An Interactive Literary Journey
The Great Books
of Mankind
350 essential works spanning 4,100 years of human civilization. From the clay tablets of Mesopotamia to the digital age — explore the literary works that shaped our world.
How many have you read?
Take the Great Books Reading Challenge. Tick off every one you've read, see your rank, and track a lifetime of reading. Your score saves automatically.
Across the Ages
From ancient oral traditions carved into clay to the novels that define our modern consciousness.
Highest Rated Works
Books that received a perfect or near-perfect GBM Score for their enduring impact on human thought.
Essays
Michel de Montaigne
1580 AD
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Anonymous
2100 BC
Medea
Euripides
431 BC
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner
1929 AD
The Iliad
Homer
750 BC
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Isaac Newton
1687 AD
The Waste Land
T.S. Eliot
1922 AD
Dream of the Red Chamber (The Story of the Stone)
Cao Xueqin
1791 AD
Get the Great Books Wall Poster
All 350 books across 4,100 years, organized by era, with a checkbox for each. Print it, frame it, mark your progress. Enter your email and we'll send it over, plus the occasional reading path worth your time. No noise.
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Tools for a Lifetime of Reading
Reading the canon is a long project. These keep it organized, starting with a free poster.
Wall Poster
FreeAll 350 books with checkboxes, print it, frame it, mark your progress.
Reading Tracker
$3.50Spreadsheet with auto-calculated dashboard and reading log. 1¢ per book.
Reading Guides
$4.9912 curated paths through the catalog, The Core 50, Philosophy Path, and more.
Complete Collection
$9.99Everything, e-book, tracker, guides, bookmarks, maps, poster. Save 31%.
Two Ways to Explore
Navigate history through an interactive timeline that spans millennia, or browse the full catalog with filters for genre, era, and region.