ReadingRate · Best Books · 2026

The 100 best books from Ireland

The 100 best books from Ireland, ranked by literary regard. Difficulty and reading-time estimates where measured.

These 100 books are the highest-scoring eligible works currently in the catalogue for this selection. Ranked by literary regard, Irish writing is led by Joyce's Ulysses, the collected Yeats, and Beckett's Waiting for Godot, with Swift and Wilde close behind. It is the most concentrated body of modernist writing from any small country, and this list ranks the top 100 Irish works in ReadingRate's catalogue with difficulty scores for each.

These 100 books are the highest-scoring eligible works currently in the catalogue for this selection. This is a computed ranking ordered by literary regard, with a consistent order for equal scores. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. Catalogue coverage and the historical canon both limit what this list can represent.

About 633 hours for 100 of 100 books with measured lengths. Estimates use a 250-word-per-minute baseline adjusted for each book's difficulty. At two hours a day, about 317 days for those books.

1–10

  1. Ulysses by James Joyce (1922, difficulty 8.9/10, 30 hours)
  2. Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats by William Butler Yeats (1933, difficulty 6.9/10, 7.9 hours)
  3. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (1953, difficulty 7.4/10, 1.8 hours)
  4. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939, difficulty 9.4/10, 27 hours)
  5. Dubliners by James Joyce (1914, difficulty 7.2/10, 6.1 hours)
  6. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (1916, difficulty 7.8/10, 8 hours)
  7. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (1893, difficulty 5.0/10, 1.9 hours)
  8. Happy Days by Samuel Beckett (1961, difficulty 5.2/10, 54 min)
  9. The Tower by William Butler Yeats (1928, difficulty 5.6/10, 41 min)
  10. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726, difficulty 6.6/10, 8.6 hours)

11–20

  1. The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett (1953, difficulty 8.0/10, 19 hours)
  2. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (2003, difficulty 6.8/10, 6.4 hours)
  3. Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett (1951, difficulty 6.6/10, 4.7 hours)
  4. Molloy by Samuel Beckett (1951, difficulty 6.8/10, 15 hours)
  5. The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays by Oscar Wilde (1898, difficulty 4.2/10, 6.9 hours)
  6. Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897, difficulty 5.3/10, 9.6 hours)
  7. Endgame by Samuel Beckett (1957, difficulty 6.1/10, 1.1 hours)
  8. Watt by Samuel Beckett (1953, difficulty 7.3/10, 7.9 hours)
  9. How It Is by Samuel Beckett (1961, difficulty 8.6/10, 3.9 hours)
  10. Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett (1958, difficulty 4.6/10, 18 min)

21–30

  1. Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney (1966, difficulty 5.3/10, 24 min)
  2. Ill Seen Ill Said by Samuel Beckett (1981, difficulty 8.3/10, 3.3 hours)
  3. Field Work by Seamus Heaney (1979, difficulty 5.4/10, 33 min)
  4. Seeing Things by Seamus Heaney (1991, difficulty 4.2/10, 57 min)
  5. Company by Samuel Beckett (1980, difficulty 5.9/10, 2.3 hours)
  6. The Winding Stair by William Butler Yeats (1933, difficulty 7.1/10, 41 min)
  7. Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw (1923, difficulty 5.5/10, 3.9 hours)
  8. Anomalous States by David Lloyd (1993, difficulty 6.6/10, 4 hours)
  9. At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien (1939, difficulty 5.8/10, 5.7 hours)
  10. The Irish Writer and the World by Declan Kiberd (2005, difficulty 5.5/10, 6.2 hours)

31–40

  1. A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride (2014, difficulty 5.9/10, 5 hours)
  2. The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien (1960, difficulty 7.2/10, 4.5 hours)
  3. Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw (1903, difficulty 5.8/10, 6 hours)
  4. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré (1974, difficulty 5.2/10, 6.7 hours)
  5. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch (1973, difficulty 6.2/10, 8.4 hours)
  6. The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch (1978, difficulty 7.9/10, 19 hours)
  7. Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett (1983, difficulty 6.6/10, 38 min)
  8. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré (1963, difficulty 6.1/10, 4.8 hours)
  9. A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift (1704, difficulty 7.8/10, 4.2 hours)
  10. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund Burke (1757, difficulty 4.9/10, 3.9 hours)

41–50

  1. Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu (1872, difficulty 6.0/10, 2 hours)
  2. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (1913, difficulty 5.3/10, 2.3 hours)
  3. The Happy Prince and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde (1888, difficulty 4.0/10, 1.3 hours)
  4. Murphy by Samuel Beckett (1938, difficulty 6.0/10, 4.6 hours)
  5. The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen (1948, difficulty 7.2/10, 9.2 hours)
  6. The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story by Frank O'Connor (1963, difficulty 5.1/10, 3.5 hours)
  7. The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen (1938, difficulty 7.1/10, 9.5 hours)
  8. Foster by Claire Keegan (2010, difficulty 6.0/10, 57 min)
  9. The Bell by Iris Murdoch (1958, difficulty 3.9/10, 5.7 hours)
  10. Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett (2022, difficulty 6.0/10, 5 hours)

51–60

  1. Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw (1919, difficulty 5.7/10, 2.2 hours)
  2. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch (1954, difficulty 5.9/10, 7.1 hours)
  3. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (2009, difficulty 5.2/10, 8.7 hours)
  4. The Master by Colm Tóibín (2004, difficulty 5.6/10, 6.2 hours)
  5. North by Seamus Heaney (1975, difficulty 7.8/10, 20 hours)
  6. Reading Turgenev by William Trevor (1991, difficulty 5.4/10, 3.3 hours)
  7. Milkman by Anna Burns (2018, difficulty 7.2/10, 11 hours)
  8. Fools of Fortune by William Trevor (1983, difficulty 5.3/10, 4.7 hours)
  9. Inventing Ireland by Declan Kiberd (1995, difficulty 6.7/10, 22 hours)
  10. A Perfect Spy by John le Carré (1986, difficulty 5.8/10, 13 hours)

61–70

  1. The Book of Evidence by John Banville (1989, difficulty 7.2/10, 6.2 hours)
  2. The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen (1935, difficulty 6.5/10, 6.4 hours)
  3. Amongst Women by John McGahern (1990, difficulty 5.0/10, 4.5 hours)
  4. A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch (1961, difficulty 4.0/10, 4 hours)
  5. On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry (2011, difficulty 5.5/10, 4.6 hours)
  6. The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch (1969, difficulty 5.5/10, 6.3 hours)
  7. The Green Road by Anne Enright (2015, difficulty 5.3/10, 5.3 hours)
  8. The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe (1992, difficulty 6.0/10, 5 hours)
  9. Bruno's Dream by Iris Murdoch (1970, difficulty 5.3/10, 5.1 hours)
  10. Felicia's Journey by William Trevor (1994, difficulty 5.1/10, 4.3 hours)

71–80

  1. The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín (1999, difficulty 5.2/10, 4.6 hours)
  2. The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany (1924, difficulty 4.4/10, 4.3 hours)
  3. The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy (1955, difficulty 5.1/10, 6 hours)
  4. Transformations in Irish Culture by Luke Gibbons (1996, difficulty 5.8/10, 4.3 hours)
  5. The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney (2016, difficulty 5.5/10, 6.5 hours)
  6. Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry (2023, difficulty 5.8/10, 4.4 hours)
  7. The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright (2024, difficulty 5.9/10, 5 hours)
  8. History of the Rain by Niall Williams (2014, difficulty 5.6/10, 7.3 hours)
  9. The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor (1976, difficulty 5.3/10, 3.6 hours)
  10. A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power (2002, difficulty 5.3/10, 15 hours)

81–90

  1. Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel by William Trevor (1970, difficulty 5.4/10, 4.9 hours)
  2. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann (2013, difficulty 6.0/10, 5.9 hours)
  3. Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen (1970, difficulty 5.5/10, 4.7 hours)
  4. A Vision by William Butler Yeats (1925, difficulty 7.1/10, 6.3 hours)
  5. Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (2017, difficulty 4.9/10, 4.8 hours)
  6. Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe (1998, difficulty 5.0/10, 3.4 hours)
  7. The Old Jest by Jennifer Johnston (1979, difficulty 5.3/10, 2.7 hours)
  8. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney (2021, difficulty 5.0/10, 5.7 hours)
  9. Mercier and Camier by Samuel Beckett (1970, difficulty 4.8/10, 2.6 hours)
  10. The Ordinary Universe: Soundings in Modern Literature by Denis Donoghue (1968, difficulty 6.5/10, 6.9 hours)

91–100

  1. Actress by Anne Enright (2020, difficulty 6.0/10, 5.9 hours)
  2. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (2013, difficulty 6.0/10, 2.9 hours)
  3. Good Behaviour by Molly Keane (1981, difficulty 5.5/10, 4.7 hours)
  4. Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin (1820, difficulty 7.5/10, 19 hours)
  5. Apeirogon by Colum McCann (2020, difficulty 5.4/10, 8.5 hours)
  6. The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch (1974, difficulty 6.3/10, 10 hours)
  7. The Gathering by Anne Enright (2007, difficulty 5.6/10, 5.9 hours)
  8. No Country for Young Men by Julia O'Faolain (1980, difficulty 5.6/10, 6.4 hours)
  9. More Pricks Than Kicks by Samuel Beckett (1934, difficulty 4.7/10, 3 hours)
  10. Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín (2014, difficulty 2.9/10, 4.7 hours)

Questions people actually ask

What are the best Irish books?
By literary regard: Ulysses, the Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats, Waiting for Godot, Finnegans Wake, and Dubliners lead, with Gulliver's Travels and The Picture of Dorian Gray in the top tier. ReadingRate ranks the top 100.
Where should I start with James Joyce?
Dubliners. It holds high literary regard at a fraction of the difficulty of Ulysses, and none of Finnegans Wake's — the difficulty data separates the three sharply, which is exactly why readers who start in the wrong place give up on Joyce entirely.
What is the hardest book to read?
By ReadingRate's nine-dimension scoring, Finnegans Wake is the most difficult work in the catalogue, scoring 94 out of 100 — driven by invented vocabulary and structural complexity rather than length.