Controversial Books

This page shows your 100 most controversial books, as measured by the standard deviation of members star ratings. (This is also the source of the Zeitgeist category "25 Books People Can't Agree on.") To be included, a book must have been rated at least 20 times. Work titles are given.

Standard Deviation	Rating	Title
1.241	3.29	The Octopus: A Story of California by Frank Norris
1.137	3.44	Tintin in America by Hergé
1.11	3.79	The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel
1.109	3.42	The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1.107	3.67	The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
1.105	3.25	Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
1.084	3.64	The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB by Christopher Andrew
1.06	3.85	Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom
1.057	3.87	Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
1.049	3.85	The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God by Lee Strobel
1.03	3.85	The Republic by Plato
1.027	4.22	The Collected Dialogues of Plato by Plato
1.007	3.73	In the Midst of Death by Lawrence Block
1.002	3.81	More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell
0.999	3.86	The Black Island by Hergé
0.998	3.92	Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
0.997	4.11	Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
0.995	3.21	Cold Harbour by Jack Higgins
0.993	3.92	The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton
0.982	3.94	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
0.978	3.96	Smoky, the Cow Horse by Will James
0.966	3.86	The Borrowers by Mary Norton
0.964	3.8	The Borrowers Afloat by Mary Norton
0.957	3.8	Silas Marner by George Eliot
0.956	3.83	Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
0.954	3.95	National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals by John O. Whitaker
0.952	3.66	The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
0.95	3.66	Dave Barry's Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-Free Book by Dave Barry
0.949	4.23	Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
0.948	3.83	A Time to Kill by John Grisham
0.943	3.6	Rainmaker by John Grisham
0.939	4.06	The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
0.938	3.76	Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
0.937	3.71	Life with Father by Clarence Day
0.935	4.11	Tintin in Tibet by Hergé
0.935	3.89	The Shooting Star by Hergé
0.931	3.76	The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
0.925	3.6	The Downing Street Years by Margaret Thatcher
0.924	3.64	Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I've Learned by Alan Alda
0.924	3.79	Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
0.923	3.81	The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
0.923	3.76	The Borrowers Avenged by Mary Norton
0.922	3.94	All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
0.922	4.1	The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White
0.92	3.92	The Crab with the Golden Claws by Hergé
0.919	3.71	The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy
0.916	4.08	The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
0.915	3.67	The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
0.914	4.11	David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
0.914	3.99	The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
0.909	3.87	The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
0.909	3.98	Notes from Underground; The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
0.907	4.01	Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
0.907	4.23	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
0.907	4.05	Destination Moon by Hergé
0.905	3.86	Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
0.903	3.72	The Sins of the Fathers by Lawrence Block
0.901	3.82	Stormy, Misty's Foal by Marguerite Henry
0.9	3.81	Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
0.896	3.85	The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
0.896	3.81	Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
0.893	4.02	Animal Farm by George Orwell
0.892	3.68	The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie
0.891	4.07	Guys and Dolls: The Stories of Damon Runyon by Damon Runyon
0.89	4.04	Beau Geste by P. C. Wren
0.89	3.9	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
0.888	4.08	Red Rackham's Treasure by Hergé
0.888	4.2	Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
0.887	3.86	Trouble in Triplicate (Crime Line) by Rex Stout
0.885	3.93	Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
0.884	4.03	Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr.
0.884	3.96	A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo
0.884	4.02	Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner
0.881	3.79	The Broken Ear by Hergé
0.88	4.26	Bleak House by Charles Dickens
0.88	4.21	The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
0.878	3.83	The Borrowers Aloft by Mary Norton
0.878	3.79	Where There's a Will by Rex Stout
0.877	4.09	We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang--The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam by Harold G. Moore
0.871	4.09	Emma by Jane Austen
0.871	3.86	A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
0.87	4.19	The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
0.87	3.96	A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block
0.869	4.18	QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard Feynman
0.867	3.71	Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
0.865	3.76	Patriot Games by Tom Clancy
0.864	4.22	Every Living Thing by James Herriot
0.858	4.22	The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
0.855	3.55	The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker
0.855	3.69	The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer
0.854	4.08	King Ottokar's Sceptre by Hergé
0.853	4	The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps: The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age — The '20s, '30s & '40s by Otto Penzler
0.852	4.25	Persuasion by Jane Austen
0.852	3.84	A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash by Sylvia Nasar
0.851	3.77	Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon
0.851	4.12	Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam
0.85	3.68	Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich
0.849	3.75	The Outline of History by H. G. Wells
0.849	3.96	The Quiet American by Graham Greene
0.848	3.5	Saving the Queen by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Copyright LibraryThing and/or members of LibraryThing, authors, publishers, libraries, cover designers, Amazon, Bol, Bruna, etc. | static: /