martin
The Global Trap is an extraordinary book that explores the spread of globalization and its effects. The authors provide an account that is highly informed, yet extremely readable, showing how internationalism, once an invention of social-democratic labor leaders, has firmly …

Adrian Tinniswood
The Verneys: A True Story of Love, War, and Madness in Seventeenth-Century England is a book written by Adrian Tinniswood.

Kurd Lasswitz
Two Planets is an influential science fiction novel postulating intelligent life on Mars by Kurd Lasswitz. It was first published in hardcover by Felber in two volumes in 1897; there have been many editions since, including abridgements by the author's son Erich Lasswitz and …

Sheridan Le Fanu
Green Tea and Other Ghost Stories is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by author J. Sheridan Le Fanu. It was released in 1945 and was the author's first book to be published in the United States. It was published by Arkham House in an edition of 2,026 copies. A …

Abraham Pais
"Subtle is the Lord...": The Science and Life of Albert Einstein is a book written by Abraham Pais.

Randall Kenan
A Visitation of Spirits is a 1989 novel by Randall Kenan.

John Brunner
Children of the Thunder is a 1988 science fiction novel by John Brunner. The novel explores several themes: environment degradation of the modern world, paternal irresponsibility, and conservative tendencies in British politics. The latter may reflect that the book was written …

P. G. Wodehouse
The Coming of Bill is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published as Their Mutual Child in the United States on 5 August 1919 by Boni & Liveright, New York, and as The Coming of Bill in the United Kingdom on 1 July 1920 by Herbert Jenkins Ltd, London. The story first …

William S. Burroughs
Blade Runner (a movie) is a science fiction novella by Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs, first published in 1979. The novella began as a story treatment for a proposed film adaptation of Alan E. Nourse's novel The Bladerunner. A later edition published in the 1980s …

Jiddu Krishnamurti
The First and Last Freedom is a book by Jiddu Krishnamurti, originally published 1954.

Jürgen Habermas
The Theory of Communicative Action is a 1981 book by Jürgen Habermas, in which he continues his project set out in On the Logic of the Social Sciences of finding a way to ground "the social sciences in a theory of language." The two volumes are Reason and the Rationalization of …

Isaac Asimov
The Left Hand of the Electron is a collection of seventeen nonfiction science essays written by Isaac Asimov, first published by Doubleday & Company in 1972. It was the ninth of a series of books collecting essays from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The title …

George MacDonald Fraser
The Candlemass Road is a historical novel from George MacDonald Fraser set in the time of the Border Reivers, a period Fraser had earlier written about in The Steel Bonnets. Fraser later described it as "a rather dark morality tale - at least I meant it to have a moral - in what …

Dorothy Hoobler
In Darkness, Death is a book by Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler.

Ian Stewart
Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry is a 2007 book by Ian Stewart.

William Shakespeare
Henry VI, Part 3 is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas 1 Henry VI deals with the loss of England's French territories and the political machinations leading up to the Wars …

Katie Roiphe
The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism on Campus is a 1993 book by author and journalist Katie Roiphe. Her first book, it was reprinted with a new introduction in 1994. Part of the book had previously been published as an essay, "The Rape Crisis, or 'Is Dating Dangerous?'" in …

Spencer-Brown
Laws of Form is a book by G. Spencer-Brown, published in 1969, that straddles the boundary between mathematics and philosophy. LoF describes three distinct logical systems: The primary arithmetic, whose models include Boolean arithmetic; The primary algebra, whose models include …

Edgar Allan Poe
The room was on the fourth floor, and the door was locked - with the key on the inside. The windows were closed and fastened - on the inside. The chimney was too narrow for a cat to get through. So how did the murderer escape? And whose were the two angry voices heard by the …

Franklin W. Dixon
The Secret of Wildcat Swamp is Volume 31 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap. This book was written for the Stratemeyer Syndicate by William Dougherty in 1952. Between 1959 and 1973 the first 38 volumes of this series were …

Billy Wilder
Sunset Boulevard (1950) is one of the most famous films in the history of Hollywood, and perhaps no film better represents Hollywood's vision of itself. Billy Wilder collaborated on the screenplay with the very able Charles Brackett, and with D. M. Marshman Jr., who later joined …

Harold Kushner
Overcoming Life's Disappointments is a 2006 book by Harold Kushner, a Conservative rabbi. Kushner addresses in the book the question of how to cope when disappointing things happen to you. He uses Biblical examples, such as how Moses coped with being denied entrance to The …

Robert Silverberg
Shadrach in the Furnace is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert Silverberg, first published by Bobbs Merrill in 1976. The novel was nominated in 1976 for the Nebula award, and in 1977 for the Hugo award. The story takes place in 2012, and is set in Ulaanbaatar, that …

Sinclair Lewis
Kingsblood Royal, a novel by American writer Sinclair Lewis, was published in 1947.

Susan Napier
Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation is a scholarly book which uses techniques of literary criticism on anime by Susan J. Napier published in 2001 by Palgrave Macmillan. It discusses themes of shōjo, hentai, mecha, magical …

Lloyd Kaufman
Make Your Own Damn Movie is both a book and a DVD set about Troma Entertainment and independent film in general.

Carolyn Keene
The Secret in the Old Lace is the fifty-ninth volume in the Nancy Drew mystery series. It was first published in 1980 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. It is about how Nancy can solve a mystery about a lace cuff with hidden messages. She must then travel to Belgium to solve the …

Franz Kafka
Give It Up! is a comics adaptation of nine short stories by Franz Kafka drawn by Peter Kuper. In the introduction, by Jules Feiffer, Kuper's adaptations are described as "riffs, visual improvisations."

Cynthia Harnett
The Wool-Pack is a children's historical novel written and illustrated by Cynthia Harnett, published by Methuen in 1951. It was the first published of four children's novels that Harnett set in 15th-century England. She won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, …

Peter Lovesey
Rough Cider is an Edgar Award nominated book written by Peter Lovesey.

Desmond Bagley
High Citadel is a novel written by English author Desmond Bagley, and was first published in 1965.

Jack L. Chalker
The Sea is Full of Stars is the ninth novel in the Well of Souls series by American author Jack L. Chalker.

Henry Mayhew
London Labour and the London Poor is a work of Victorian journalism by Henry Mayhew. In the 1840s he observed, documented, and described the state of working people in London for a series of articles in a newspaper, the Morning Chronicle, that were later compiled into book form. …

Douglas Preston
Jennie is a novel by American author Douglas Preston. The book was published on October 1, 1994 by St. Martin's Press .

Thomas Stephen Szasz
The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct is a 1961 book by Thomas Szasz, who questions psychiatry's foundations and argues against the tendency of psychiatrists to label people who are "disabled by living" as mentally ill. It received much …

Ludwig von Mises
The Theory of Money and Credit is a 1912 economics book written by Ludwig von Mises, originally published in German as Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel. In it Mises explains the origins of money through his "regression theorem", which is based on logic, not historic …

Arthur Koestler
Arrow in the Blue is an autobiography covering the first 26 years of Arthur Koestler's life. It was published in 1952 by Collins with Hamish Hamilton Ltd. and has been reprinted several times.

Wanda Gag
The ABC Bunny by Wanda Gág is a children's alphabet book which was a Newbery Honor recipient in 1934. The book is illustrated by the author in black and white, and hand lettered by her brother Howard. The music for the "ABC Song", included as a score in the book, was composed by …

Joanna Russ
And Chaos Died is a science fiction novel by Joanna Russ, perhaps the genre's best-known feminist author. Its setting is a dystopian projection of modern society, in which Earth's population has continued to grow, with the effects somewhat mitigated by advanced technology. The …

James MacGregor Burns
Roosevelt: The Soldier Of Freedom, 1940-1945 is a 1970 biography of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt by James MacGregor Burns, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. The book won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction. It is a sequel to …

Richard Greenberg
Take Me Out is a 2002 play by American playwright Richard Greenberg originally staged by Donmar Warehouse, London, with The Public Theater. It premiered Off-Broadway on September 5, 2002, at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, and made its Broadway debut on February 27, 2003, at the …

John Barnes
The Merchants of Souls is a 2001 science fiction novel by John Barnes and the third book in the Thousand Cultures series.

John Bunyan
The Holy War Made by King Shaddai Upon Diabolus, to Regain the Metropolis of the World, Or, The Losing and Taking Again of the Town of Mansoul is a 1682 novel by John Bunyan. This novel, written in the form of an allegory, tells the story of the town "Mansoul". Though this town …

Anthony Trollope
Castle Richmond is the third of five novels set in Ireland by Anthony Trollope. Castle Richmond was written between 4 August 1859 and 31 March 1860, and was published in three volumes on 10 May 1860. It was his tenth novel. Trollope signed the contract for the novel on 2 August …

Julian Baggini
What's It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life is a book by Julian Baggini.

Donald Hamilton
Death of a Citizen is a 1960 spy novel by Donald Hamilton, and was the first in a long-running series of books featuring the adventures of assassin Matt Helm. The title refers to the metaphorical death of peaceful citizen and family man Matt Helm and the rebirth of the deadly …

Sean Williams
The Dark Imbalance is a 2001 science fiction novel by Sean Williams and Shane Dix. It is the third novel in the Evergence series and is preceded by The Dying Light which was published in 2000. It follows the story of Morgan Roche who has been given the task to protect mankind …

Laurence Yep
Dragon of the Lost Sea is a fantasy novel by Chinese-American author Laurence Yep. It was first published in 1982 and is the first book in his Dragon series. Having already written several books, Yep had wanted to adapt Chinese mythology into a fantasy form for some time, and …

Harry Harrison
Bill, the Galactic Hero is a satirical science fiction novel by Harry Harrison, first published in 1965. Harrison reports having been approached by a Vietnam veteran who described Bill as "the only book that's true about the military."

Lyman Frank Baum
Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak is a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Frederick Richardson. It was originally serialized in the early 20th-century American children's magazine St. Nicholas from November 1904 to October 1905, and was …

Lyman Frank Baum
The Royal Book of Oz is the fifteenth in the series of Oz books, and the first by Ruth Plumly Thompson, to be written after L. Frank Baum's death. Although Baum was credited as the author, it was written entirely by Thompson. Beginning in the 1980s, some editions have correctly …

Andy Mangels
The Good That Men Do is a Star Trek: Enterprise relaunch novel, which was released in March 2007.

Laurence Yep
Dragon Steel is a fantasy novel by Chinese-American author Laurence Yep. It was first published in 1985 and is the second book in his Dragon series. In Dragon Steel, Yep decided to expand on the dilemma faced by exiled dragon princess Shimmer, that of how to govern, since she …

Brian Lumley
Necroscope: Defilers is a book published in 1999 that was written by Brian Lumley.

Nancy Springer
Lionclaw, a tale of Rowan Hood is a book published in 2002 that was written by Nancy Springer.

Zakes Mda
The Whale Caller is a fifth novel written by South African writer Zakes Mda, who is currently a professor at Ohio University, It is a novel about a man in South Africa named Whale Caller. The Whale Caller first appears to be sexually attracted to whales; especially a whale he …

Anne McCaffrey
Deluge is a book published in 2008 that was written by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.

Jeanne DuPrau
Car Trouble is a novel by Jeanne DuPrau published in 2005 about a man named Duff Pringle who travels across the country for a future job.

Louis Sachar
Stanley Yelnats' Survival Guide to Camp Green Lake is a 2003 novel for young adults by Louis Sachar, first published by Yearling Books. It is the second in a series inaugurated in 1998 by the award-winning Holes. Survival Guide is a "tongue-in-cheek handbook for newcomers" to …

Stephen Woodworth
In Golden Blood is the third science-fiction alternate history novel by Stephen Woodworth featuring the "Violet" detective Natalie Lindstrom. It was written in 2005, and won First Place in the Writers of the Future Contest.

Gillian Rubinstein
Grass For His Pillow Episode 2 : The Way Through The Snow is a book published in 2005 that was written by Gillian Rubinstein.

David Graeber
Now in paperback: David Graeber’s “fresh . . . fascinating . . . thought-provoking . . . and exceedingly timely” (Financial Times) history of debt Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there …

Sam Harris
For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris’s latest New York Times bestseller is a guide to meditation as a rational practice informed by neuroscience and psychology.From Sam Harris, neuroscientist and author of numerous New York Times …