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
1.251	3.62	A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America by Stacy Schiff
1.182	3.35	Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville
1.003	3.9	Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi
0.997	4.06	The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
0.997	4.11	Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
0.983	4.09	Martin Eden by Jack London
0.981	3.74	Flight to Arras by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
0.974	3.58	The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells
0.974	4.1	The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
0.953	3.26	Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture by José Saramago
0.932	3.44	The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English by Henry Hitchings
0.93	4.33	The Craftsman's Handbook by Cennino d'Andrea Cennini
0.926	3.99	The Rubáyát of Omar Khayyám by Omar Khayyám
0.924	3.94	The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan
0.923	3.55	The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes by Mark Urban
0.91	4.03	Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
0.908	4.07	Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
0.904	3.66	Spies by Michael Frayn
0.904	3.96	The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (Penguin Classics) by Matsuo Bashō
0.9	3.56	Pompeii by Robert Harris
0.885	3.42	George W. Bushisms: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of Our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
0.876	4.29	The Master and Margarita by Mikhaíl Bulgakov
0.875	4.07	If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
0.865	3.98	The Greek Myths by Robert Graves
0.858	4.22	The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
0.85	4.2	A History of the Crusades, Volume I : The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem by Steven Runciman
0.85	4.18	A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
0.849	3.69	Cromwell, Our Chief of Men by Antonia Fraser
0.847	4.03	The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron
0.844	3.73	Yemen : Travels in Dictionary Land by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
0.837	4.35	The Way of the World by Nicolas Bouvier
0.835	4.12	Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas… by Stephen Ambrose
0.832	3.83	Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir
0.832	3.89	Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
0.828	3.9	Montaillou : Cathars and Catholics in a French village, 1294-1324 by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
0.826	4.23	The Story of Art by E. H. Gombrich
0.825	3.91	Cheri and The Last of Cheri by Colette
0.807	3.33	Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World by Justin Marozzi
0.802	3.79	The Arcanum: The Extraordinary True Story by Janet Gleeson
0.798	3.95	Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
0.797	3.83	The Education of Hyman Kaplan by Leonard Q. Ross
0.792	4.15	The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas 1934-1952 by Dylan Thomas
0.786	3.75	Natasha: And Other Stories by David Bezmozgis
0.785	4.22	Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
0.785	4.07	The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor
0.783	3.93	The Zimmermann Telegram by Barbara W. Tuchman
0.779	4.19	The Best of Myles (John F. Byrne Irish Literature Series) by Flann O'Brien
0.75	4.16	Selected Poems by T. S. Eliot
0.732	4.08	Culloden by John Prebble
0.727	4.12	Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny by Mike Dash
0.725	4.17	Samuel Pepys: the unequalled self by Claire Tomalin
0.723	3.92	The Life of Thomas More by Peter Ackroyd
0.695	3.89	Travels with a Tangerine : A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

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