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Essential Reading List Analysis
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About
This collection provides a detailed record of 52,478 titles featured on GoodReads' Best Books Ever lists. It allows researchers and curious readers to deeply explore highly-regarded literature by examining diverse information points, ranging from audience ratings and preferred percentages to awards received, detailed descriptions, and publication specifics. The data supports analysis of literary success factors, reader behaviour, and historical publishing trends across various genres and languages.
Columns
- bookId: Unique identifier for the book.
- title: The name of the book.
- series: The name of the book series, if applicable.
- author: The individual who wrote the book.
- rating: The average GoodReads rating for the book (Float). The mean rating is 4.02.
- description: A short summary of the book's plot or context.
- language: The language in which the book is written. English accounts for 81% of records.
- isbn: The book's ISBN number.
- genres: The genre classifications the book belongs to.
- characters: A list of prominent characters featured in the narrative.
- bookFormat: The physical format of the book (e.g., Paperback, Hardcover). Paperback is the most common format.
- edition: Details about the specific edition. Note that approximately 91% of records are missing this detail.
- pages: The total count of pages in the book (Integer). The mean page count is 329.
- publisher: The entity that published the book.
- publishDate: The date the specific edition was published.
- firstPublishDate: The date the book was initially published. Dates span from 1722 up to 2029.
- awards: Any notable awards the book has achieved.
- numRatings: The total volume of ratings received (Integer). The mean number of ratings is 17.9k.
- ratingsByStars: The distribution of ratings broken down by star level.
- likedPercent: The percentage of readers who indicated liking the book (Float). The average is 92.2%.
- setting: The description of 'where and when' the book takes place.
- coverImg: A URL link to the book's cover image.
- bbeScore: The score assigned to the book on the GoodReads Best Books Ever list (Float).
- bbeVotes: The number of votes cast for the book on the list (Integer).
- price: The monetary price of the book (Float).
Distribution
The data is provided in a single file,
books_1.Best_Books_Ever.csv, which is 73.84 MB in size. It contains approximately 52,500 distinct records and 25 columns. While most fields are fully populated, approximately 55% of the series data is missing, and 91% of the edition data is missing.Usage
This data is excellent for analysing factors that contribute to a book's long-term success and popularity. Users can compare different authors based on ratings and liked percentages, or explore how book success varies across distinct settings (e.g., city life versus country life) or specific genres. It is also suitable for generating research ideas, such as creating author profiles or analysing the visual art direction of covers via the image link column.
Coverage
The dataset focuses on titles recognised on GoodReads' Best Books Ever lists. The temporal scope is vast, covering first publication dates recorded as early as March 1722. While the vast majority (81%) of books are written in English, the collection features books in 81 unique languages. Geographic and temporal settings of the narratives are detailed in the
setting column.License
CC0: Public Domain
Who Can Use It
- Literary Researchers: To perform quantitative analysis on literary trends, genre evolution, and the impact of awards.
- Data Analysts and Scientists: For training machine learning models to predict audience reception or explore correlations between book attributes and commercial metrics like price and ratings.
- Publishing Professionals: To benchmark publication success, understand reader sentiment (
likedPercent), and guide decisions on book format and marketing.
Dataset Name Suggestions
- GoodReads Best Books Ever Metrics
- Essential Reading List Analysis
- Global Book Success Factors
- Literary Awards and Ratings Database
Attributes
Original Data Source: Essential Reading List Analysis
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