Books That Changed My Life

original ranker mollie Power
Ranker 150,817 views 425 items 98 followers

The most life changing books, ranked by the wisdom of the crowd of hundreds of people. Anyone can add their picks to this list of books that will change your life, making it an accurate, real-time ranking of the best life changing books, as picked by the people who love them. Ask yourself the question "what are the most life-changing books?" and then vote for the books that you read cover to cover, the novels that changed the way you see the world and the stories you still can't stop thinking about. Share your favorites, and see how your taste stacks up against other readers.

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Rank Name

1

Up 530

Down 164

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

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2

Up 489

Down 192

The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien

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3

Up 332

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The Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger

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4

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Animal Farm

George Orwell

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5

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Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

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6

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Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell

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7

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Kesey

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8

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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

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9

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Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut

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10

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Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck

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11

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Lord of the Flies

William Golding

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12

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The Hobbit

J. R. R. Tolkien

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13

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The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

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14

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll

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15

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Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury

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16

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A Wrinkle in Time

Madeleine L'Engle

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17

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

J. K. Rowling

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18

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The Grapes of Wrath

Frank Galati

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19

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Catch-22

Joseph Heller

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20

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Hamlet

William Shakespeare

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21

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Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

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22

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Siddhartha

Hermann Hesse

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23

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Frankenstein

Mary Shelley

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24

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Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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25

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The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath

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26

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The Little Prince

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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27

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Great Expectations

Charles Dickens

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28

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On the Road

Jack Kerouac

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29

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The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway

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30

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The Metamorphosis

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31

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Les Misérables

Victor Hugo

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32

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Dracula

Bram Stoker

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33

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The Cat in the Hat

Dr. Seuss

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34

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Hunter S. Thompson

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35

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One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez

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36

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Down 49

A Midsummer Night's Dream

William Shakespeare

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37

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Down 6

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Mark Twain

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38

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The Stranger

Albert Camus

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39

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Down 28

The Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank

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40

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The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway

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41

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Where The Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak

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42

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Dune

Frank Herbert

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43

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The Stand

Stephen King

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44

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The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand

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45

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Cat's Cradle

Kurt Vonnegut

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46

Up 88

Down 28

The Giver

Lois Lowry

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47

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The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne

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48

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Fight Club

Chuck Palahniuk

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49

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Walden

Henry David Thoreau

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50

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Love in the Time of Cholera

Gabriel García Márquez

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MAYONNAISE
Books That Changed My Life at 12/12/2012 4:30 AM

Wow you are obsessed with life changing books!
Jeffry Avino
Books That Changed My Life at 8/28/2012 9:30 AM

Someone loves best chick lit.
Ja Poniatoski
Books That Changed My Life at 8/17/2012 10:30 AM

Looks like a bunch of most life changing books.
Son Gerety
Books That Changed My Life at 6/24/2012 1:30 AM

books that will change your life!
omar
Books That Changed My Life at 3/19/2012 6:33 AM

The Prophet by Khalil Gibron
ingcold cause
Books That Changed My Life at 1/18/2012 8:41 AM

To Kill a Mockingbird deserves to be at the top of this list, it influenced generations of people to open their eyes and walk in another's shoes. The social themes in it are still relevant today, and the language borders on the poetic
N Daniel
Books That Changed My Life at 1/03/2012 10:41 PM

Glad a woman author topped the list.
N. Daniel
Books That Changed My Life at 1/03/2012 10:37 PM

Glad that a book written by a woman has topped the list.
marc.zandersons
Books That Changed My Life at 6/06/2011 12:39 PM

Interesting list ... I made my personal list for self development books which actually have changed my life: http://www.thebooksthatchangedmylife.com/2011/06/04/50-personal-development-books-that-changed-my-life/
Anonymous
Books That Changed My Life at 1/12/2011 7:25 PM

OK - why would you want to read some of these boring books. I mean there are so many great books out there, but people feel they must put down the books that are considered classics. Be true to yourself.
Anonymous
Books That Changed My Life at 1/12/2011 7:22 PM

Why do people think that books that change your life have to be highly hailed classics? For real, most of the life changing books I can think of struck a chord in me - not with critics.
ruben
Island at 8/22/2010 11:42 PM

One of my favorite books of all time. I reread it at least twice a year