the BEST books by reading level, from beginner to EXTREMELY advanced

Overview

Will ranks books across eight reading levels, from works accessible to children to highly demanding, experimental novels. He assesses difficulty based on vocabulary, length, sentence structure, subject matter, and narrative complexity.

The levels are intended as a guide to what readers might try next, not as strict age limits. Older readers may find additional depth in books at any level.

Reading levels

Level 1 — Straightforward stories

These books generally have clear plots and may be understandable to readers around 10–11 years old.

Recommendations include:

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Holes
• Bridge to Terabithia
• The Trumpet of the Swan
• Charlotte’s Web

Will especially likes A Wrinkle in Time and notes that Holes is funnier than it may first appear.

Level 2 — Longer books and more layered themes

Sentences become more complex, and the subject matter has greater nuance.

Recommendations include:

• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Will identifies The Giver as his favorite work of children’s literature. He suggests that these books may be more realistic choices for middle-school readers than for younger children.

Level 3 — Darker stories and subtler ideas

Themes and emotional or moral nuances become harder to interpret.

Recommendations include:

• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• The Stranger by Albert Camus
• Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell
• True Grit
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Will says 1984 is near the boundary with Level 4. He considers Little Women suitable for this level, though it is relatively long.

Level 4 — Confident high-school reading

Vocabulary, sentence structure, and themes grow more complex, while plots are often still mostly linear.

Recommendations include:

• The Great Gatsby
• The Catcher in the Rye
• Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
• Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
• Fiesta by Ernest Hemingway
• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
• Stoner by John Williams

Longer works in this tier include Pride and Prejudice, East of Eden, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Goldfinch.

Will notes that high-school students can read these books, though readers may get more from them as they grow older.

Level 5 — More demanding subject matter and literary depth

These books are best approached in high school or, more likely, during the first year of college.

Recommendations include:

• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Will calls Dubliners brilliant and particularly accessible for Joyce. He places The Bell Jar here chiefly because of its intense subject matter. He also highlights Invisible Man as a landmark novel about bigotry and the harm it causes both its victims and its perpetrators.

Level 6 — Experimental structures and subtle prose

Works at this level become more formally experimental, and their prose often carries finer shades of meaning.

Recommendations include:

• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Mrs. Dalloway shifts constantly between characters’ perspectives. Moby-Dick has a linear plot, but its themes vary widely across its chapters, and its length adds to the challenge.

Level 7 — Ambitious, interconnected works

These books can demand close attention to how their parts relate to one another.

Recommendations include:

• 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
• Underworld by Don DeLillo

Will describes 2666 as five novels in one, with difficult subject matter and themes shaped by the circumstances of its composition. Although The Sound and the Fury is short, its opening section is especially difficult; understanding the book involves connecting its four parts.

Level 8 — Extremely challenging but potentially rewarding

These works demand substantial effort, but Will considers the experience worthwhile.

Recommendations include:

• Ulysses by James Joyce
• The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
• Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

Each chapter of Ulysses uses a different style, and the novel echoes Homer’s Odyssey. Will presents The Odyssey as an honorable mention rather than as a Level 8 novel.

Will says the middle of The Savage Detectives can take time to adjust to, but readers may become absorbed in it after several hundred pages. In response to viewers’ suggestions, he also says Dungeon Crawler deserves an eight-level rating.

Purpose and background

Will aims to help viewers choose books based on what they have already read and enjoyed, making the next step in their reading feel more approachable. He notes that the list reflects his own reading and judgment and may change over time.

Will studied English at the University of Virginia and has been recommending books for more than five years.

Speaker and source

Will (William Dozier) is the video’s sole speaker and the source of the reading-level assessments and recommendations.