LBG League Table

Below is the league table of all books read based on annual member surveys. Patrick Hamilton’s Hangover Square has been No. 1 since 2007.

Note: This table is out of date, there will be a new methodology launched as part of our 20 Lovely Years celebration in July 2023.

  Title Author Rating Year Month Owner
1 Hangover Square Patrick Hamilton 3.93 2007 July Anthony
2 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch Aleksandr Solzhenstenitsyn 3.80 2009 June Kay
3 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey 3.71 2004 March EmmaJ
4 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 3.61 2010 September John
5 The Quiet American Graham Greene 3.50 2003 July EmmaT
6 London Belongs to Me Norman Collins 3.44 2016 Sept DKB
7 Great Expectations Charles Dickens 3.38 2008 November Anthony
8 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 3.35 2007 November EmmaJ
9 Stoner John Williams 3.13 2013 November Sue
10 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 3.06 2004 June John
11 Therese Raquin Emile Zola 3.00 2013 February Sue
12 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 2.88 2014 August Miranda
13 Scoop Evelyn Waugh 2.80 2005 January EmmaJ
14 Alone in Berlin Hans Fallada 2.78 2011 September EmmaT
15 Brick Lane Monica Ali 2.74 2003 September EmmaJ
16 The Night Watch Sarah Waters 2.63 2012 August EmmaJ
17 City of Glass Paul Auster 2.53 2005 May EmmaT
18 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 2.50 2006 July John
  What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Raymond Carver 2.50 2013 July John
20 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Remarque 2.48 2008 June Catherine
21 The Children Act Ian McEwan 2.44 2015 July EmmaT
22 Eleven Kinds of Loneliness Richard Yates 2.38 2013 August Baljit
23 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemmingway 2.36 2006 August Baljit
24 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2.33 2016 April EmmaT
25 The Pillowman Martin McDonagh 2.28 2009 April Catherine
  Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 2.28 2009 January EmmaT
27 Death and the Penguin Andrew Kurkov 2.25 2008 May John
  The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 2.25 2012 November Catherine
  A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens 2.25 2014 January Anthony
30 Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 2.22 2016 July Catherine
31 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 2.15 2009 February Baljit
32 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 2.13 2003 December Baljit
33 The Martian Andy Weir 2.11 2015 Sept JoS
  In the Approaches Nicola Barker 2.11 2015 June EmmaJ
  The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet David Mitchell 2.11 2015 May Sue
36 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 2.09 2004 July EmmaT
37 Nights at the Circus Angela Carter 2.08 2006 February EmmaT
38 To Build a Fire Jack London 2.02 2010 July DKB
39 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2.00 2014 February EmmaT
  Elizabeth is Missing Emma Healey 2.00 2015 February Baljit
  Brooklyn Colm Toibin 2.00 2016 February Sue
42 The Sisters Brothers Patrick deWitt 1.95 2011 October EmmaJ
43 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1.89 2016 January Anthony
44 The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories Leo Tolstoy 1.88 2010 February Catherine
  Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1.88 2014 December DKB
46 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1.87 2005 February John
47 The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1.80 2008 April Anthony
48 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 1.69 2012 January John
49 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 1.67 2006 December DKB
  Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1.67 2006 September EmmaT
51 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 1.63 2013 March DKB
52 Under the Skin Michel Faber 1.62 2007 August Catherine
53 A Room with a View EM Foster 1.60 2005 August DKB
  Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim David Sedaris 1.60 2005 April Baljit
  The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1.60 2012 October Baljit
56 Pereira Maintains Antonio Tabucchi 1.56 2016 May Jo
57 We Need To Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver 1.55 2011 December DKB
  The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 1.55 2011 November Baljit
59 If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1.52 2003 October DKB
  The Alchemist Paulo Coelho 1.52 2003 August Kay
61 Christie Malry’s Own Double-entry B.S. Johnson 1.50 2007 October John
  Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1.50 2007 May Kay
  Tender is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald 1.50 2007 February John
64 Catch 22 Joseph Heller 1.44 2010 June Baljit
  Black Swan Green David Mitchell 1.44 2011 June Miranda
66 The Man Who Fell to Earth Walter Tevis 1.41 2012 April Miranda
67 Dark Entries Robert Aickman 1.38 2014 June Catherine
68 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1.29 2004 October Nate
  The Outsider Albert Camus 1.29 2004 August Baljit
70 Lie in the Dark Dan Fesperman 1.25 2006 June EmmaJ
71 A Country Doctor’s Notebook Mikhail Bulgakov 1.22 2015 December DKB
72 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton 1.16 2010 May EmmaT
73 The Invention Of Morel Adolfo Bioy Casares 1.14 2009 March John
74 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time Mark Haddon 1.13 2004 February Kay
75 Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney 1.03 2011 April John
  The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1.03 2011 March Catherine
  Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont Elizabeth Taylor 1.03 2012 June DKB
  The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 1.03 2012 May Sue
79 Alias Grace Margaret Atwood 1.00 2015 January Catherine
80 Mister Pip Lloyd Jones 0.90 2008 August Baljit
  The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester 0.90 2008 July DKB
82 A Far Cry from Kensington Muriel Spark 0.89 2009 May EmmaJ
83 The End of the Affair Graham Greene 0.88 2013 September Catherine
84 Clybourne Park Bruce Norris 0.83 2011 July DKB
85 Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller 0.81 2004 December DKB
86 Small Island Andrea Levy 0.80 2005 September EmmaJ
87 The Bottle Factory Outing Beryl Bainbridge 0.78 2015 November Baljit
  As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning Laurie Lee 0.78 2016 Oct Anthony
89 Will you Please Be Quiet, Please? Raymond Carver 0.72 2010 January John
90 The Enchantment of Lily Dahl Siri Hustvedt 0.67 2005 December DKB
  High-Rise J.G. Ballard 0.67 2015 April Miranda
92 Moon Tiger Penelope Lively 0.63 2013 May EmmaT
  The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 0.63 2014 July Anthony
94 Strangers on a Train Patricia Highsmith 0.58 2010 December DKB
  Revolutionary Road Richard Yates 0.58 2010 October Catherine
96 Home Marilynne Robinson 0.51 2009 November Baljit
97 Hard Times Charles Dickens 0.47 2012 February Catherine
98 December Heat Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza 0.45 2008 March EmmaJ
  The Prime Minister: The Job and Its Holders Since 1945 Peter Hennessy 0.45 2008 January Baljit
100 Beyond Black Hilary Mantel 0.44 2015 October Catherine
  The Ministry of Fear Graham Greene 0.44 2016 Dec DKB
102 The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox Maggie O’Farrell 0.43 2010 November EmmaJ
  Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf 0.43 2010 April Anthony
104 Blink Malcolm Gladwell 0.42 2006 November Kay
105 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 0.38 2013 October Miranda
106 The End of Mr. Y Scarlett Thomas 0.35 2007 December DKB
107 Three Days of Rain Richard Greenberg 0.34 2008 December DKB
108 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey 0.32 2004 November Kay
109 The Beautiful and Damned F. Scott Fitzgerald 0.28 2012 December DKB
  Oedipus the King Sophocles 0.28 2012 September John
111 The Fault in Our Stars John Green 0.25 2013 December DKB
  Every Contact Leaves a Trace Elanor Dymott 0.25 2013 June EmmaJ
  No One Belongs Here More Than You Miranda July 0.25 2014 November EmmaJ
  We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Karen Joy Fowler 0.25 2014 September Sue
115 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini 0.23 2008 February Kay
116 Uncommon Danger Eric Ambler 0.22 2016 Nov Sue
117 In the Company of the Courtesan Sarah Dunant 0.14 2006 April DKB
  Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Charles Mackay 0.14 2006 March Kay
  Neuromancer William Gibson 0.14 2006 January Nate
  The Tell-Tale Heart Edgar Allan Poe 0.14 2010 July DKB
121 Quantity Theory of Insanity Will Self 0.13 2005 July Kay
  The Black Dahlia James Ellroy 0.13 2009 September DKB
  Something to Tell You Hanif Kureishi 0.13 2009 July Anthony
124 The Blindfold Siri Hustvedt 0.13 2013 April Anthony
125 The Girl in the Photograph Kate Riordan 0.11 2015 March Anthony
  How to Be Both Ali Smith 0.11 2016 March EmmaJ
127 The End of the Party Andrew Rawnsley 0.10 2011 February Baljit
  Seven Years in Tibet Heinrich Harre 0.10 2011 January EmmaT
Bin Hey Nostradamus! Douglas Coupland 0.00 2004 May DKB
  Diary Chuck Palahniuk   2004 April Nate
  A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller   2004 January EmmaT
  Ways Of Hearing: A User’s Guide To The Pop Psyche From Elvis to Eminem Ben Thompson   2005 November John
  Letters from the Earth Mark Twain   2006 October Nate
  Catfish and Mandala Andrew Pham   2007 April EmmaT
  Difficult Daughters Manju Kapoor   2007 March Baljit
  Arlington Park Rachel Cusk   2008 October EmmaJ
  What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Haruki Murakami   2008 September Kay
  The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon   2009 December DKB
  Answering Back Carol Ann Duffy   2009 October EmmaT
  The Lottery Shirley Jackson   2010 July DKB
  The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allan Poe   2010 July DKB
  The Purloined Letter Edgar Allan Poe   2010 July DKB
  The Minister’s Black Veil Nathaniel Hawthorne   2010 July DKB
  Shadow Web NM Browne   2010 March EmmaJ
  Rabbit, Run John Updike   2011 May Anthony
  The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop Lewis Buzbee   2012 July EmmaT
  In Patagonia Bruce Chatwin   2012 March Anthony
  Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford   2013 January Miranda
  A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine Tony Benn   2014 May Baljit
  Autobiography Morrissey   2014 April John
  The Invisible Circus Jennifer Egan   2014 March EmmaJ
  The Mandibles Lionel Shriver   2016 June Willow

 

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How This Table is Calculated

Each year, our membership is asked to sequence the year’s titles in order of enjoyment, as well as rate the overall quality of the year’s selections. A weighted calculation of both is combined to create the above table which is updated annually.

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