Marginal Revolution Book Rankings

Tyler and Alex's favorites from Marginal Revolution

How it works: I scraped every post categorized under 'books'. Then extracted book titles and relevant review context from each post. I then submitted a couple million pairs of reviews to an LLM to compare and determine which book review had more positive sentiment. I used these comparisons to fit a Bradley-Terry model which produces these rankings. I racked up a gemini bill so stopped shy of exhaustive 16 million comparisons, so it's not perfect, but roughly accurate.

Genre: American Literature ×
Showing 45 books in American Literature
Harlot’s Ghost
1. Harlot’s Ghost
BT: 7.60 82 comparisons
american literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post
A
2. A Lost Lady
BT: 4.85 140 comparisons
american literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post
A
3. Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success
BT: 4.54 148 comparisons
american literature american philosophy biography literature +1
MR Post
B
4. Burns biography of Rand
BT: 4.47 145 comparisons
american literature biography philosophy
MR Post
H
5. Heller biography of Rand
BT: 4.30 156 comparisons
american literature biography literature philosophy
MR Post
T
6. The Age of Innocence
BT: 4.28 235 comparisons
american literature classic literature fiction historical fiction +1
MR Post
S
7. Susan Sontag: A Biography
BT: 4.27 201 comparisons
american literature biography literary biography philosophy
MR Post
E
8. Ethan Frome
BT: 4.18 216 comparisons
american literature classic literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post
G
9. Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife
BT: 3.42 213 comparisons
american literature biography cultural history history +1
MR Post
L
10. Lederstrumpf
BT: 2.77 229 comparisons
adventure fiction american literature fiction frontier fiction +3
MR Post
N
11. Notebooks
BT: 2.17 288 comparisons
american literature essays literature philosophy
MR Post
T
12. The Executioner’s Song
BT: 1.36 280 comparisons
american literature biography non-fiction true crime
MR Post
H
13. Huckleberry Finn
BT: 1.31 576 comparisons
american literature classic literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post MR Post
T
14. The Golden Bowl
BT: 1.01 527 comparisons
american literature classic literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post MR Post
O
15. On Elizabeth Bishop
BT: 0.23 379 comparisons
american literature biography literary criticism poetry criticism
MR Post
H
16. Huck Finn
BT: -0.03 329 comparisons
american literature classic literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post
F
17. Forms of Contention: Influence and the African-American Sonnet Tradition
BT: -0.03 594 comparisons
african american literature african american studies american literature literary criticism +3
MR Post MR Post
T
18. Their Eyes Were Watching God
BT: -0.13 332 comparisons
american literature classic literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post
T
19. The Portable Nineteenth-Century African American Women Writers
BT: -0.29 357 comparisons
african american history african american literature american history american literature +5
MR Post
S
20. Sontag: Her Life and Work
BT: -0.37 658 comparisons
american literature biography cultural studies intellectual biography +1
MR Post MR Post
D
21. Dust Tracks on a Dirt Road
BT: -0.42 334 comparisons
american literature autobiography memoir
MR Post
T
22. The Sound and the Fury
BT: -0.45 697 comparisons
american literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post MR Post
M
23. My Antonia
BT: -0.49 736 comparisons
american literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post MR Post
T
24. The Beautiful and Damned
BT: -0.75 384 comparisons
american literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post
W
25. White Heat: The Friendship Between Emily Dicksinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson
BT: -0.92 351 comparisons
american history american literature biography literary history
MR Post
L
26. Leaves of Grass
BT: -0.96 748 comparisons
american literature poetry
MR Post MR Post
L
27. Look Homeward, Angel
BT: -1.13 411 comparisons
american literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post
M
28. Moby Dick
BT: -1.57 5066 comparisons
american literature classic literature fiction literary fiction +1
MR Post MR Post +15 more
S
29. Sister Carrie
BT: -1.64 710 comparisons
american literature fiction literary fiction social commentary
MR Post MR Post
T
30. The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin
BT: -2.18 374 comparisons
19th-century literature african american literature american history american literature +2
MR Post
P
31. Poetry in America
BT: -2.22 362 comparisons
american literature cultural history literary studies poetry
MR Post
I
32. In Search of Hannah Crafts: Essays on The Bondwoman’s Narrative
BT: -2.29 369 comparisons
19th-century literature african american literature american literature literary criticism +1
MR Post
I
33. Iola Leroy
BT: -2.49 332 comparisons
19th-century literature african american literature american literature fiction +2
MR Post
T
34. The Works of William Wells Brown
BT: -2.60 356 comparisons
19th-century literature african american literature american literature literature
MR Post
S
35. Seventeen
BT: -2.77 298 comparisons
american literature coming-of-age fiction fiction humorous fiction +1
MR Post
T
36. Trifles
BT: -2.97 2198 comparisons
american literature drama fiction literary fiction +1
MR Post MR Post +5 more
E
37. Emily Dickinson’s Poems as She Preserved Them
BT: -3.28 369 comparisons
american literature literature poetry
MR Post
B
38. Billy Budd and Other Tales
BT: -3.32 870 comparisons
american literature fiction legal fiction literary fiction
MR Post MR Post +1 more
L
39. Lolita
BT: -3.54 545 comparisons
american literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post MR Post
A
40. Autobiography of Mark Twain, vol. I
BT: -3.90 209 comparisons
american history american literature autobiography biography +1
MR Post
E
41. Emerson’s Notebooks
BT: -4.21 138 comparisons
american literature journals literary criticism philosophy
MR Post
T
42. The Scarlet Letter
BT: -4.78 116 comparisons
american literature classic literature fiction historical fiction +1
MR Post
T
43. The Education of Henry Adams
BT: -5.30 113 comparisons
american history american literature autobiography history +2
MR Post
F
44. Final Harvest
BT: -5.43 116 comparisons
american literature literature poetry
MR Post
E
45. Everyman
BT: -8.64 63 comparisons
american literature fiction literary fiction
MR Post