The Books canon

Sourced and shelved.

Every book chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 1,178 books or filter by subject, era, place, and author.

The Consolation of Philosophy

524 · 154 pages

Awaiting execution, Boethius is visited by a woman called Philosophy, who explains why fortune's wheel turns and how God's foreknowledge still leaves you free. Medieval Europe read nothing more closely.

★ 7.4

Blood Meridian

1985 · 337 pages

Scalp hunters ride the Mexican border in 1849, among them a runaway Tennessee boy and the hairless giant Judge Holden. McCarthy writes the violence in Old Testament prose and never once looks away.

★ 9.1