6 Most Universally Loved Books Released Since 2000, Ranked
Luc Haasbroek is a writer and videographer from Durban, South Africa. He has been writing professionally about pop culture for eight years. Luc's areas of interest are broad: he's just as passionate about psychology and history as he is about movies and TV. He's especially drawn to the places where these topics overlap.
Luc is also an avid producer of video essays and looks forward to expanding his writing career. When not writing, he can be found hiking, playing Dungeons & Dragons, hanging out with his cats, and doing deep dives on whatever topic happens to have captured his interest that week.
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It's becoming increasingly rare for a book to please everyone, or at least the majority of people. We're all fractionating into our algorithmic silos and personally tailored subgenres, meaning that the era of the monoculture blockbuster is rapidly fading. Still, the last quarter-century has nevertheless produced a handful of books that sold zillions of copies, pleased the critics, and inspired ferocious fan followings.
This list looks at some of the most beloved of them, from Harry Potter and The Book Thief to The Corrections and Normal People. They are the 21st century's literary juggernauts of cultural impact.
6 'A Man Called Ove' (2012)
"Men are what they are because of what they do. Not what they say." This gem spawned two movie adaptations and spent a total of 42 weeks on the NYT Bestseller List. The title character is irritable, stubborn, obsessively principled, and perpetually frustrated by neighbors who seem incapable of following even the simplest rules. After retirement and the death of his wife Sonja, Ove has decided that he's essentially finished with the world. Unfortunately for his plans, the world keeps interrupting him.
For example, the arrival of new neighbors Parvaneh and Patrick pulls Ove into the lives of the people surrounding him. He repairs things, gives driving lessons, adopts a cat with considerable reluctance, and slowly shows more and more hints of tenderness beneath his curmudgeonly shell. Flashbacks to his younger years and marriage explain how his rigid worldview developed, while his actions in the present suggest that change and healing are always possible. In short, a true feel-good tale.
5 'The Book Thief' (2005)
"I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right." There aren't many novels about Nazi Germany narrated by Death, and fewer still could make that premise feel as compassionate as The Book Thief. It focuses on Liesel Meminger, a German girl sent to live with foster parents. Liesel arrives unable to read, but books soon become central to how she understands (and survives) the increasingly horrifying world around her.
As the war intensifies, she continues acquiring books in increasingly unconventional ways, while also forming a friendship with the Jewish fist-fighter hiding in her basement. This setup becomes a beautiful, moving story about hope amidst even the deepest darkness. The characters are well-drawn, and the writing itself is gorgeous the whole way through. There's a vivid metaphor or well-turned phrase on practically every page.
4 'Normal People' (2018)
"It was culture as class performance, literature fetishized for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys." This book put author Sally Rooney on the literary map, and for good reason. It's one of the messiest and most real romantic dramas of the 2010s. Protagonists Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan understand each other unusually well. Unfortunately, understanding someone doesn't necessarily mean knowing how to build a stable relationship with them.
Normal People follows the pair from their final school years in County Sligo through university at Trinity College Dublin, repeatedly bringing them together before insecurity, miscommunication, class differences, and changing circumstances pull them apart again. Their relationship shifts with them. They become lovers, friends, exes, confidants, and sometimes something much harder to define. Both of them are three-dimensional, and Rooney knows exactly which details to observe, including words unsaid and small misunderstandings with big consequences.
3 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' (2003)
"Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect." Order of the Phoenix's popularity is empirically supported: it's the fourth-highest-rated book of all time on the review site Goodreads, with an average score of 4.5 out of 5 across nearly 4 million ratings. It's not hard to see why. It's the longest book in the series, full of material for fans to get lost in, while also serving up an absorbing plot that significantly ramps up the darkness.
Indeed, this time around, Harry returns to Hogwarts traumatized by Voldemort's return and Cedric Diggory's death, only to discover that much of the wizarding world refuses to believe him. Enter Dolores Umbridge. Voldemort may be the series' ultimate villain, but few characters inspire quite as much immediate loathing as the smiling, pink-clad bureaucrat who gradually turns Hogwarts into an authoritarian nightmare.
Collider Exclusive · The Sorting Hat Awaits Which Hogwarts House Are You? Gryffindor · Slytherin · Hufflepuff · Ravenclaw
Four houses. One destiny. The Sorting Hat has considered thousands of students — now it's your turn. Answer honestly and discover where you truly belong at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
🦁Gryffindor
🐍Slytherin
🦡Hufflepuff
🦅Ravenclaw
01
What quality do you value most in yourself? Answer as honestly as you can — the Hat always knows.
02
A friend is being treated unfairly. What do you do? How you protect others says everything about who you are.
03
What does success look like to you? What you're working toward defines who you're becoming.
04
What is your greatest fear? Fear is the most honest thing about a person.
05
The rules say no. Your gut says go. What do you do? Every institution has rules. What you do with them is a choice.
06
What kind of friend are you? Who you are to the people you love is who you really are.
07
You look into the Mirror of Erised. What do you see? The mirror shows the deepest desire of your heart.
08
The Sorting Hat pauses. It whispers: "You could do well in any house. But what matters most to you — truly?" This is your tiebreaker. The Hat always listens.
The Sorting Hat Speaks Your House Has Been Chosen
After careful deliberation, the Sorting Hat has made its decision. This is the house your values, your instincts, and your particular way of being in the world were made for.
🦁 Gryffindor
You have nerve. Not the reckless kind, but the deep, quiet courage that shows up even when you're terrified — especially then.
- Gryffindors don't act because they're fearless — they act because they understand that some things are worth being afraid for.
- You stand up for people when it would be easier to look away.
- You charge toward what's right even when the odds are terrible.
- Harry, Hermione, Ron — the heroes of Hogwarts's greatest chapter — all called the tower with the scarlet and gold home. And now, so do you.
🐍 Slytherin
You are driven, sharp, and utterly clear-eyed about what you want and how to get there.
- Slytherin has long been misunderstood — painted as the house of villains when it is, at its best, the house of those who refuse to accept limits placed on them by others.
- You are resourceful, strategic, and you play the long game.
- You know your worth. You protect your own fiercely.
- The dungeon common room with its view of the Black Lake is yours — and the ambitions that will take you further than anyone expects are yours too.
🦡 Hufflepuff
You are the kind of person that makes the world genuinely better just by being in it.
- Hufflepuff is not the "safe" house or the "leftover" house — it is the house of those with the greatest heart and the most unwavering integrity.
- You show up. You work hard. You don't need glory or recognition — you do what's right because it's right.
- Your loyalty never wavers, even when tested.
- Nymphadora Tonks, Cedric Diggory, Newt Scamander — some of the wizarding world's finest. And now you join them.
🦅 Ravenclaw
Your mind is your greatest gift, and you've always known it.
- Ravenclaws are the thinkers, the questioners, the ones who find a puzzle irresistible and a good book better company than most people.
- Ravenclaw is not merely about intelligence — it's about the love of learning, the pursuit of truth, and the rare courage to admit you don't know something yet.
- You see the world with unusual clarity and depth.
- Luna Lovegood, Filius Flitwick, Rowena Ravenclaw herself — all extraordinary, all original. And so are you.
2 'The Corrections' (2001)
"The madness of an autumn prairie cold front coming through." This one was a commercial and critical smash on release, quickly hailed as a new Great American Novel. The Corrections is a sprawling portrait of the Lambert family, whose members are scattered across America but remain connected by decades of love, resentment, disappointment, obligation, and memories they can't quite escape. At the center are elderly Midwestern couple Alfred and Enid Lambert. Alfred's health is deteriorating, while Enid desperately wants their three adult children to return home for one final Christmas together.
Each child, however, has accumulated a complicated collection of problems. Chip's academic career has collapsed spectacularly, Gary insists he's not depressed while behaving increasingly as though he might be, and Denise's successful professional life is complicated by a chaotic personal one. The result is a complex family drama that finds offbeat comedy in everything from disastrous career decisions to the unbearable rituals of holiday gatherings.
1 'The Fault in Our Stars' (2012)
"Some infinities are bigger than other infinities." Although perhaps not John Green's best book (that title belongs to Looking for Alaska), The Fault in Our Stars is definitely his most popular one, having sold over 23 million copies and producing a blockbuster movie adaptation. It's about Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old with cancer in her lungs, who meets Augustus Waters at a cancer support group, who himself has lost a leg to cancer. Augustus is charismatic, theatrical, and immediately interested in her.
Hazel is considerably more guarded, partly because she thinks of herself as a "grenade" whose eventual death will inevitably hurt anyone who becomes too attached. Their relationship develops gradually, eventually becoming a touching romance. The book is full of banter, memorable lines, and tragic scenes that hit incredibly hard, all of it in service to essential themes about the importance of being loved deeply rather than widely.
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