A 6 star book would be a book that is absolutely perfect, and more. Better than a perfect 5 stars. It goes above and beyond all your expectations and any standards you could imagine. Usually I see people on Tiktok post about their 6 star reads, and I would love to know if people over here have the same feelings.
Here are mine:
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The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (P&V translation). This is my all time favorite book, and I’m currently rereading it even though I only finished it back in October the first time around! Whenever I see people comment about this book, I almost always respond telling them how much I love it. Absolutely flawless.
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The Stranger by Albert Camus (Matthew Ward translation)
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The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector (Benjamin Moser translation)
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Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
I’m always curious to hear people’s opinions, especially across different genres. I recently asked this question, and the responses I received were very similar (in the classics realm, lots of Dostoevsky and Baldwin). So, I would love to know what people on this sub think!
by sbucksbarista
40 Comments
The Known World by Edward P. Jones. A novel so perfect he hasn’t deigned to give us another.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I won’t ever see the movie.
Actually no. I’ve never read a book I considered perfect
The Terror by Dan Simon
Several of the Aubrey Maturin series.
Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds, and Bonanza of the Baroque cycle.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
The Power Broker by Robert Caro
The Name of The Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
Lonesome Dove
The Grapes of Wrath and Lonesome Dove
Stoner by John Williams
A Storm of Swords and The Name of the Wind. Say whatever about GRRM and Rothfuss these books are S tier fantasy imo.
James by Percival Everett!
Gonna have to go for *Pride and Prejudice* by Jane Austen. The first sentence alone is a masterpiece.
Also *Night* by Elie Wiesel.
“Sula,” Morrison.
She holds so much space for reading that book with 1000 different perspectives.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel.
Rare fantasy book that’s actually a superb piece of fiction. Can’t get over the feat of literary ventriloquism required to write with that kind of wit.
The stand- Stephen King
Did not expect to see Clarice Lispector on a non brazilian list! Did you also check “The passion according to GH”? Its normally regarded as her best together with the Hour of the Star
I guess for me it’d be Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. It’s the one book I have read every year four years in a row now and I have a very emotional reaction to it each time. So I guess I’m going off my own experience of the book for that rating.
Also Tombs of Atuan by Ursula le Guin — goddamn that book is just too good.
I already reserve my 5-star ratings for particularly stand out books so there won’t be many 6 stars for me.
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
In my personal taste, they’re as close to perfection as it gets.
The Tin Drum
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
I wish I could read it for the first time again.
“The numbers all go to six. Look, right across the board, six, six, six and…”
“Oh, I see. And most book ratings go up to five?”
“Exactly.”
“Does that mean it’s better? Is it any better?”
“Well, it’s one better, isn’t it? It’s not five. You see, most blokes, you know, will be rating at five You’re on five here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on five on your book. Where can you go from there? Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?”
“Put it up to six.”
“Six. Exactly. One better.”
“Why don’t you just make five be the top number and make that the best?”
“…….These go to six.”
Excession by Ian M Banks.
While I love his later Culture novels and rate all of them a solid 5*, Excession just did it for me slightly more.
The Shining Levels by John Wyatt – a autobiographical story recounting his time working as a forester in a southern Lake District woodland in the 1950s. John Wyatt went on to become IIRC the first CEO of the Lake District National Park. Book set my life on a better (IMO) path that probably saved my life.
For me, Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace.
1. The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky
2. The Holy Innocents, Delibes
3. The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas
4. Parade´s End, Madox Ford
Came here to say the Hour of the Star. Absolutely magnificent. Also agree with your other picks. I’m reading The Passion According to GH by Clarice Lispector and I’d feels like another 6 stars or at least 5.5 so far.
The Will of the Many by James Islington. Cannot wait for book 2!
Nowhere close to a perfect book, but I think *God Emperor of Dune* was a perfect ending to that four-book arc. Some people feel it got too deep into the weeds, and that’s perhaps correct, but I felt very complete after finishing it.
*Minor Detail* by Adania Shibli
*The House Without Windows* and *The Voyage of the Norman D.* by Barbara Newhall Follett
*The Setting Sun* and *Self Portraits* by Dazai
*Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow.* by Noor Hindi
*Never Let Me Go* by Kazuo Ishiguro
*In Praise of Shadows* by Jun’Ichirō Tanizaki
I also love *The Stranger* by Camus, I think I would mark it at 5 over 6 but it is damn close
Ones that I feel will make the cut but need to finish first:
*Noli Me Tángere* by José Rizal
*Terminal Boredom* by Izumi Suzuki
*Don Quixote* by Cervantes
5 star books that are really close to 6:
*Breasts and Eggs* by Mieko Kawakami
*The Stranger* by Camus
*Flowers of Buffoonery* by Dazai
“Consider Phlebas”
And
“Encounter with Tiber.”
The latter is almost impossible to find, but wow what a story. I couldn’t put it down. It’s not well written, but the ideas behind the story are thought provoking and had a profound effect on me. I wish there was an audio book of it.
My 6-star book is **Other Worlds of Isaac Asimov**. It’s an omnibus collection of 2 novels and 12 short stories by Isaac Asimov.
One of those novels is the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning **The Gods Themselves**. The other novel is one of the best time-travel novels I’ve ever read: **The End of Eternity**.
The short stories include classics like the award-winning **Nightfall**, the heart-breaking **The Ugly Little Boy**, the insightful **Profession**, plus a couple of my personal favourites: **The Dead Past** and **Lest We Remember**.
With that much goodness jammed into one volume, it can’t help but be a 6-star book!
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
I’ve not quite finished it yet, but it’s *so good*! I’m suffering pretty bad anhedonia thanks to depression, anxiety, existential dread and just generally being at odds with reality and my plethora of sensory issues and mental issues. So when I think a book goes beyond “enjoyable enough to read and pass the time”, then it’s very good (to me) because I find it incredibly hard to enjoy anything currently
I’m very much looking forward to seeing how the story continues in the next book! I really hope there’ll be more!
Flowers for Algernon
*The conjuring of Zoth-avarex* by K.R.R. Lockhaven.
It’s like the *Airplane!* of fantasy movies. Hands down the best fantasy parody I’ve ever read, absolutely deserves it’s Kirkus star. And it’s 100% my kind of humor. My best friend said it was like someone had written a book just for me.
If people weren’t so loose with their stars, we’d have more accurate ratings. Too many people rate 4-5. A perfectly decent book should be a 3. Your mythical 6 star book should be just a regular ol 5 star.
It’s gotten to where I rarely even look at something below a 3.75 because I know people are pulling the average higher than it should be already. Ideally, a 2.5 book should be a worthwhile read. Bunch of book sloots just giving it away.
Blood Meridian
Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevsky
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts
Both made me sob uncontrollably at times lol
The Grapes of Wrath and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I know these books are mentioned every 5 seconds on here, but it’s for a reason.
Gaudy Night — Dorothy Sayer
Shadow of the wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett