The 100 best fantasy books

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

The 300 best fantasy football players ever

Fantasy leagues (and their corresponding group chats) are no strangers to arguments, and this list will likely inspire a few spirited ones. Ten ESPN writers were asked to pick 30 of the undisputed greats of fantasy football, making for a fascinating look back at the all-stars of the digital gridiron

Fantasy has dozens of subgenres

“Fantasy” itself is a rather broad way of characterizing fiction. The genre encompasses many subgenres, including epic (like JRR Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings”), dark (like Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline”), or even superhero (like your favorite Marvel or DC comics).

Reader's Digest ranks the 100 best book of all time

Reader's Digest, first published in 1922 and ultimately becoming the most widely read periodical on the planet, created a list of the 100 best books of all time, compiling a list across genre, period, and form. The list includes classics,...

The 100 best Pulitzer-winning books

No ranking is definitive, but this site compiled expert analysis with book sales and other factors to rank the best books to win the Pulitzer. The list is topped by Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and includes fiction and nonfiction winners, providing a starred fan ranking and endorsements from experts and famous people.

Explore a list of the best novels of all time

Ursula K. Le Guin worked to dismantle fantasy's clichés

The author is one of the genre’s most legendary names, constructing high fantasies like “The Earthsea Cycle” that detail intricate new worlds. In 2004, she delivered a lecture criticizing books and movies that rely on a simple formula: white characters, Medieval settings, and a battle between good and evil. “Whenever I find a fantasy that is set in a genuinely imagined society and culture instead of this lazy-minded, recycled hokum,” she said, “I feel like setting off fireworks.”

Keep track of how many of the '100 best films' you've seen

This list from the AFI, a nonprofit dedicated to the cinematic arts, ranks the 100 best films of the past 100 years. A jury of 1,500 film experts compiled the list and includes movies from nearly every genre. It’s also an interactive checklist, allowing you to keep track of how many of the films you’ve seen.

The 31 best science fiction films ever

This list refreshingly starts off with the best first—1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey," Stanley Kubrick's cerebral, futuristic icon. Coming in at 31st is Disney's "Wall-E."

The best horror movies of all time

The genre has been scaring audiences for over a century, in many different forms and through many other methods. While any list is subjective, this Rotten Tomatoes list is based on the films' aggregate critical scores. We're sure it'll inspire some additions to your watch list—along with some spirited conversations.

The 100 best hip-hop albums of all time

Although it still sounds youthful, hip-hop reached middle age in 2023, reaching its 50th anniversary. This Pitchfork list of the genre's 100 best albums spans the entire history of the genre. Despite a few controversial picks, it's still worth a read, if only to dig back into some classics.

‘Beowulf’ is a foundational text for modern fantasy

The story is the earliest surviving poem in the English language and enshrined many Anglo-Saxon ideals about heroism, loyalty, and adventure. JRR Tolkein was an enthusiastic fan of the poem, even lecturing about it in 1936, and mirrored many of its themes in “Lord of the Rings.” Critics have also highlighted the influence on later fantasy stories, including “Harry Potter.”

The 100 most significant sports moments between 2000 and 2025

This list ranks the 100 most significant sports moments of the first 25 years of the 21st century. The editors compiled the collection based on a list of factors, including the "collective joy" factor, whether it made you curse in disbelief, and how much it transcended the sport and entered the broader culture. The top moment: The improbable "helmet catch" during the Super Bowl in 2008.

100 of Broadway's best songs

From the pathos of "One Day More" from "Les Misérables," to the soaring "Defying Gravity" from "Wicked," this video showcasing 100 of Broadway's best songs will keep any musical theater lover quite busy. While the list trends toward modern pieces, there are still plenty of selections from classics and Tony Award winners like "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Miss Saigon."

The best Shakespeare plays, ranked

The Guardian worked through the Bard's plays, from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to "The Winter's Tale," evaluating what distinguishes the mediocre from the truly excellent.

Where to start with dystopian literature master Octavia Butler

Rather than simply forecasting events, which she managed with startling accuracy, Butler used dystopian science fiction to explore racial and environmental issues, leaving behind a body of work that was both innovative and thought-provoking. This guide will show you where to begin.

Flannery O’Connor’s recommended reading

O’Connor was a rabid reader and a prolific letter writer, often suggesting (and sometimes criticizing) books to friends and admirers. This list distills those recommendations into a compact list, praising Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe, and National Geographic. It’s a good reading list and a fascinating window into O’Connor’s influences.

'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' was the first major American fantasy novel

Baum blended elements of Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, and Lewis Carroll, placing them in an American context. The illustrations of William Wallace Denslow brought the fantastical elements to life, as seen below. The book was an instant smash hit, selling out its initial 10,000-book pressing within the first eight months. By the time it entered the public domain in 1956, it had sold 3 million copies.

Medieval bestiaries blended real animals with myth and moral lessons

Medieval bestiaries combined observed animals with fantastical creatures, using vivid imagery to convey symbolism and moral meaning. This lecture explores England’s Worksop Bestiary (c. 1185), showcasing over 100 illustrated beasts from the Morgan Library’s collection.

As ‘Game of Thrones’ grew more popular, its fans grew more critical

George RR Martin's “A Song of Ice and Fire” series began in 1996 as a series of fantasy novels and gained popularity in the 2010s through the TV series “Game of Thrones.” As the series gained more viewers, fans and critics grew more critical of the show, with particular vitriol reserved for the series finale.

Consumers are buying more books now than they were 20 years ago

Interest in reading spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued building since then. The romance and fantasy genres in particular have been especially popular, with titles celebrated on BookTok, a wing of TikTok dedicated to reading, spurring the craze.

The 10 best TV spin-offs ever

The spin-off is a much-maligned genre, often seen as a cash grab more than an artistic enterprise. This list argues otherwise, offering 10 excellent series that come close to besting their source material.

See which similes appear most often in popular fiction

25 things you might not know about ‘Harry Potter,’ from John Green

John Green runs through 25 lesser-known facts about “Harry Potter”—like how JK Rowling was the first person to become a billionaire solely by being an author.

51 must-see attractions in Barcelona

Planning a trip to Barcelona? Check out this comprehensive list of the city’s most iconic sites. It’s organized from most well-known to least, so if you’re pressed for time, the authors recommend concentrating on the top of the list.

Read 10 of the best quotes about nature from David Attenborough

From reflecting on the interconnectedness of life and humanity's shared responsibility to protect biodiversity to the power of young people in driving change and understanding nature's beauty and importance, this list highlights some of the most noteworthy things said by the famed natural historian.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, and became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.