Perfect Books

There are some people who shy away from the perfect score, who treat it like a holy grail. These people could read a book that makes them laugh and then cry and then laugh again, a book that grips some yet-unknown-to-science part of their soul and changes the way they view the world. And their Goodreads review would read:

4.5. Wow! Great. But I thought it dragged a little through the middle part of the book.

You might have guessed it, but I am not one of those people. There is no truly objective way to judge media and so I don’t pretend to judge it that way, nor do I claim to be the arbiter of what an objectively perfect book is, if one even exists.

I propose a different system: Does this feel like a 5 out of 5?

Here is a list of every single ‘perfect book’ I’ve ever read. Which I’m mostly writing because sometimes people ask me for book recommendations, and now instead of trying to remember what I really liked 18 months ago, I can just send this.

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• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
  
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
  
• The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
  
• The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis
  
• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
  
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
  
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
  
• The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
  
• The Age of Madness trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
  
• The Green Bone Saga (trilogy) by Fonda Lee
• The Three-Body Problem trilogy by Cixin Liu
  

I would like to read more perfect books. If you think you know of some, let me know.

Last updated May 2025.