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
RatingTitle
1.3123.26The Fourth Way by P. D. Ouspensky
1.2413.6Davy by Edgar Pangborn
1.2153.66Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales by Vance Randolph
1.2083.3The House That Stood Still by A. E. Van Vogt
1.2074.14In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching (Harvest Book) by P. D. Ouspensky
1.24.12Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems by William Carlos Williams
1.1823.77Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
1.1733.87Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
1.173.43Master of Space and Time by Rudy Rucker
1.173.17A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram
1.1643.51Crash by J. G. Ballard
1.1593.7The Marriages between Zones Three, Four, and Five (as Narrated by the Chroniclers of Zone Three) by Doris Lessing
1.1543.97The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image by Leonard Shlain
1.1523.65Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson
1.1453.54New Rules for the New Economy by Kevin Kelly
1.1434.04Harold and Maude by Colin Higgins
1.1433.06Bored of the Rings by Harvard Lampoon
1.1423.76The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture by Fritjof Capra
1.1393.29Ten Philosophical Mistakes by Mortimer J. Adler
1.1373.44Tintin in America by Hergé
1.1353.64I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter
1.1333.52The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
1.1323.72The Science of Aliens by Clifford A. Pickover
1.1313.51The Investigation by Stanisław Lem
1.1293.88Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz
1.1263.83Pornografia by Witold Gombrowicz
1.1223.77Robota by Doug Chiang
1.1214.17The Cream of the Jest; The Lineage of Lichfield : Two Comedies of Evasion by James Branch Cabell
1.1173.84The Outsider by Colin Wilson
1.1133.68The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness by R. D. Laing
1.1123.4Macroscope by Piers Anthony
1.1113.69The Egyptian Book of the Dead by Anonymous
1.113.51One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society by Herbert Marcuse
1.114.07Prince Ombra by Roderick MacLeish
1.1093.42The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1.1073.88Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse
1.1063.62Journey To Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda
1.1033.64Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
1.1023.5The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier by Alan Moore
1.0993.53An alien light by Nancy Kress
1.0963.49Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner
1.0943.18Once Upon a Number by John Allen Paulos
1.0933.62On the Nature of the Universe by Lucretius
1.0923.51Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet by Sherry Turkle
1.0914.03The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
1.0913.58The teachings of don Juan: a Yaqui way of knowledge by Carlos Castaneda
1.094.18Expedition : Being an account in words and artwork of the A.D. 2358 voyage to Darwin IV by Wayne D. Barlowe
1.0883.91As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
1.0883.24The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent
1.0873.95Synergetics by Richard Buckminster Fuller
1.0843.5Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake
1.0843.62Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong by Marc Hauser
1.0833.32Empire of the Atom by A. E. Van Vogt
1.0813.87The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
1.0813.25Urshurak by Gregory Hildebrandt
1.083.59English Music by Peter Ackroyd
1.083.95The Divine Comedy, Vol. III: Paradise by Dante Alighieri
1.0793.63The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story by Stephen R. Donaldson
1.0783.77Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta: Personal, Psychological, Historical Documents Relating to Visit by Johor (George Sherban), Emissary (Grade 9), 87th of the Period of the Last Days by Doris Lessing
1.0783.74The Production of Space by Henri Lefebvre
1.0783.73The Egyptian Jukebox: A Conundrum by Nick Bantock
1.0763.36The End of Science (Helix Books) by John Horgan
1.0763.63Ancient of Days by Michael Bishop
1.0733.44Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence (Helix Books) by George B. Dyson
1.0733.83Numerical Recipes in C by William H. Press
1.0693.59Thursbitch by Alan Garner
1.0693.48Separate Reality by Carlos Castaneda
1.0673.85The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan
1.0673.85The Fractal Geometry of Nature by Benoît B. Mandelbrot
1.0653.73Solitude: A Return to the Self by Anthony Storr
1.0653.57Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals by Robert Pirsig
1.0643.73Knots by R. D. Laing
1.0643.87Mr. Palomar by Italo Calvino
1.0633.5The Construction of Social Reality by John R. Searle
1.0633.78On Moral Fiction by John Gardner
1.0623.92Star Trek: Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph
1.063.93The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
1.0593.54Daughter of the Queen of Sheba: A Memoir by Jacki Lyden
1.0593.98Handbook of Epictetus by Epictetus
1.0583.86Perelandra by C. S. Lewis
1.0583.66The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge by Jean-Francois Lyotard
1.0573.53A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
1.0573.86Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
1.0573.52The House of Doctor Dee by Peter Ackroyd
1.0564.03Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak
1.0553.49Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life by Stephen Jay Gould
1.0544.01Aegypt by John Crowley
1.0543.85Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
1.0543.65Side Effects by Woody Allen
1.0543.55The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense by Michael Shermer
1.0543.8Science and Human Values by Jacob Bronowski
1.0533.97Chance and Necessity by Jacques Monod
1.0533.34The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer by Jennifer Lynch
1.053.58How To Survive a Robot Uprising by Daniel H. Wilson
1.053.92Silverlock by John Myers Myers
1.053.76The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
1.0493.73Meetings with Remarkable Men (All and Everything) by G. I. Gurdjieff
1.0484.03One Two Three...Infinity by George Gamow
1.0483.95Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
1.0483.45Future Shock by Alvin Toffler
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