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great books

Definition of great books

Word history.

1945, in the meaning defined above

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“Great books.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/great%20books. Accessed 17 Feb. 2024.

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Finger pointing

What's the definition of a great book?

M artyn Goff – formerly the administrator of the Man Booker prize , a puckish and highly literate man about town, novelist and these days a rare book dealer – used to say that choosing a Booker winner was simple. "Just pick the best book," he would advise, knowing full well that that was where the problems – and the fun – started. Martyn loved problems, and had a great sense of fun, leaking judges' disagreements to the press, keeping the pot boiling, stirring merrily.

He was fully aware that prize judges have strong opinions and individual tastes – he liked picking ones that did – and that they will always come into conflict. Never, he once told me, have the judges been unanimous about the winner of the Booker, though now and again they all left the final judging room tolerably happy. But he relished the clash of ego and opinion in the judging process. The judge he had most respected was George Steiner. Why was that? "He knew how to get his own way."

Martyn was also clear, though, that it was up to individuals, and individual panels, to decide what counted as best, and would not, under any conditions, suggest the criteria that might be applied to such a choice. I think this was wise of him, and that the hoo-hah at this year's Man Booker, with Stella Rimington wanting books to read rather than to admire, and Chris Mullin favouring those that "zipped along" , was caused not by the fact that these are dubious criteria, but that they are criteria at all. Better just to make one's choices, and let the world react.

I was once asked, at some festival or other during a time when I was judging the prize, what my criteria were for defining a great book. Now I must admit that, like a lot of arts people, I have an instinctive revulsion against rules. Art is by its nature often transgressive, and most of us trained in the arts do not like to be told what to do, whether by people or by formulae. We associate rules and "criteria" with busybody administrators and bureaucrats, and resist reflexively when asked to justify ourselves according to some pre-set formulation or standard. Though by no means hostile to rational discourse of more conventional kinds, we often rely on intuition, particularity, taste, and an individuated critical eye. We like to think of ourselves as free spirits, which is one of the sustaining illusions of the whole enterprise.

I responded by asking the questioner, who had demanded criteria, how he would define a horse? He looked puzzled - more than puzzled, he looked pissed off - not remembering, obviously, that great opening section of Dickens's Hard Times:

'Give me your definition of a horse.' (Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.) 'Girl number twenty unable to define a horse!' said Mr Gradgrind.... 'Girl number twenty possessed of no facts, in reference to one of the commonest of animals! Some boy's definition of a horse.... 'Bitzer,' said Thomas Gradgrind. 'Your definition of a horse.' 'Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.' Thus (and much more) Bitzer. 'Now girl number twenty,' said Mr Gradgrind. 'You know what a horse is.'

In fact, Sissy's father, as she tells her teacher, "works in the horse-riding", and she obviously knows how to define a horse. All she has to do is to invite Mr Gradgrind and her fellow pupils down to the stables, and to point. "One of them, sir." Bitzer, I'll bet, has never seen one, and would be surprised, though delight is presumably beyond him.

Pointing – known as ostensive definition – is in fact the commonest way of defining something. What is a tree? A football match? An ear of corn? Sure, you can come up with a form of words, but nothing has the weight and specificity of a particular example put before your eyes. Oh, one of those.

So, if you want to define a great book, what do you point to? When we were reading for the Man Booker International prize, the judges agreed that we were looking (among other things) for authors who had produced a "masterpiece", though the term rightly made us a little uncomfortable.

What is a masterpiece? Crime and Punishment . Hamlet . To His Coy Mistress . Ulysses . Madame Bovary . How does one know this? By having read a hell of a lot. Something only stands out from a crowd when there is a crowd to stand out from. This is one of many reasons to read as widely as you can: not only is it more fun and more edifying, it helps you to make distinctions between the quality, and the qualities, of one thing when you set it against another. One element of our experience of reading is inescapably comparative.

Once you have agreed examples of masterpieces, you do notice that they have some qualities in common, though not necessarily any given one. So, if you must: what do many masterpieces have in common? Let me use some shorthand here, both for purposes of concision and because I am not comfortable with these sorts of airy generalisations. Nevertheless, what you find in the greatest works of literature often involves some or all of the following: the high quality of the language, complexity of theme and detail, universality, depth and quality of feeling, memorableness, rereadability … When you read works of this quality you often feel, and continue to feel, that your internal planes have shifted, and that things will never, quite, be the same again.

We could go on to widen these so-called criteria, and to elucidate them individually, but the process is dangerous, because the next thing you know you will have a set of categories that you lump uneasily together into a definition. And then you begin to apply it. And it will never work, not properly.

Of course some things are better than others. Some books are better than others. Martyn Goff was quite confident that, though it is impossible to get five judges of a prize to agree on what is the "best" book, they can certainly agree that a great many are not even in the running. And once you get down to the chosen few, that's when the real discrimination begins.

There is something old-fashioned about all of this, and it begins to rub uneasily against the spirit of the times. These reflections about prizes are in the long run of no great importance. I think, though, that they have large implications for the way we think about education. And that does matter. These days "everyone is entitled to their own opinion", and teachers are often reticent about correcting their students' beliefs, telling them when they are shallow, inadequate in thought, or argument. This is partly, I think, the residue of naive multiculturalism and doctrinaire post-structuralism, but it has been fostered cancerously by the culture of the internet, and enhanced by a new generation addicted to texting and social networking.

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion." Look at the intemperate responses to columns and blogs in newspapers and online, the fatuous rubbish that passes for "connectedness" on Facebook, read your student's texts. Hell, read you own. There are a staggering amount of opinions out there, and a vast number of them are insipid, self-indulgent, frivolous: wrong. And it is surely somebody's job – certainly, but not exclusively, those of us who teach or have taught – to continue to say this, to insist on it, and to lead our students, gently but firmly, into opinions which are not merely personal, and which can be justified. Encouraging people to think, and to stand up for what they believe, is terrific. So is discouraging them from standing up too soon, or too noisily.

I cannot give you rules for how to do this, or criteria, or objective guidelines, and even if I could, I wouldn't. I know how much harm that can do.

But I still know how to define a horse.

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define great books

What You Need to Know about Great Books

Initial thoughts on what you need to know about great books, books that changed the world you have been told many times that the most successful people, the greatest leaders and innovators who ever lived, are/were voracious readers. many of these accomplished people seldom disclosed the names of the books in their personal libraries because that was a private matter. however, there is no shortage of lists of the best books of all time to read, but many of those lists are very subjective..

For instance, Amazon published a list of 100 Must-Read Books , and as a powerful and well-known organization, many will pay close attention to that list. I printed out the list and looked closely at each book included. As I was going through the list, I found myself asking, “Why is this book on the list?”

For me, several of the books on the 100 Must-Read Books had not stood the test of time, and more than one generation has not enjoyed them. The other question that I asked myself, “Does a must-read book have to be a great book?” My answer to myself is “No.”

So, if you do not have access to the names of the books in the personal libraries of the most successful people, and you want to emulate their reading habits, how can you determine what are the right books to read?

Continuous learning is a part of life. If you’re not a reader, you can find a synopsis of many books from Readitforme that you can listen to. Click the link to join. This is a great way to learn the latest thinking on many topics. And it is a great way to learn which books to buy and devour.

100 Best Books of All Time Proposed by 100 Authors from 54 Countries

45 Must Have Books for a Home Library

great books, what you need to know about great books, what makes a book great, definition of great book

Successful people cherish certain books because of the ideas and lessons they have, and they do not simply read these books, they digest the information, contemplate, and apply the lessons. They actively read the great books which make them think. We know that great books make you think, but what makes a book great?

This is an important question because you need criteria to judge the greatness of books before you read them, if you are reading to shape your mind. I have read several “great” books and did not enjoy them because I could not relate to them – they did not speak to me as an individual so I think that is also important.

Have you read?

Adventures in Learning: Life Lessons from the Great Books Classic Education: The Essential Value The Personal Library of George Washington Why read, what to read, and Teddy Roosevelt The Personal Library of Carl Sandburg

What You Need to Know about Great Books – What Makes a Great Book

In two of the courses that I have taken – Books That Have Made History: Books That Can  Change Your Life and Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Essential Value of a Classic Education – for my informal liberal arts education, two professors – J Rufus Fears and Jeffrey Brenzel, give us insights into what makes a book great.

Additionally, Professor Arnold Weinstein defines what is a classic book? Their definitions give us a starting point to decide which books are great and which are the right old books to read.

Professor Fears' Definition of a Great Book

According to Professor Fears, a great book has the following three essential qualities:

Great theme . A great book is concerned with themes and issues of enduring importance. The meaning of life Truth Duty and responsibility Law, government, and social justice Love, jealousy, and hate Courage, honor, and ambition Beauty Nature History and the past Education
Noble language . Great books are written in noble language, language that elevates the soul and ennobles the mind. It is not the specific language, say Latin or English that is noble. Any language can be used in such a way that it conveys ideas and emotions powerfully and memorably.
Universality . A great book is “a possession for all time” (Thucydides). It speaks across the ages, reaching the hearts and minds of men and women far removed in time and space from the era and circumstances in which it was composed. Thus, a great book summarizes the enduring values and ideas of a great age and gives them as a legacy for generations to come.”

Dean Jeffrey Brenzel’s Definition of a Great Book

Dean Jeffrey Brenzel’s 5 Criteria or Marks of a Great Book

“So first, the work addresses permanent concerns about the human condition.  From a philosophical perspective, it has something to say about the way we should live.  From a literary perspective, it has something to say about imagining the possibilities for how we could live and from a historical perspective it tells us how we have lived.  That’s mark number one of a classic.
Two is that the work has been a game-changer.  It has created profound shifts in perspective and not only for its earliest readers, but for all the readers who came later as well.
Three is that the work has stimulated or informed or influenced many other important works, whether directly or indirectly.
Four is that many generations of the best readers and the most expert critics have rated the work highly, one of the best or most important of its kind, even if those experts and readers shared no other views than that and even if they violently disagreed with the work.
Five is that the work usually requires a strenuous effort to engage and understand, but it also rewards the hard work strongly and in multiple fashions.”

Another Definition of a Great Book

In the description for Classic Novels: Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature by the Great Courses for what is a classic:

“A classic novel has the ability to present the world as a more energetic, vibrant, and unpredictable place than we ever imagined.
Classic novels open our eyes to the true nature of our world, and take us across the divide that separates mind from mind.
They reveal to us our essential humanity, both its beauty and its horror, and hold the mirror up to our unknown selves.”

Great Books and Their Influence

great books, what makes a book great

At this point, I would like to say that although I did not like the delivery of the course Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life , I loved and enjoyed the content because Professor J Rufus Fears raised some interesting points during the course.

One point I would like to address, that had never occurred to me before, is that great books influence people in different ways – good and bad.

define great books

On the other hand, many have read the great books and did not perform such evil acts. This tells me that great books teach us valuable lessons, but it is up to us how we apply the lessons. The lessons we learn from great books  can transform  us into wise people,  or  into fools.

If you need help and would like a program that’s already set-up to help you read more books, Join MoreReads: Blueprint to Change the World, click the link to buy .

Final thoughts on what you need to know about great books.

What makes a book great? What criteria do you use to judge whether a book is great or not? Although I love the definitions for great books, they are backward looking. That means that time has to elapse to determine which books stand the test of time.

We do not always have that luxury. So, I think the best thing to do, is to study the three definitions, using a few criteria to decide which books have the potential to become great books. I also believe it's essential to read both classic literature and contemporary books.

How to Find Great Books

UPDATE: First published in August 2014 If someone clicks on a link and buys something from Amazon, the company will pay me a small commission.

About the Author  Avil Beckford

Hello there! I am Avil Beckford, the founder of The Invisible Mentor. I am also a published author, writer, expert interviewer host of The One Problem Podcast and MoreReads Success Blueprint, a movement to help participants learn in-demand skills for future jobs. Sign-up for MoreReads: Blueprint to Change the World today! In the meantime, Please support me by buying my e-books Visit My Shop , and thank you for connecting with me on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter and Pinterest !

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define great books

What Makes a Good Book?

define great books

This week, I conducted a (highly unscientific) survey, via Twitter and Facebook , to discover what you all had to say on the subject. As always, your thoughts were deep, funny, pithy, and challenging.

For Your Consideration: 6 Elements of a Good Book

So what elements make a good book?

The book should mean something, or at least make you think about something in a new way.–@jontouchstone

>>Click here to read more about Theme.

2. Characters

Strong characters. I loathe reading cardboard characters.–@MaryAdkins
Good characters we care about. They can make the most tired or ridiculous plot seem fresh and absorbing.–@brokenvoice
Well-developed characters that I actually care about, not just flat names.–Christopher Michael Thompson

>>Click here to read more about Characters.

3. Takeaway Value

Besides the usual, a good story should [have] a nuerobic element; something to challenge the mind.–@Brahms41
Truth about human nature.–@stevepoling
A relevant message that speaks to the reader.–Sarah Holman

>>Click here to read more Takeaway Value

4. Satisfying Ending

A happy ending.–Sage Dahlby
@Sage: No, no, no, no, no, no!–Austin H. Williams
A happy ending isn’t as important as a satisfying ending. You can make me cry, but make me glad I read to The End.–Lorna G. Poston

>>Click here to read more about Endings.

5. Good Mechanics

Words–MillardthemkJones
“Good book” is so entirely relative. But I think when it gets right down to it a good book must have meaning behind the action, and action behind the characters. The world must work with the characters and story and vice versa, and the more intense this bond the better. I myself strongly prefer good timing, subtlety, and interwoven foreshadowing, though these aren’t strictly necessary.–Holly Heisey
“The most interesting story is always the story of the writer’s style,” said Nabokov.–@RayAHarvey

>>Click here to read more about Good Mechanics.

6. Unpredictability

A story that is not predictable.–April ElshaHawk Schoffstall

>>Click here to read more about Unpredictability.

In Summation…

A good book slowly grabs you by the soul without your knowledge. By the time you’re in tears and laughing at the top of your lungs at the same time it’s too late. You’re hooked.–Tom Williams

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! What do you think are the must-have elements of a good book? Tell me in the comments!

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define great books

K.M. Weiland is the award-winning and internationally-published author of the acclaimed writing guides Outlining Your Novel , Structuring Your Novel , and Creating Character Arcs . A native of western Nebraska, she writes historical and fantasy novels and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors.

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For me, the tone and mood of the story are the clearest indicators of whether or not I will like it. I think this is true for many people, although these are aspects of fiction most people seldom think of consciously. I did a couple posts on this subject not long ago. Links are below if you care to look at them.

http://dlmorrese.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/beyond-genre-tone-and-mood/ http://dlmorrese.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/beyond-genre-novels-and-emotional-needs/

The thing is, there are so many things that go into making a good book good that it’s hard to pinpoint just one thing. I would say layers and depth in all elements (characters, plot, etc.) and that the book reveals (or at least raises questions about) a deep truth of human nature/life. These stories stick with you longer.

I agree that an ending doesn’t have to be happy, but must be satisfying. In the best stories, the protagonist will have an element of loss as well as triumph.

Characters first, because if I don’t care about the characters I’m probably not going to like the book much and I may put it down. A decent story is second and better if I’m surprised in some way (this is always a treat), and third is a good ending which does not necessarily have to be happy but should be satisfying. One way to do this is make sure the characters change or evolve in some way.

anyway, that’s my short answer 🙂

@dlmoreese: Thanks for linking the posts! I’ll check them out.

@Beth: I’ll definitely concur on the element of loss as well as triumph. Endings with a tinge of the bittersweet are the ones that grab me by the throat and refuse to let go.

@Mshatch: Character and plot are so integrally related that it’s hard to separate them. But character always goes at the top of my list. Give me a character to love, and I’ll forget any host of problems.

I think that characters are must-have elements. Without characters that I love (or hate!), the book can have the best story in the world, but I wouldn’t want to finish it. If I don’t care about the characters, how can I care about what happens to them?

Totally agree. A book can have a terrible plot, but I’ll keep reading if I love the characters. That’s not necessarily going to be true if the plot is great but the characters don’t connect with me.

A good book has a good balance of plot, characters, setting and theme. A good book is, honestly, nothing special or rare.

A GREAT book however, is one that adds something to the world that makes it a better place, that has meaningful and constructive things to say about the world or the human condition.

Great books are even harder to define, I think, just because greatness is a very personal element, vaguely different for each of us.

The character is the most important to me. You can change the plot, the setting.. even the dialogue, but the character will stay the same, react the same way.. and get into the same trouble (or very similar troubles).

We can’t overemphasize the importance of character – although it’s important that, in so doing, we don’t under-emphasize other important aspects too.

I especially love Sarah Holman’s take. 🙂

Me too. Theme is the heart of every story. The most powerful stories are inevitably those that are driven by powerful themes.

The stories I love most are the ones where you have to really read between the lines. Great characters pushing a compelling plot and at the same time speaking symbolically about different aspects of the human condition or a controversial and thought-provoking topic. If you want to tell me a story about a heroic knight rescuing a damsel in distress give me a fresh spin on it. Give it real life parallels that make me see it in a new light. Take me out of my comfort zone and still keep me engaged! I always end up rambling on these blogs lol. Fun topic!

Subtlety and depth, paired, are an unstoppable duo. When we open up the opportunity for interpretation (especially if we can do it without becoming too vague or obscure), we give the reader an opportunity to participate in the storytelling. If he’s participating, he’s hooked.

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I THINK A GOOD BOOK MUST HAVE ALL ELEMENTS THAT ARE IMPORTANT SUCH AS GOOD CHARACTERS ,INTRESTING THEMES AND PROBABLY A SATISFIED ENDING;P

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I agree. Good endings, in particular, are important. The beginning hooks our readers into the book; the ending hooks them into all our other books.

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For me, the good book is something that takes me out of my own skin and experience things I couldn’t have in my own life.

I agree. I love that stories let me live more than one life.

This is the reason I write too.

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Great books are harder to define, I believe, simply because greatness is an extremely personal element, vaguely different for everyone.

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The stories I cherish most are where you need to truly read between the lines. Extraordinary characters pushing a convincing plot and in the meantime talking emblematically about various parts of the human condition or a disputable and interesting point.

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I don’t want people to read my books…I want them to experience them.

That’s a good way to put it.

[…] I read an interesting blog post about the elements that make a book good.  I would not disagree with anything on that list (and I […]

[…] is a safe activity. It’s learning something with the character. That’s what people look for in a good […]

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What is a Great Book? One Alum Seeks a New Definition

November 6, 2018 | By Anne Kniggendorf

Stuart Patterson

Since the founding of the New Program 80 years ago, debate about what constitutes a Great Book has raged and receded periodically, occasionally resulting in the addition of a few new authors to the list, but often not, deferring to the standards set forth by Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan.

According to Stuart Patterson (SF92), it’s time to restart the conversation. He recently delivered a lecture entitled “Why and What Should We Read?” as part of the JohnnieTalks series during Santa Fe’s Homecoming Weekend. But while his lecture introduced his thoughts on the idea of “Great Books,” he wants to take it a step further.

Patterson is a professor at the Shimer Great Books School, now part of North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, and considers himself a “dedicated member of the Great Books community.” He has taught his school’s core curriculum several times over the past 14 years, a curriculum he says “any Johnnie would recognize.” And while there are some differences in the Shimer program, such as a year of electives focusing on either humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, or liberal studies, Patterson has no desire to change the structure of the Program at St. John’s.

But the books? He’s not so sure Johnnies are reading all the right ones.

“A good community doesn’t ignore people that it includes, it brings them in as part of the dialogue,” he says. “It pays respect to its ancestors, its forbearers, where it comes from.”

In that respect, he defers to something Barr and Buchanan themselves noted: “It should be added that any limited list of the classics must always remain open to revision. There is no better way of revisiting it than its continuous use in teaching in a college.”

Patterson believes that one of the reasons we study the Great Books is to be better members of the community—and, as such, we must consider a wider pool of writers and thinkers.

“Instead of working toward some kind of truth, I would say my prescription for a kind of goodness in the concoction of a curriculum is to inquire into how we are most whole by way of what we read,” he says. “‘Goodness’ in the curriculum would focus on the care and attention it showed to its members, rather than a ‘greatness’ that imposes a single standard on both the community and the books it reads.”

Still, there has been an effort to better represent the community by including more women and writers of color. The Program has expanded to include Frederick Douglass, Virginia Woolf, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, and Flannery O’Connor, among others, and students gravitate toward more diverse and contemporary works in extracurricular study groups.

Patterson, however, believes there remains much work to be done.

“It would make a lot of difference if students were given in their senior year some sense that the world really did change in the 19th and through the 20th century,” he says. “It really did open up.”

He contrasts the plasticity of the book list at St. John’s with the devotion shown to sacred works like the Bible, Qur’an, or Book of Mormon. Loyalty to both religious and Program texts demands increasingly “fancy footwork” to keep the works relevant, he says.

“What I wanted to say [in the JohnnieTalk] was: Climb down from the heights. Continue to read the Platos and the Aquinases and Dantes, but think about a community that is not attached to one book in a kind of religious sense, but has a religiosity about books that can be adaptive to historical change.”

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J. Rufus Fears - Life Lessons From The Great Books (The Great Courses)

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For every important moment and stage in your life, there is a Great Book that can offer you invaluable lessons and place your unique experiences in a larger perspective.

Some of history's greatest authors have written about timeless themes and trying points in our lives. If you're unlucky in love, you can seek sympathy in Goethe's epistolary novel,  The Sufferings of Young Werther , and its title character's frustrations with unrequited love. If you're looking to explore new environments, you can follow along with Lewis and Clark in their detailed journals as they journey through the Louisiana Territory. And if you're trying to lead a noble and hard-working life, you can learn from Albert Schweitzer, whose autobiography  Out of My Life and Thought  details his work providing medical care in a remote African village.

In  Life Lessons from the Great Books , Professor J. Rufus Fears of the University of Oklahoma—a marvelous storyteller with deep historical knowledge—shows you how some of Western civilization's greatest literary masterpieces can speak to you and provide guidance in your life across the gulf of time and culture. Rich in historical perspective and infused with layers of meaning, these 36 lectures reveal the wealth of insight these enduring works can provide in your life. You'll come to see that each of these works—whether written 2,000, 200, or 20 years ago—remain relevant to all of us.

What Makes a Book "Great"?

According to Professor Fears, four characteristics define a Great Book:

  • Its focus on great themes such as love, courage, and patriotism
  • Its composition in a noble language
  • Its ability to speak to readers across the ages
  • Its ability to speak to readers not as groups, but as individuals

In  Life Lessons from the Great Books , you focus on more than three dozen works that span the timeline of Western history, from ancient Greece and Rome to the modern age. Each of these 36 books provides insights not only into the human experience of their particular time and place but also into your own situation.

Great Books are touchstones to history and the story of humanity. Every Great Book you explore in this course—from the  Odyssey  and the Gospel of John to  Hamlet  and  Animal Farm —is a unique expression of the human spirit and a fountain of advice, from how to conduct yourself in times of trouble to how to better appreciate the simple moments in your life.

In addition to pointing out the merits and virtues of each text in the course, Professor Fears explains how authors learned from and influenced each other, and how certain texts are interrelated.

"We will be very concerned in our course not with just what each one of these books says, but also with how it has built upon the lessons of the books that have come before and how it contributes to an ongoing current of intellectual excitement and dialogue," he notes.

Great Themes, Enduring Life Lessons

The lectures in  Life Lessons from the Great Books  are grouped into six broad themes that run through history's most compelling stories. Each of these themes is universal—we've all, at some point or another, felt the pangs of love or tried to steel our souls with courage. In exploring these themes within the context of these Great Books, you learn new ideas about both the works themselves and the broad scope of the human condition.

  • The Unconquerable Human Spirit:  Why can your spirit endure so much hardship without crumbling? Fyodor Dostoevsky displays the inner battle of the human spirit against sensuousness, violence, and mystery in  The Brothers Karamazov . Similarly, Elie Wiesel's  Night  presents a single individual struggling to survive during one of history's darkest moments: the Holocaust.
  • Youth and Old Age:  How can you cope with the trials and tribulations of youth? Of old age? Goethe's  The Sufferings of Young Werther  remains an enduring statement about the passions of youth, while Cicero's "On Old Age" counsels us on the importance of old age and the wisdom that comes with it.
  • Romance and Love:  Why can love bring both pain and pleasure? How can you overcome heartache? Great Books such as  Tristan and Isolde  (with its depiction of chivalric romance) and  Macbeth  (with Lady Macbeth's use of love to manipulate her husband) help you understand love in all its complex forms.
  • Adventure and Courage:  How can you find the strength within yourself to face life's many challenges? T. E. Lawrence's  Seven Pillars of Wisdom , which charts the soldier's experiences in the Middle East during World War I, reveals how one can reinvent oneself in new environments and discover inner strengths.
  • Laughter and Irony:  How can humor help to console you in times of trouble? How can it offer us unique perspectives on horrible situations? See how George Orwell's  Animal Farm  uses pointed satire as an opportunity to skewer Communist ideals.
  • Patriotism:  What is the true meaning of patriotism? President George Washington's farewell address called for the avoidance of savage partisan strife—a message that still rings true in today's world. President Theodore Roosevelt's  Autobiography  offers you timeless views on patriotic characteristics such as honesty and integrity.

A Storyteller Who Brings Literature to Life

An extraordinary orator, Professor Fears possesses a passion, knowledge, and authority that shine through in each of these inspirational lectures. You quickly understand why he has earned 25 teaching awards in his distinguished career.

His deep knowledge of classical history sheds new light on these literary masterpieces. With each lecture in  Life Lessons from the Great Books , you discover fascinating new vantage points from which to view classic works.

Professor Fears's analogies between ancient dilemmas and their modern-day counterparts close the gap between literature and your daily life; they show you how these resonant themes are not new to the modern human condition but instead have been felt throughout history. You take solace in the realization that the ancient Greeks, medieval scholars, and our country's Founding Fathers all experienced social struggles, ethical dilemmas, and personal challenges similar to those we all face.

If you haven't read these Great Books before, the warmth of Professor Fears's storytelling and his insightful approach to literature will have you heading to the library to learn more. And if you've already read these works, you'll discover new themes and ideas that will help you get more out of them.

Regardless of your previous familiarity with these works, you'll come to understand why these masterpieces remain eternal testaments to the variety of human experience and the powerful ways in which literature can guide and inspire us.

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Four Qualities that Make Great Literature Special

Picture of live oak tree on the bank of the Cane River. Classic literature is like this beautiful Live Oak tree in Natchitoches, Louisiana: it lasts for hundreds of years, growing in beauty and complexity every time someone regards it.

Classic literature is like this beautiful Live Oak tree in Natchitoches, Louisiana: it lasts for hundreds of years, growing in beauty and complexity every time someone regards it.*

If you are an avid reader, I clasp you to my heart, whatever and why ever you are reading—for pleasure, escape, knowledge, social concerns. There are a myriad of good, and  even mediocre, books and poetry that can keep us entertained, or give us vicarious experiences of  unknown places and times, or inform our opinions on social issues.

But what I am here to advocate, and why I have started this site, is that Classic Literature—truly Great Literature—is something different, something especially worth treasuring, preserving, learning about, experiencing, re-reading, and pondering. The experience, the grace given to the mind and soul, is a larger, higher experience than that offered by the average popular novel or poem or drama, well-crafted though each may be.

Devoted readers of the Classics know this from experience, yet defining the exact qualities that make a piece of literature “ Great” is never easy. Not that many lovers of literature haven’t tried. In another post, I’ll tell you about some writers who have said things about classic literature that I find  persuasive. But let me take my own  stab at it here. My main purpose in this post is to start readers thinking about what makes classic literature great, and what it gives to readers that most books can’t.  So here goes!

Four Qualities  of Classic Literature

1. Great works may present and explain something about their own times, but also observe something larger and lasting about the human condition.

A great work does convey the writer’s intentions, quite clearly, contrary to what some contemporary theorists argue.  A  great writer has something specific to say, or perhaps, more typically, a big question to ask about the nature of the world as it was in the times of that writer.   But a great work also observes truths about the human condition as it occurs in any age.

A  great writer examines the world as she or he sees it and communicates consciously to the reader about those observations. But in addition,  a great work can also convey things a writer has observed unintentionally, unconsciously.   If so, the intentional design of the work is well-formed enough to encompass whatever messages may be unintentional, so that the work feels like an organic whole, where all the parts belong.

2. Great literature is based on ideas that are startling,  unexpected, unusual, weighty. or new.

Great literature makes us see or think things we never did before. The ideas underpinning the work challenge our accustomed categories and ways of thinking, putting  minds on edge. We may agree, and also we disagree. Some cherished beliefs are expressed and affirmed, making us feel less lonely.  But also our assumptions  are interrogated by what we read. We have to flex our minds, make them get bigger to try to understand everything we are reading.

3. Great literature is fine art. As such, it is aesthetically marvelous.

Either the style of a great work is incredibly interesting and beautiful, or the drama leaves us breathless, or the characters or scenes are so expertly drawn. We are lifted from our ordinary mode of being and given mental and spiritual refreshment from the high aesthetic experience of reading great literature.

4. Great literature is complex enough to offer us something new every time we read it, especially at different stages of our lives.

Like all great art, great works are based contrast and tension—not just conflicting characters, but also conflicting ideas, images, and viewpoints, allowing room for readers to entertain all sides, not just one  idea the writer may be featuring.

Why Great Literature is Special  

Much late 20th century and early 21st century theory argues against the “specialness” of great literature. According to many of these creeds, texts are just texts, of varying cultural value depending on political and social circumstances. Classic literature, these theories argue, should be regarded with caution or even suspicion for its probable role in perpetuating socially unjust assumptions woven into the culture.

Nonsense! Most literature we now regard as classic has been, and still retains the power to be, deeply subversive—and I mean subversive in the most positive way, granting us the ability to question outworn or unjust or too-small assumptions and to grow our minds and the quality of our thought.

Speaking of minds, I think I’ll end this post with an argument that even a die-hard materialist or a be-littler  of classic literature would find hard to refute: scientific proof!

What Shakespeare and Wordsworth Can Do for Your Brain

Check out this recent article in The Telegraph that announces:

‘The works of Shakespeare and Wordsworth are “rocket-boosters” to the brain and better therapy than self-help books, researchers will say this week.’

According to this article by Julie Henry, The Telegraph’s Education Correspondent, researchers recorded volunteers’ brain activity while they read Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and T. S. Eliot. Then they translated the same texts into simplified modern language and scanned the volunteer readers again:

“Scans showed that the more ‘challenging’ prose and poetry set off far more electrical activity in the brain than the more pedestrian versions.”

They also found that reading poetry triggered the autobiographical centers of the brain, where personal memories are, which encouraged people to re-evaluate their own past experiences.

Wow! Scientists have documented that reading boosts your brainpower. But not just any kind of reading. ONLY Great Literature can supply rocket fuel to your mind.

Don’t you want yourself some of that?

*Photo by MJ Booklover. Natchitoches, LA. 2014. 

MJ Booklover

Mary Jane is a longtime literature lover who lived in the Cincinnati area for many years, then in central Louisiana for three years (what a treat!), teaching literature classes at universities in both locations. Now back in the Cincinnati area, she pampers her grandchildren, experiments with cooking, and visits art museums as often as possible.

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April 4, 2017 at 12:07 pm

I’m going to return to this post again and again. Here’s a favorite passage:

“Either the style of a great work is incredibly interesting and beautiful, or the drama leaves us breathless, or the characters or scenes are so expertly drawn. We are lifted from our ordinary mode of being and given mental and spiritual refreshment from the high aesthetic experience of reading great literature.”

There’s a lovely little Renaissance song by Thomas Campion called “When to her Lute Corina Sings.” It’s a simple song but it addresses, in a sense, the initial experience of artifice through our senses. I’ve been thinking about some of these, what we would now call, more “romantic” conceptions of experiencing artifice lately as I’ve meditated on Campion. Here are a few excerpts: “When to her lute Corina sings, Her voice revives the leaden strings,” AND “But when she doth of mourning speak, Eu’n with her sighes the strings do break.” AND “As her lute doth live or die, Led by her passion, so must I” I’d like to say something about this at a later point but I’m still thinking. The last section is very visceral in its imagining of our experience of art in the proximity of an encompassing performance.

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April 4, 2017 at 12:16 pm

Thanks for your comment, David! It makes me think of two very different kinds of poems, but both about this topic, the heightened sense of being or awareness that reading great literature can give us: Frost’s “Birches” and Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale.” Both different, but both about how great words can sweep us away, if only temporarily.

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December 6, 2021 at 9:43 pm

” something especially worth treasuring, preserving, learning about, experiencing, re-reading, and pondering.” Does this mean more it is pondering re-reading etc the better the work? Or is it just right they are like that. Asking as as an aspiring writer.

December 10, 2021 at 12:10 pm

Hello Rick, I’m having to guess what you mean by this question–it’s not quite clear to me. But my guess is that you are asking whether literature becomes “great” BECAUSE we keep reading and pondering it, or is it “great” because it has inherent qualities that reward readers deeply, so they are aware of gaining benefit from re-reading and pondering. If that is your question, my answer is decidedly the latter–great literature has inherent qualities, whether any particular reader or generation of readers understands it or not. Some literature is very popular in its day because it suits the current tastes, but does not survive to interest later generations because it lacks one of the four qualities I discuss in this article. It is not universally applicable to people, or the quality of thought is not deep or original, or it is inartistic, and so on. If, as a writer, you are asking whether you can purposely set out to embed your work with these qualities, well, that question is harder to answer! Creative lives of great authors suggest that they have spent time and effort perfecting their craft, but other than that, the creative process is almost a mystery. It seems almost serendipitous whether a particular work will be truly great or not. An author must have a great and original mind and ability to observe keenly, whether the topic is nature, human psychology, or social forces. Are these things that can be developed, or are just innate talents in a person? To some extent, I would say they can be developed–but I also imagine that not every mind is born to produce great art. Whether a writer produces great art or just well-crafted works that delight and interest current readers, I would say that attempting to write to and about your fellow beings is still a wonderful thing to do. Good luck with your writing!

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September 5, 2022 at 8:12 pm

This has been the best breakdown of what literary fiction does, how it’s absorbed and felt. How it nourishes the tirelessly hungry human that must feed on novelty for this repetitive experience to be transcended. Literary fiction, like all of art, is about evolution.

September 6, 2022 at 11:45 am

Thank you so much for your comment. Yes–and not just evolution, but enlargement of the mind!

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September 24, 2022 at 7:16 pm

Reading good literature strikes home, that is, I feel that there is some kind of truth in it. It gives the impression that the characters are real people, and act as if I would in similar circumstances. There is something noble about them, in their successes and failures. The author treats them with understanding and respect, There is thus a moral aspect to the work.

September 26, 2022 at 11:35 am

Beautifully put. Love your focus on the special nature of characters in great literature, their realism, nobility, and respectful treatment. Great literature does indeed have a moral aspect. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

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At What Point Does a Novel Become Literature?

By anna green | mar 3, 2016.

istock

Students are often asked to read works of “Great Literature.” They're assigned novels by giants like Hawthorne, Dostoyevsky, and Dickens, and are told these works are considered “classic” or “important,” and that they’re somehow different from the vampire novels, crime thrillers, and comics that are read for fun. But at what point does fiction become literature? And who gets to decide which works make the cut?

To understand the concept of literature, we have to travel back to the 18th century, when the way people approached writing began to fundamentally change. Initially, the Latin word litteratura was used to refer to all written works, but in the 1700s, intellectuals started consciously developing an English literary canon, choosing a body of modern English-language works that they believed could stand up to ancient classics by the likes of Homer and Virgil. Essayist Arthur Krystal explained in Harpers that the idea was essentially to come up with a list of great works by English authors in order to create a “national literature." Gradually, literature didn't include all writing, just a few exemplary works.

Over the next few centuries, scholars, writers, critics, and publishers would continuously define and redefine what was considered literature. Nineteenth century publishing companies would put out anthologies and collections, canonizing select works by announcing their greatness. In the early 20th century, academics like John Erskine, Mortimer Adler, and Robert Hutchins started promoting a "Great Books" college curriculum , dedicating their professional lives to choosing "Great Books" and developing their criteria of "Greatness." Like the 18th century English intellectuals who wanted to develop a national literature, Erskine and his cohorts wanted to foster an American literary culture .

Literature has always been an amorphous concept, one that changes whenever different groups attempt to define "Great Literature." And, in the 20th and 21st centuries, it's only become increasingly blurry, as critics and readers question the literary hierarchy, noting that lists of great books tend to ignore works by female, minority, and non-Western writers. While some intellectuals continue to canonize individual works and authors, others argue that the very concept of literature is at best subjective and at worst oppressive.

“Unavoidably, booksellers and publishers are gatekeepers, making these decisions to suit their market and make their product easier to buy,” says Sian Cain, the books site editor for  The Guardian . “What one person regards as an outstanding example of literature, another will consider drivel.”

Nowadays, literature is a more contested category than it was in the 18th and 19th centuries. More people are literate and educated now than when a handful of intellectuals could decide what constituted great writing. And, thanks to the Internet, more people than ever before are able to participate in literary debate. It’s not just the voices of critics and publishers that are heard. As author Daniel Mendelsohn notes in The New York Times , “Today, audiences as well as critics play a lively role in establishing which works get discussed, analyzed, noticed; the boil of resentment toward the literary gods—the Dionysuses who alone were once privileged to enshrine authors—has been lanced.”

But that doesn’t mean the distinction between popular novels and literature has been eliminated. The conversation may have opened up, but publishers, critics, educators, and readers still love categorizing different kinds of writing, distinguishing between genre novels and literary fiction; between ephemeral works and classic literature. The lines may become increasingly blurred, but one needs only to look at a few recent "Great Novels" lists to see how much consensus still exists. (For instance, compare these lists by  The Guardian and Modern Library . )

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February 1, 2024 • This month, the network debuts Loveuary , a quartet of films inspired by the creativity and fandom of Regency-era novelist Jane Austen, including Sense and Sensibility with a mostly Black lead cast.

6 books to help young readers learn about Black history

Brittni Robertson Powell, with the New Orleans-based bookstore Baldwin & Co. looks through her choice for Black History Month: I Am Ruby Bridges. Aubri Juhasz/Aubri Juhasz hide caption

6 books to help young readers learn about Black history

February 1, 2024 • Five authors, librarians and book shop owners suggest turning to literature to help teach kids about Black history, culture and themes for this Black History Month.

Academy of American Poets receives its largest-ever donation

Attendees at the One Word Poetry Festival's Youth Poet Laureate Commencement in Rock Hill, S.C., in 2022. Mick Lowry/Academy of American Poets hide caption

Academy of American Poets receives its largest-ever donation

January 31, 2024 • The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded two grants totaling more than $5.7 million to support the organization's Poet Laureates as well as a national alliance of organizations promoting poetry.

Ayesha Rascoe on 'HBCU Made' — and some good old college memories

Both Ayesha Rascoe and host Brittany Luse are alums of Howard University. Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Mike Morgan hide caption

Ayesha Rascoe on 'HBCU Made' — and some good old college memories

January 30, 2024 • We're taking it way back — all the way to college. This episode is a mini-reunion: host Brittany Luse and Ayesha Rascoe, host of NPR's Weekend Edition, are both alumnae of Howard University — they even attended during some of the same years. Howard is an HBCU: a historically Black college or university. There are around a hundred in the US, and they've had a big impact on both graduates and American culture writ large. Ayesha has edited a book of essays all about that impact, called HBCU Made: A Celebration of the Black College Experience. Brittany chats with her about the book and what makes HBCUs special — they also trade tales from their own time as students.

'Your Utopia' considers surveillance and the perils of advanced technology

'Your Utopia' considers surveillance and the perils of advanced technology

January 30, 2024 • The best of Bora Chung's new stories impart a feeling of disorientation, evoking worlds that seem at first like utopias only to disclose, upon deeper inspection, dystopias.

A sex educator on the one question she is asked the most: 'Am I normal?'

Sex educator Emily Nagoski, author of the new book Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections , discusses what it means to be sex positive. Kelvin Murray/Getty Images hide caption

A sex educator on the one question she is asked the most: 'Am I normal?'

January 30, 2024 • Emily Nagoski is a sex educator and author of a bestseller on enhancing your sex life. The book did so well that it got in the way of her own.

define great books

School's out

A critical take on education and schooling

The 50 great books on education

Professor of Education, University of Derby

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define great books

I have often argued that I would not let any teacher into a school unless – as a minimum – they had read, carefully and well, the three great books on education: Plato’s Republic, Rousseau’s Émile and Dewey’s Democracy and Education. There would be no instrumental purpose in this, but the struggle to understand these books and the thinking involved in understanding them would change teachers and ultimately teaching.

These are the three great books because each is sociologically whole. They each present a description and arguments for an education for a particular and better society. You do not have to agree with these authors. Plato’s tripartite education for a just society ruled over by philosopher kings; Rousseau’s education through nature to establish the social contract and Dewey’s relevant, problem-solving democratic education for a democratic society can all be criticised. That is not the point. The point is to understand these great works. They constitute the intellectual background to any informed discussion of education.

What of more modern works? I used to recommend the “blistering indictment” of the flight from traditional liberal education that is Melanie Phillips’s All Must Have Prizes, to be read alongside Tom Bentley’s Learning Beyond the Classroom: Education for a Changing World, which is a defence of a wider view of learning for the “learning age”. These two books defined the debate in the 1990s between traditional education by authoritative teachers and its rejection in favour of a new learning in partnership with students.

Much time and money is spent on teacher training and continuing professional development and much of it is wasted. A cheaper and better way of giving student teachers and in-service teachers an understanding of education would be to get them to read the 50 great works on education.

The books I have identified, with the help of members of the Institute of Ideas’ Education Forum, teachers and colleagues at several universities, constitute an attempt at an education “canon”.

What are “out” of my list are textbooks and guides to classroom practice. What are also “out” are novels and plays. But there are some great literary works that should be read by every teacher: Charles Dicken’s Hard Times – for Gradgrind’s now much-needed celebration of facts; D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow – for Ursula Brangwen’s struggle against her early child-centred idealism in the reality of St Philips School; and Alan Bennett’s The History Boys – for Hector’s role as the subversive teacher committed to knowledge.

I hope I have produced a list of books, displayed here in alphabetical order, that are held to be important by today’s teachers. I make no apology for including the book I wrote with Kathryn Ecclestone, The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education because it is an influential critical work that has produced considerable controversy. If you disagree with this, or any other of my choices, please add your alternative “canonical” books on education.

Michael W. Apple – Official Knowledge: Democratic Education in a Conservative Age (1993)

Hannah Arendt – Between Past and Future (1961), for the essay “The Crisis in Education” (1958)

Matthew Arnold – Culture and Anarchy (1867-9)

Robin Barrow – Giving Teaching Back to the Teachers (1984)

Tom Bentley – Learning Beyond The Classroom: Education for a Changing World (1998)

Allan Bloom – The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students (1987)

Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron – Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (1977)

Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis – Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life (1976)

Jerome Bruner – The Process of Education (1960)

John Dewey – Democracy and Education (1916)

Margaret Donaldson – Children’s Minds (1978)

JWB Douglas – The Home and the School (1964)

Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes – The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education (2008)

Harold Entwistle – Antonio Gramsci: Conservative Schooling for Radical Politics (1979).

Paulo Freire – Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968/1970)

Frank Furedi – Wasted: Why Education Isn’t Educating (2009)

Helene Guldberg – Reclaiming Childhood (2009)

ED Hirsch Jnr. – The Schools We Need And Why We Don’t Have Them (1999)

Paul H Hirst – Knowledge and the Curriculum (1974) For the essay which appears as Chapter 3 ‘Liberal Education and the Nature of Knowledge’ (1965)

John Holt – How Children Fail (1964)

Eric Hoyle – The Role of the Teacher (1969)

James Davison Hunter – The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age without Good or Evil (2000)

Ivan Illich – Deschooling Society (1971)

Nell Keddie (Ed.) – Tinker, Taylor: The Myth of Cultural Deprivation (1973)

John Locke – Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1692)

John Stuart Mill – Autobiography (1873)

Sybil Marshall – An Experiment in Education (1963)

Alexander Sutherland Neil – Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing (1960)

John Henry Newman – The Idea of a University (1873)

Michael Oakeshott – The Voice of Liberal Learning (1989) In particular for the essay “Education: The Engagement and Its Frustration” (1972)

Anthony O’ Hear – Education, Society and Human Nature: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1981)

Richard Stanley Peters – Ethics and Education (1966)

Melanie Phillips – All Must Have Prizes (1996)

Plato – The Republic (366BC?)

Plato – Protagoras (390BC?) and Meno (387BC?)

Neil Postman – The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995)

Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner – Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969)

Herbert Read – Education Through Art (1943)

Carl Rogers – Freedom to Learn: A View of What Education Might Become (1969)

define great books

Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Émile or “on education” (1762)

Bertrand Russell – On Education (1926)

Israel Scheffler – The Language of Education (1960)

Brian Simon – Does Education Matter? (1985) Particularly for the paper “Why No Pedagogy in England?” (1981)

JW Tibble (Ed.) – The Study of Education (1966)

Lev Vygotsky – Thought and Language (1934/1962)

Alfred North Whitehead – The Aims of Education and other essays (1929)

Paul E. Willis – Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs (1977)

Alison Wolf – Does Education Matter? Myths about Education and Economic Growth (2002)

Michael FD Young (Ed) – Knowledge and Control: New Directions for the Sociology of Education (1971)

Michael FD Young – Bringing Knowledge Back In: From Social Constructivism to Social Realism in the Sociology of Education (2007)

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The Heart of Leadership: 500 Timeless Quotes That Define Great Leadership

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The Heart of Leadership: 500 Timeless Quotes That Define Great Leadership Paperback – November 1, 2016

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  • Print length 168 pages
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  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lead From Within Publishing (November 1, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 168 pages
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Lolly Daskal is one of the most sought-after executive leadership coaches in the world.

Her extensive cross-cultural expertise spans 14 countries, six languages and hundreds of companies.

As founder and CEO of Lead From Within, her proprietary leadership program is engineered to

be a catalyst for leaders who want to enhance performance and make a meaningful difference in their companies, their lives, and the world. Based on a mix of modern philosophy, science,

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Lolly’s proprietary insights are the subject of her new book, The Leadership Gap:

What Gets Between You and Your Greatness, and is available for pre-order.

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Blog • Understanding Publishing

Posted on Dec 29, 2020

The Ultimate List of Book Genres: 35 Popular Genres, Explained

Authors need to have a firm grasp on all the different genres of books in order to find the perfect home for their own. The tropes and expectations of a book’s genre will inform its content and style during the writing process, as well as fundamentals such as word count . But it’s also central to the marketing of a book , determining its target audience, and those all-important Amazon categories . Get your genre wrong, and you could be waving goodbye to book sales and hello to unsatisfied reader reviews!

How many book genres are there?

Though we’re only covering 35 of the most popular in this post, there are around 50 genres in total — the exact number depends on who you ask. If you take subgenres into account, over on Reedsy Discovery we have 107 different categories, while Amazon has over 16,000! 

That can be a lot to take in. So if you'd like some personalized guidance, we recommend taking this 1-minute quiz that will point you towards your genre (and subgenre). 

Which genre (or subgenre) am I writing?

Find out which genre your book belongs to. It only takes a minute!

For an overview of all of the genres, that's what the rest of this post is for. There’s bound to be a genre that’s the perfect fit for your book — all you have to do is find it!

Fiction genres

“Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.” — Khaled Hosseini

This book genre is characterized by elements of magic or the supernatural and is often inspired by mythology or folklore. In high fantasy — one that’s set in an entirely fictional world — these magical elements are at the forefront of the plot, as in Trudi Canavan’s  Black Magician trilogy. In low fantasy or magical realism, however, magic is subtly woven into an otherwise familiar, real-world setting. You can delve into  fantasy’s many subgenres to get to know your Arcanepunk from your Flintlock, and find your book’s home!

Pro tip for writing fantasy : To make your world feel real and functional, make sure it’s grounded in rules — an internal rationale, so to speak, encompassing everything from the workings of your society to your magic system.

Science Fiction

Book genres | Science Fiction Covers

A popular genre of science fiction, dystopian novels offer a bleak and frightening vision of the future. Authors writing dystopias imagine a grim society, often in the aftermath of a disaster, facing things like oppressive governments, Black Mirror -esque technology, and environmental ruin. From widely popular series like The Hunger Games to critically-acclaimed classics like Nineteen Eighty-four , the enduring appeal of dystopian fiction lies in our burning desire to know where mankind is headed — and our perverse enjoyment of dark stories, so long as they aren’t actually happening to us. 

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Action & Adventure

If you’re writing adventure, then chances are your book follows the structure of the Hero’s Journey . Your protagonist has a very important goal to achieve, but they’re really going to have to go through the wringer first! You throw up obstacle after obstacle, putting your hero in downright dangerous situations but eventually, they triumph and return home transformed. The action and adventure genre also complements a huge range of others, which means it has its fingers in everything from fantasy novels like The Hobbit to classic romance like J ane Eyre .

Also called detective fiction, this book genre is characterized by a gripping plot that revolves around a mystery — but hopefully, you’ve cracked that clue! The setting, characters, and tone of your book will determine precisely which category it falls under: cozy mystery , hardboiled, or something in between. But at the core of any mystery is a crime that must be solved by the protagonist. To get a sense of the clever trail of clues that’s so vital to this genre, check out Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie — the grande dame of mystery fiction.

Pro tip for writing a mystery : When planning your novel, consult the Fichtean curve , a narrative structure that emphasizes mini-crises, ratcheting up the tension to keep readers anxious to reach the climax.

What unites the books in this genre is not theme, plot, or setting, but the feeling they inspire in the reader: your pulse quickens, and your skin prickles as you turn the page with bated breath. Of course, this feeling of dread only comes about if the author creates the right atmosphere — an essential feature dependent on the subgenre. Gothic horror, for example, sends a shiver down your spine with spooky settings and paranormal elements, while gross-out horror shocks the reader with hacked-up flesh and buckets of blood. The master of horror fiction in all its guises? Stephen King , of course.

Pro tip for writing horror : Make the stakes plain and straightforward — survival, the death of a loved one, etc. — and clearly establish them for the reader, so they are in no doubt about the character’s motivation.

Thriller & Suspense

A horror story can also be called a thriller, if it employs psychological fear to build suspense . But not all thrillers are horror stories . So what are they? While this book genre encompasses many of the same elements as mystery, in a thriller the protagonist is usually acting to save their own life, rather than to solve the crime. Thrillers typically include cliffhangers, deception, high emotional stakes, and plenty of action — keeping the reader on the edge of their seat until the book’s climax. Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl is a masterclass in the dark, mysterious thriller. 

Pro tip for writing a thriller : Avoid anything that bogs down the pacing. If you notice that a scene is getting tied up in everyday details, or doesn’t add enough excitement to the plot, rewrite it or cut it altogether!

Historical Fiction

This book genre encompasses fictional stories in a historical setting , carefully balancing creativity and facts. In most cases, the characters and events are imagined by the author and enriched with historically accurate details from a specific time period. Take The Help by Kathryn Stockett, for example — a fictional story set in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. But occasionally, as is the case with Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy, the author builds the main story around real historical figures and events. 

Like almost all of these genres, it's crucial that historical fiction works in exposition and historical detail subtly. Want to learn more about how to do this? Check out our free course on the golden writing rule, Show, Don't Tell.

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Romance is so frequently used as a subplot that it can sometimes be tricky to know whether or not you’re writing in this genre . The key thing to remember is that the romantic relationship must be the center point of the plot. (Other giveaways include a “happily ever after” ending and the warm fuzzies.) If your novel has a romantic relationship at its heart and is perfectly at home in another genre, it probably falls into one of romance’s many subgenres , including but not limited to: young adult romance, paranormal romance, and historical romance.

Women’s Fiction

Women’s fiction is an umbrella term for books written to target a female audience, generally reflecting on the shared experience of being a woman or the growth of a female protagonist. Because of this rather broad definition, authors will quite often write a romance novel or mystery, for example, that could also be labeled women’s fiction. Despite the connotations of one alternative name for this genre (“chick-lit”), many critically acclaimed bestsellers, including Jaqueline Woodson’s Red at The Bone, fall under its purview. 

Book Genres | LGBT Covers

Contemporary Fiction

Book Genres | Contemporary Fiction

Literary Fiction

Like contemporary fiction, books considered literary fiction can’t be neatly filed under any other genre. What distinguishes this genre from contemporary fiction is that works of literary fiction are thought to have considerable artistic value. If your prose is meant to engage the reader in thought, if your narrative is character-driven and introspective, and if you provide personal or social commentary on a “serious” theme, then chances are you’re writing lit-fic. Modern classics by the likes of Virginia Woolf or Ali Smith would be labeled literary fiction.

Like we mentioned, lit-fic is heavy on character, and lighter on plot. If you're interested in writing a character-driven story, try out our profile template for developing well-rounded, fully realized ones.

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Magical Realism

You may remember us mentioning magical realism under the umbrella of fantasy — but considering its highbrow style and literary prestige, magical realism is often considered a genre in its own right. Its hallmarks include a real-world setting, a cast of run-of-the-mill characters (no vampires, fairies, or sorcerers), a fluid and non-linear timeline, and supernatural happenings — a baby born with feathered wings, or an egg hatching a ruby — left unexplained. Authors like Isabel Allende and Toni Morrison have used this literary style to grapple with serious social ills, from colonialism to fascism and slavery.  

Graphic Novel

Book Genres | Graphic Novel Layout

Short Story

Though they can belong to any of the other book genres on this list, short stories are frequently grouped together in their own genre because they’re, well, so much shorter than novels. Often the author will compile a collection linked together by a narrative thread or, more commonly, a shared theme. The stories in A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin, for example, follow a series of women in different occupations — from cleaning women to ER nurses — all struggling to survive.

Young Adult

Young adult fiction , or YA, targets readers aged 12-18 and reflects its readership by following teenage characters as they grapple with the unique challenges of adolescence. Most works of YA fiction can be labeled “ coming-of-age novels ”, in which the characters exit childhood and enter adulthood — a transition that results in a loss of innocence and a shifting sense of identity. Some of the biggest bestsellers in recent years have belonged to this genre, including The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and anything by John Green. 

Pro tip for writing young adult fiction : Though your teen character’s voice should be true to her life experience, you should never “dumb down” the language, story, or style choices in a YA novel.

The shiny new penny on this book genres list, new adult is like young adult aged-up: coming-of-age stories after the messiness of adolescence. Its college-age protagonists are walked through the gauntlet of becoming fully-fledged grownups, ditching the stress of the SATs and senior prom for college exams, career transitions, and more mature first times. Big names in New Adult , like Cora Carmack, tend to write steamy romances set in dorm rooms. But this genre isn’t all about collegiate love stories — your gritty urban fantasy or immersive historical fiction could find its home here, too. 

Books in this genre are written with readers under the age of twelve in mind. Of course, kids will do a lot of growing between the ages of zero and twelve, which is why children’s books range from baby board books all the way up to middle grade ‘epics’ of 50,000 words. Hopefully, if you’re writing children’s literature , you already know you are. But it’s crucial that you also know which age group you’re trying to target, as this will impact the themes, characters, and complexity of your book.

Nonfiction genres

This is a broad category encompassing a number of nonfiction subgenres . From memoirs and biographies to books to self-help and true crime books, there's a type of nonfiction for every kind of reader.

Memoir & Autobiography

Both memoirs and autobiographies provide a true account of the author’s life. They differ in that an autobiography provides a chronological account of your life’s events and accomplishments, whereas a memoir puts the emphasis on only the most defining, emotional moments. Generally, these moments are drawn together by a single theme — or a significant time, place, or relationship — to communicate a message you wish to share with readers. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson is a popular example of a memoir .

Pro tip for writing a memoir : Treat yourself as an interview subject and ask yourself questions that will trigger those life-defining stories — the ups and downs, the events that shaped you, what you sacrificed, what you learned.

Like autobiographies, biographies provide readers with a person’s life story; but they’re written in the third person by someone other than the subject. Generally, the subject of a biography is (or was) well-known — somebody whose life can teach readers an interesting lesson worth learning. Biographies, memoirs, and autobiographies differ from the rest of the nonfiction on this list, in that they weave a narrative in almost the same way a novel does. A great biography , like Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton , isn’t a laundry list of events, but a life-giving tribute. 

Food & Drink

Food and drink is one of nonfiction’s hottest book genres, making it a crowded and highly competitive market. As a result, today’s cookbooks tend to cater to specific cuisines, dietary, and/or lifestyle needs. If you’re writing a cookbook , you might consider pairing recipes with nutritional information, short autobiographical narratives, or even workouts. Jo Wicks’s 30 Day Kickstart Plan and Less Fuss No Waste Kitchen by Lindsay Miles are excellent examples of modern cookbooks. 

Art & Photography

Genres of Books | Art & Photography Covers

Some of the bestselling books in nonfiction, self-help books encourage personal improvement and confidence. Whether the focus is on relationships, emotional well-being, or finances, if you’re writing a book that aims to uplift and empower the reader, then you’re probably writing self-help .

The books in this genre lay down the known facts about a historical era, event, or figure. And since this is nonfiction, all the facts have to be accurate (though that doesn’t mean there’s no room for inference or opinion). The goal of these books is to educate and inform the reader, so this genre does include all those textbooks you used in school. But many history books ditch the play-by-play format to chronicle the past in a way more akin to storytelling. One of our favorite history books is Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind by Yuval Noah Harari. 

Travel memoirs and travelogues, like Jonathan Glancey’s The Journey Matters , take us all over the world, giving even the most devoted homebodies a tantalizing taste of adventure, wildlife, and the great outdoors. These pocket-sized books — featuring destination reviews, lists of where to eat and what to see, and tips for traveling on a budget — are without a doubt some of the most useful titles on the shelves.

Genres of Books | True Crime Covers

Laugh-out-loud memoirs by the funniest celebs, satirical essays from the likes of David Sedaris, or gag gifts like How to Adult — all the books in this rib-tickling genre are written with one thing in mind: making readers laugh! So if you’ve compiled a collection of all your favorite dad jokes or penned a cathartic brain-dump of your most cringe-worthy memories, then your book may also belong in the humor genre. 

An essay may sound like a boring assignment from your school years, but the books in this genre are among some of the most moving and inspirational works of literature there are. Many powerful voices — like James Baldwin and Roxane Gay — have used these short works to reflect on their own personal experiences and views, combining them into a collection that serves as an eye-opening social commentary on a particular theme or subject. 

Guide / How-to 

Genres of Books | How-to Book Covers

Religion & Spirituality

From histories of the Catholic Church to spiritual guidebooks and memoirs of the Eat, Pray, Love variety, this genre has a place for anything and everything related to the topics of religion and spirituality. 

Humanities & Social Sciences

Got something wise to say? Then your book might just belong among the books of this eclectic genre — as long as it discusses a topic related to (deep breath): philosophy, history, literature, language, art, religion, music, or the human condition. This might seem like a pretty wide net to fall into, but keep in mind that books in this genre are typically quite academic; if you’ve written more of a free-flowing spiritual guide, it probably belongs in the previous genre. 

Parenting & Families

Parents and families struggling with discipline, education, bonding, the care of a newborn baby, or a child with special needs, can turn to this well-stocked genre of books when they need to bring in the reinforcements. If you’ve written a memoir that’ll have families whole-heartedly nodding in agreement, or a guide brimming with advice for frazzled parents, then you can find a place for your book in the parenting and families section. 

Science & Technology

The job of science nonfiction is not to predict the future, but to make sense of the world we’re currently living in — which, quite honestly, can feel like science fiction to some of us! Readers of this genre range from complete beginners trying to understand the things around them to technophiles whose brains are whirring to keep up with the pace of change, so there’s bound to be a niche for your book, however advanced it is. 

As much as kids love fairytales and talking animals, they’re often just as happy to pick up a nonfiction book at storytime. Whether it’s an activity book to keep them busy, a powerful true story like Malala’s Magic Pencil , or a children’s encyclopedia to feed their brains, children’s nonfiction is all about making learning fun. And the wildly popular Horrible Histories series has proven that this genre can compete with wizards and superheroes at every age!

There you have it: 35 of the most popular genres of books. Hopefully, this list will help you get your foot in the right door. But if your book doesn’t slot neatly into any of these categories (though there are quite some more types of nonfiction to consider), don’t be afraid to declare it a hybrid, or to dig a little deeper into the subcategories that you’ll find in the shade of these umbrella genres.

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COMMENTS

  1. Great books Definition & Meaning

    : of, relating to, or centered in certain classics of literature, philosophy, history, and science that are believed to contain the basic ideas of western culture an experimental great books program for 50 selected students Time Word History First Known Use 1945, in the meaning defined above Time Traveler

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    Better just to make one's choices, and let the world react. I was once asked, at some festival or other during a time when I was judging the prize, what my criteria were for defining a great book ...

  3. What Makes a Book Great? The 5 Elements of a Good Book

    The 5 Elements of a Good Book - 2024 - MasterClass Writing What Makes a Book Great? The 5 Elements of a Good Book Written by MasterClass Last updated: Aug 9, 2021 • 4 min read What makes a book good? Is it a great story idea? A memorable protagonist? An inimitable writing style? Great books contain all these elements and more.

  4. What Makes a Great Book?

    Great Books are those that contain the best materials on which the human mind can work in order to gain insight, understanding, and wisdom. Each of them, in its own way, raises the recurrent basic questions which men must face.

  5. What You Need to Know about Great Books

    Their definitions give us a starting point to decide which books are great and which are the right old books to read. Professor Fears' Definition of a Great Book According to Professor Fears, a great book has the following three essential qualities:

  6. Classic book

    A classic is a book accepted as being exemplary or particularly noteworthy. What makes a book "classic" is a concern that has occurred to various authors ranging from Italo Calvino to Mark Twain and the related questions of "Why Read the Classics?" and "What Is a Classic?"

  7. Great Books of the Western World

    Great Books of the Western World is a series of books originally published in the United States in 1952, by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., to present the great books in 54 volumes.

  8. What Makes a Book Worth Reading?

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  10. What is a Great Book? One Alum Seeks a New Definition

    One Alum Seeks a New Definition. Stuart Patterson (SF92) recently delivered a JohnnieTalk about the need to expand the definition of Great Books. Since the founding of the New Program 80 years ago, debate about what constitutes a Great Book has raged and receded periodically, occasionally resulting in the addition of a few new authors to the ...

  11. The Literary Canon: What's In It, and Who Makes the List?

    The term itself is derived from an ancient Greek word for a measuring rod, or standard. Therefore, books that are deemed worthy of entering the canon are considered standards by which all other works are measured.

  12. What Makes Great Writing?

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  13. Western canon

    The essential component of such programs is a high degree of engagement with primary texts, called the Great Books. The curricula of Great Books programs often follow a canon of texts considered more or less essential to a student's education, such as Plato's Republic, or Dante's Divine Comedy. Such programs often focus exclusively on Western ...

  14. Life Lessons From The Great Books (The Great Courses)

    What Makes a Book "Great"? According to Professor Fears, four characteristics define a Great Book: Its focus on great themes such as love, courage, and patriotism; Its composition in a noble language; Its ability to speak to readers across the ages; Its ability to speak to readers not as groups, but as individuals

  15. Four Qualities that Make Great Literature Special

    Four Qualities of Classic Literature. 1. Great works may present and explain something about their own times, but also observe something larger and lasting about the human condition. A great work does convey the writer's intentions, quite clearly, contrary to what some contemporary theorists argue. A great writer has something specific to say ...

  16. At What Point Does a Novel Become Literature?

    Students are often asked to read works of "Great Literature.". They're assigned novels by giants like Hawthorne, Dostoyevsky, and Dickens, and are told these works are considered "classic ...

  17. Books: Book Reviews, Book News, and Author Interviews : NPR

    Books: Book Reviews, Book News, and Author Interviews NPR's brings you news about books and authors along with our picks for great reads. Interviews, reviews, and much more.

  18. PDF A different sort of great-books list: The 50 twentieth-century works mo

    acter of a great-books list. In fact, all but 2 of the 50 items turned out to be books. The term "great books," when used to modi~ a curricuhnn or a collection, implies a selection of best or essential works as defined by various criteria. For example, St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, is known in the United States chiefly for the

  19. The 50 great books on education

    John Dewey - Democracy and Education (1916) Margaret Donaldson - Children's Minds (1978) JWB Douglas - The Home and the School (1964) Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes - The Dangerous ...

  20. The Heart of Leadership: 500 Timeless Quotes That Define Great

    If you do an Internet search on the word leadership, you can get about 479,000,000 results, each definition as unique as an individual leader. Leadership is a difficult concept to define, perhaps because it means so many things to different people. This book has taken on the task of getting to the heart of what leadership is and how to define it.

  21. A Syntopicon

    A Syntopicon: An Index to The Great Ideas (1952; second edition, 1990) is a two-volume index, published as volumes 2 and 3 of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.'s collection Great Books of the Western World.Compiled by Mortimer J. Adler, an American philosopher, under the guidance of Robert Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago, the volumes were billed as a collection and guide to the ...

  22. The Ultimate List of Book Genres: 35 Popular Genres

    Authors need to have a firm grasp on all the different genres of books in order to find the perfect home for their own. The tropes and expectations of a book's genre will inform its content and style during the writing process, as well as fundamentals such as word count.But it's also central to the marketing of a book, determining its target audience, and those all-important Amazon categories.

  23. The Character of Leadership: Nine Qualities That Define Great Leaders

    The Character of Leadership looks at nine important personal qualities that distinguish great leaders from the ordinary ones. The ongoing spiritual formation and character development of integrity, security, purity, humility, servanthood, wisdom, discipline, courage, and passion in the lives of leaders will cause them to become leaders like Jesus.