Our Top 250!

The complete list

ThriftBooks published the list of Our Top 250 Books on June 11, 2026, and we're having a lot of fun exploring it. Curious how we determined the list? Check out the methodology here. Simply curious what’s on it? Here's the complete list in ranked order. 

#1 Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl 

#2 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling  

#3 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell 

#4 Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 

#5 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 

#6 The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton 

#7 The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah 

#8 The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 

#9 Animal Farm by George Orwell 

#10 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 

#11 Charlotte's Web by E.B. White 

#12 If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff 

#13 Holes by Louis Sachar 

#14 The Women by Kristin Hannah 

#15 Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson 

#16 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 

#17 Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young, and Life's Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom 

#18 Meditations by Marcus Aurelius 

#19 The Giver by Lois Lowry 

#20 A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn 

#21 The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren 

#22 The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 

#23 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 

#24 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 

#25 The Odyssey by Homer 

#26 East of Eden by John Steinbeck 

#27 Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson 

#28 Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young 

#29 The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon 

#30 Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Ron McMillan, Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, and Al Switzler 

#31 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy 

#32 Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 

#33 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 

#34 Night by Elie Wiesel  

#35 The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins  

#36 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak  

#37 The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein  

#38 The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle  

#39 The Stand by Stephen King 

#40 Nobody's Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre  

#41 11/22/63 by Stephen King 

#42 Number the Stars by Lois Lowry  

#43 Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz 

#44 Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler 

#45 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett 

#46 The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible by James Strong 

#47 Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss  

#48 The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 

#49 Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss 

#50 Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer 

#51 Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain 

#52 The Mitten by Jan Brett 

#53 Matilda by Roald Dahl  

#54 Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski 

#55 The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah 

#56 The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams  

#57 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 

#58 And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie 

#59 Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo 

#60 Hatchet by Gary Paulsen  

#61 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison 

#62 The Martian by Andy Weir 

#63 A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 

#64 One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss 

#65 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 

#66 The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate  

#67 Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein  

#68 Courage to Change: One Day at a Time in Al-Anon 

#69 The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran 

#70 Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World: Finding Intimacy with God in the Busyness of Life by Joanna Weaver 

#71 How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish 

#72 My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George  

#73 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans 

#74 A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini 

#75 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl  

#76 How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie 

#77 The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk 

#78 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 

#79 Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate 

#80 A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 

#81 Being Mortal by Atul Gawande 

#82 When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön 

#83 Devotions: The Select Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver 

#84 Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 

#85 The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls 

#86 The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz 

#87 The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones  

#88 Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne  

#89 The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, with John Sherrill and Elizabeth Sherrill

#90 Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés 

#91 The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf 

#92 The Shining by Stephen King 

#93 Stellaluna by Janell Cannon 

#94 On Writing by Stephen King  

#95 Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder 

#96 Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah 

#97 Narcotics Anonymous 

#98 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 

#99 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 

#100 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey  

#101 The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 

#102 Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini 

#103 The Iliad by Homer 

#104 I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman 

#105 Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin 

#106 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 

#107 Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña 

#108 Dog Man by Dav Pilkey 

#109 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë  

#110 Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires; The Respect He Desperately Needs by Emerson Eggerichs  

#111 Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 

#112 Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems 

#113 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 

#114 I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy 

#115 Educated by Tara Westover 

#116 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 

#117 James by Percival Everett 

#118 Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak 

#119 Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud and John Townsend  

#120 Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman 

#121 Dracula by Bram Stoker 

#122 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 

#123 The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene  

#124 On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder  

#125 Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar  

#126 Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney 

#127 The Elements of Style by E.B. White and William Strunk Jr. 

#128 Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck 

#129 The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka 

#130 Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen 

#131 Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah  

#132 The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander  

#133 The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer  

#134 The Bait Of Satan: Living Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense by John Bevere  

#135 The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary  

#136 The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 

#137 Caste by Isabel Wilkerson 

#138 Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--and What You Really Need to Know by Emily Oster  

#139 Radical Candor: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean by 

Kim Scott 

#140 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 

#141 Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman 

#142 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 

#143 The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis 

#144 Putting the Power of Your Subconscious Mind to Work by Joseph Murphy  

#145 Beloved by Toni Morrison 

#146 Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell 

#147 The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood and?Audrey Wood 

#148 The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, Alex Haley  

#149 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 

#150 It by Stephen King 

#151 The Road by Cormac McCarthy 

#152 Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey  

#153 Blood Meridian; or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy 

#154 A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein 

#155 Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan  

#156 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe 

#157 Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson 

#158 Divergent by Veronica Roth 

#159 The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman  

#160 Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton 

#161 The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats  

#162 Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah 

#163 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot 

#164 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne 

#165 The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 

#166 Assata by Assata Shakur 

#167 Theo of Golden by Allen Levi 

#168 A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 

#169 Maus by Art Spiegelman 

#170 The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence by Gavin de Becker 

#171 Knowing God by J. I. Packer 

#172 The Princess Bride by William Goldman 

#173 Breath by James Nestor  

#174 The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah 

#175 D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d'Aulaire and?Edgar Parin d'Aulaire 

#176 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 

#177 Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 

#178 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 

#179 Holy Bible: New Living Translation 

#180 Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon by Joe Dispenza 

#181 The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss 

#182 The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo 

#183 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame 

#184 The Alice Network by Kate Quinn 

#185 Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster 

#186 The Wild Robot by Peter Brown  

#187 A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by W. Phillip Keller 

#188 Watership Down by Richard Adams 

#189 Silent Spring by Rachel Carson 

#190 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 

#191 Wonder by R.J. Palacio 

#192 The Stranger by Albert Camus 

#193 The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare 

#194 James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot 

#195 The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis  

#196 The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett   

#197 Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn 

#198 Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates 

#199 Prescription for Nutritional Healing: The A to Z Guide to Supplements by Phyllis A. 

#200 A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

#201 Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving 

#202 Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverence by Angela Duckworth 

#203 The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer  

#204 The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz  

#205 The Creative Act by Rick Rubin  

#206 Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards  

#207 The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese 

#208 How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Dr. Michael Greger  

#209 NIV Study Bible 

#210 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson 

#211 Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper  

#212 Mr. Popper's Penguins by Florence Atwater?and?Richard Atwater  

#213 Misery by Stephen King 

#214 Night Road by Kristin Hannah 

#215 Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ by Daniel Goleman 

#216 Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God's Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You by John Burke 

#217 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl  

#218 Experiencing God: How to Live the Full Adventure of Knowing and Doing the Will of God by Henry Blackaby and Claude King  

#219 Game Changer by Rachel Reid 

#220 The Wager by David Grann 

#221 The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 

#222 Holy Bible: New International Version 

#223 Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard  

#224 Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw  

#225 Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne 

#226 The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine Aron  

#227 The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden 

#228 The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian 

#229 Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza 

#230 The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Business and Life by Charles Duhigg 

#231 The Beginner's Bible  

#232 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 

#233 Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means  

#234 True Colors by Kristin Hannah 

#235 The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare 

#236 Betty Crocker's Cookbook  

#237 Eragon by Christopher Paolini 

#238 The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak 

#239 Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right by Jamie Glowacki  

#241 The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins 

#242 Communion: The Female Search for Love by bell hooks 

#243 Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton 

#244 The Federalist by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, et al. 

#245 The New Oxford Annotated Bible 

#246 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy 

#247 Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss 

#248 The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell  

#249 A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson 

#250 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab 

If you're interested in exploring the breakdown of our Top 250 books further, check out previous blogs: 

• The Best Classic Books from Our Top 250 

• The Best Kids' and YA Books from  Our Top 250 

• The Best Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, and Horror Books from Our Top 250 

• The Best Spirituality & Self-Help Books from Our Top 250 

• The Best Non-Fiction, Memoir, History, and Science Books from Our Top 250 

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Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon