The Official FBG Top 70 Fiction Books of All Time - DEADLINE FOR LIST SUBMISSIONS EXTENDED TO MARCH 30, 2025 (2 Viewers)

[kupcho1]

For the purpose of this exercise, we are limiting submissions to works of fiction.
Novels, including graphic novels and short story collections. This includes YA and children's books for those so inclined. Plays are also allowed.
You can submit anywhere from 1 to 70 books.

This will not be a ranking of series (e.g., Wheel of Time, Harry Potter).
For that, I assume someone will start another discussion (which will, perhaps, culminate in the World Series of Series).

So, if you are interested, please submit a ranked list of your favorite works of fiction (standalone books only). #1 being your top choice (which will receive the most points).

The scoring system is as follows.

Rank Points
1 140
2 135
3 130
4 125
5 120
6 115
7 110
8 105
9 100
10 95
11 90
12 86
13 82
14 78
15 74
16 70
17 67
18 64
19 61
20 58
21 55
22 53
23 51
24 49
25 47
26 45
27 44
28 43
29 42
30 41
31 40
32 39
33 38
34 37
35 36
36 35
37 34
38 33
39 32
40 31
41 30
42 29
43 28
44 27
45 26
46 25
47 24
48 23
49 22
50 21
51 20
52 19
53 18
54 17
55 16
56 15
57 14
58 13
59 12
60 11
61 10
62 9
63 8
64 7
65 6
66 5
67 4
68 3
69 2
70 1

The scoring system is designed to "reward" the top 25 (i.e., more points) with selections 26-70 being straight-line scoring (e.g., #70 gets 1 point, #69 gets 2 points).

If you can, please submit your lists to me as a table so I can easily pop it into the spreadsheet I'm preparing. Otherwise, text is OK, but if you can put something like
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien I can then find/replace the "by" with a tab.

Deadline is March 30th. I will be creating another post for revealing the top 300, top books that didn't make the count and other information (mainly because I don't think this post will be large enough to accommodate it all, and I wasn't smart enough to put placeholder posts in this one)

 

[KarmaPolice]

 

[krista4]

Oh hai.

 

[Eephus]

[td]
I
[/td][td]
N
[/td]

 

[Don Quixote]

Table to look like this?

Stephanie Meyer

Twilight

Or book first?

 

[kupcho1]

Table to look like this?

Stephanie Meyer

Twilight

Or book first?

Book first, please.
Actually: Rank, Book, Author
Thanks

 

[KarmaPolice]

What is this table thing people speak of??

 

[shuke]

That's some formatting.

 

[Psychopav]

1 Encyclopedia Brown Series by Donald J. Sobol

 

[KarmaPolice]

Twilight	Stephanie Meyer
50 Shades of Grey	E.L. James

 

[KarmaPolice]

LINK

 

[KarmaPolice]

Scratch that, I forgot the rank part.

 

[KarmaPolice]

1

Twilight

Stephanie Meyer

@kupcho1 - this is what you want x70, correct?

 

[kupcho1]

1

Twilight

Stephanie Meyer

@kupcho1 - this is what you want x70, correct?

Perfect

 

[KarmaPolice]

1

Twilight

Stephanie Meyer

@kupcho1 - this is what you want x70, correct?

Perfect

Now time to find 68 more books!

 

[KarmaPolice]

No surprise, but I seem to like A LOT of books that were turned into movies or limited series.

 

[El Floppo]

mebbe.

remembering 70 book titles might be tough.

 

[shuke]

I assume people don't have to submit 70.

 

[Eephus]

@kupcho1 - can you summarize the scoring rules without all the formatting mumbo jumbo?

 

[kupcho1]

@kupcho1 - can you summarize the scoring rules without all the formatting mumbo jumbo?

Yes.

Top ranked book gets 140 points (70 books x 2 because ... science).
#2 gets 135, #3 130...

Starting at book 26, scoring reverts to "straight-line" By that I mean book #70 gets 1 point, book #69 gets 2 points ... all the way up to book #26 getting 45 points (the last book to get additional weighting is book #25 which gets 47 points).

I'm going to try and put it into a quote here. I think since the board was fixed so alerts showed up again, the formatting of tables is kinda ****ed. Anyway

Rank Points
1 140
2 135
3 130
4 125
5 120
6 115
7 110
8 105
9 100
10 95
11 90
12 86
13 82
14 78
15 74
16 70
17 67
18 64
19 61
20 58
21 55
22 53
23 51
24 49
25 47
26 45
27 44
28 43
29 42
30 41
31 40
32 39
33 38
34 37
35 36
36 35
37 34
38 33
39 32
40 31
41 30
42 29
43 28
44 27
45 26
46 25
47 24
48 23
49 22
50 21
51 20
52 19
53 18
54 17
55 16
56 15
57 14
58 13
59 12
60 11
61 10
62 9
63 8
64 7
65 6
66 5
67 4
68 3
69 2
70 1

 

[rockaction]

I honestly don't have seventy fiction novels or fictive collections read and remembered and liked in my cap. I got up to about forty and petered out. I was swimming underwater to get there. I looked at some lists and I could give you philosophy or political philosophy but I don't even get really that deep. That might bring me up to seventy.

Guess I'll have to chalk it up to getting my frame of reference from a few books and the zeitgeist, really.

 

[rockaction]

I might add that they're good books. They're mighty fine books. One might even call them the greatest books ever dealt in a deal that I won. But you can't call them seventy deep. Oh no, you can't.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I honestly don't have seventy fiction novels or fictive collections read and remembered and liked in my cap. I got up to about forty and petered out. I was swimming underwater to get there. I looked at some lists and I could give you philosophy or political philosophy but I don't even get really that deep. That might bring me up to seventy.

Guess I'll have to chalk it up to getting my frame of reference from a few books and the zeitgeist, really.

Lucky for me there are 7 Harry Potter books, a lot of Wimpy Kid books, and dozens of Three Investigators books.

 

[rockaction]

Lucky for me there are 7 Harry Potter books, a lot of Wimpy Kid books, and dozens of Three Investigators books.

LOL. I was thinking as I was writing them out that I wished I'd just killed time with thirty dime store novels and put them at the end, you know. Like, no harm no foul type of thing.

 

[krista4]

I honestly don't have seventy fiction novels or fictive collections read and remembered and liked in my cap. I got up to about forty and petered out. I was swimming underwater to get there. I looked at some lists and I could give you philosophy or political philosophy but I don't even get really that deep. That might bring me up to seventy.

Guess I'll have to chalk it up to getting my frame of reference from a few books and the zeitgeist, really.

I'm having trouble thinking of 70, though I haven't dug into it enough yet. Maybe OH or kupcho could spare us a few of theirs?

 

[KarmaPolice]

Lucky for me there are 7 Harry Potter books, a lot of Wimpy Kid books, and dozens of Three Investigators books.

LOL. I was thinking as I was writing them out that I wished I'd just killed time with thirty dime store novels and put them at the end, you know. Like, no harm no foul type of thing.

That's exactly what i was thinking, especially with the waited scoring. My last 20-30 might be odd kids stuff or more books from the same serires. I was trying to stick to 1/series, but i am struggling a bit after 40-45 I have listed.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I honestly don't have seventy fiction novels or fictive collections read and remembered and liked in my cap. I got up to about forty and petered out. I was swimming underwater to get there. I looked at some lists and I could give you philosophy or political philosophy but I don't even get really that deep. That might bring me up to seventy.

Guess I'll have to chalk it up to getting my frame of reference from a few books and the zeitgeist, really.

I'm having trouble thinking of 70, though I haven't dug into it enough yet. Maybe OH or kupcho could spare us a few of theirs?

Or this!

 

[Eephus]

I'm having trouble thinking of 70, though I haven't dug into it enough yet. Maybe OH or kupcho could spare us a few of theirs?

I'm not going to sweat the order of #51-70 too much because the bottom 20 doesn't count for much in this scoring format.

 

[BLOCKED_PUNT]

I honestly don't have seventy fiction novels or fictive collections read and remembered and liked in my cap. I got up to about forty and petered out. I was swimming underwater to get there. I looked at some lists and I could give you philosophy or political philosophy but I don't even get really that deep. That might bring me up to seventy.

Guess I'll have to chalk it up to getting my frame of reference from a few books and the zeitgeist, really.

I'm having trouble thinking of 70, though I haven't dug into it enough yet. Maybe OH or kupcho could spare us a few of theirs?

there are 62 Gossebumps books. use one of those and be sure to put down my favorite book

 

[Chaos34]

I didn't think I could do 70 because I've forsaken fiction for almost 3 decades. But when I reviewed authors I read a bunch, I hit 70 pretty fast with 10-15 more. I was a novel a month guy for much of the late 70s through mid 90s, but getting married and having a child changed that. So I don't have any fresh material, and I have some the critics didn't like, but 70 was surprisingly easy.

I feel like this needs more interest, more lists.

 

[Psychopav]

Question: what about Edgar Allan Poe? He wrote a novel or two but I don't think they were published standalone. In fact most of his stuff was published in magazines. But I have several Complete Works volumes and one of them should definitely be in my top 70. Do I just list it as "Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe" by Edgar Allan Poe?

 

[kupcho1]

Question: what about Edgar Allan Poe? He wrote a novel or two but I don't think they were published standalone. In fact most of his stuff was published in magazines. But I have several Complete Works volumes and one of them should definitely be in my top 70. Do I just list it as "Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe" by Edgar Allan Poe?

As stated previously, fiction collections are included. I'm certainly not pinging Dickens or other authors whose work appeared serially let alone anyone whose work originally appeared in a magazine.

That said, it is possible that I might get a few submissions for the same author. If you're going to submit a "Complete Works", please give me a link to a title and if others for the same author come in, I'll try and group them into a single entry so the points are totaled correctly.

I appreciate everyone's patience. This could get messy.

 

[turnjose7]

Does it have to be prose? What about something like The Odyssey?

 

[kupcho1]

Given the "controversy" in the TV thread, I thought I'd just take a moment to reiterate that this exercise on "top" is not meant to be a statement on what constitutes greatness. I'll leave that to the hundreds of thousands of sites that have ranked the greatest books of all time, or books you need to read before you die. That's not what this is about.

Lists should constitute one's own personal choice of their top books. And, if all goes well, we'll all gain some awareness of books and/or authors that we weren't aware of previously.
So, I hope everyone submits a list and we have some good discussion along the way.

At the current rate @Scoresman is counting down the TV list (7 in a 24 hour period counting backward from Severance yesterday), he should be done around 3/20 (assuming he stays at this pace). That said...

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF YOUR TOP 70 BOOKS HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO SUNDAY MARCH 30, 2025

 

[krista4]

And, if all goes well, we'll all gain some awareness of books and/or authors that we weren't aware of previously.

I doubt you will, Mr. Book-a-day Guy. (One of the world's worst superheroes?)

 

[kupcho1]

And, if all goes well, we'll all gain some awareness of books and/or authors that we weren't aware of previously.

I doubt you will, Mr. Book-a-day Guy. (One of the world's worst superheroes?)

Au contraire mon ami, I'm 99% certain I was made aware of Game of Thrones on this very board. Given Martin's reluctance to finish the damn series, though, I'm not sure I'm appreciative.

I kid, I kid.

 

[turnjose7]

Submitted my list. Coming up with plenty of material was easier than I expected. Cutting out some stuff I like and figuring out how to balance different types of material was more of a challenge.

I think I have 6 short story collections, 7 graphic novels, 5 plays, and 5 epic poems with the rest being novels or novellas. I think there are 41 unique authors which means there are a fair amount of people who have more than one entry on the list. Mostly this is just because I like multiple works by the same author, though; very few of these represent multiple works in a series.

 

[Chaos34]

I think I have 6 short story collections, 7 graphic novels, 5 plays, and 5 epic poems with the rest being novels or novellas. I think there are 41 unique authors

I spent some time with this this morning, mostly trying to narrow it down from 82. I got to 79.

2 short story collections. 1 short story within a novella. 1 I need clearance on from Kupcho. The rest novels. 43 authors that will probably fall to 40.

Without putting the effort in to be exact, I'm about 50% high brow-ish classic stuff easily found on the thousands of lists of greatest books ever and 50% pure vacation pulp.

 

[BassNBrew]

Can I submit a list of 10?

 

[guru_007]

Sent my list before I forgot. If the formatting is terrible (it is) let me know and I'll attempt to resend.
Not responsible for any spelling errors in books or authors.

 

[krista4]

Submitted my list. Coming up with plenty of material was easier than I expected. Cutting out some stuff I like and figuring out how to balance different types of material was more of a challenge.

I think I have 6 short story collections, 7 graphic novels, 5 plays, and 5 epic poems with the rest being novels or novellas. I think there are 41 unique authors which means there are a fair amount of people who have more than one entry on the list. Mostly this is just because I like multiple works by the same author, though; very few of these represent multiple works in a series.

I'm still really confused about what is allowed and what is not. Plays are OK? Epic poems? Not saying they shouldn't be; I had just missed that part.

A couple of weeks ago I put some notes down on books so that I wouldn't forget them. Now for the last week I've been trying to figure out what I meant when I typed "P loop." Ideas, anyone?

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I'm not going to be able to do this one. Sucks, because I really wanted to. I'm going to follow along when I can, though.

 

[guru_007]

Submitted my list. Coming up with plenty of material was easier than I expected. Cutting out some stuff I like and figuring out how to balance different types of material was more of a challenge.

I think I have 6 short story collections, 7 graphic novels, 5 plays, and 5 epic poems with the rest being novels or novellas. I think there are 41 unique authors which means there are a fair amount of people who have more than one entry on the list. Mostly this is just because I like multiple works by the same author, though; very few of these represent multiple works in a series.

I'm still really confused about what is allowed and what is not. Plays are OK? Epic poems? Not saying they shouldn't be; I had just missed that part.

A couple of weeks ago I put some notes down on books so that I wouldn't forget them. Now for the last week I've been trying to figure out what I meant when I typed "P loop." Ideas, anyone?

I put a few plays and epic poems on my list Also put one book which may be more non-fiction than fiction.

 

[krista4]

Also put one book which may be more non-fiction than fiction.

Something I've learned about myself the past few weeks is that apparently I'm much more of a non-fiction reader than I thought.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Also put one book which may be more non-fiction than fiction.

Something I've learned about myself the past few weeks is that apparently I'm much more of a non-fiction reader than I thought.

Yes the lack of non-fiction made it tough for me to get to 70 - but eventually I was able to piece things together. It would have been a breeze with non-fiction included.

 

[scoobus]

I will not be making it to 70.

 

[kupcho1]

Can I submit a list of 10?

Sure

 

[kupcho1]

Sent my list before I forgot. If the formatting is terrible (it is) let me know and I'll attempt to resend.
Not responsible for any spelling errors in books or authors.

It was fine. The formatting is/was terrible (I think tables are now ****ed after the software was updated to fix the problem with alerts) but it did copy/paste nicely into sheets.
However, please provide the author's first and last names. I don't know who wrote every book ever written.

 

[kupcho1]

I'm still really confused about what is allowed and what is not. Plays are OK? Epic poems? Not saying they shouldn't be; I had just missed that part.

A couple of weeks ago I put some notes down on books so that I wouldn't forget them. Now for the last week I've been trying to figure out what I meant when I typed "P loop." Ideas, anyone?

Plays are fine. If you want to submit and epic poem.
I'm drawing the line at limericks though.

Re: Ploop. I have no idea

 

[kupcho1]

1 short story within a novella

I'm totally shuked on this one.
Can you message me on what this is or means?
TIA