Questions · Books

What are the ten greatest books of all time?

We asked 70 models. 34 put Don Quixote first.

The Odyssey was next with five, and seven gave other answers.

24 gave no single answer.

The question“What are the ten greatest books of all time? Rank them. Include authors and a brief reason for each.”

Don Quixote34
The Odyssey5
To Kill a Mockingbird2
19841
Hamlet1
The Bible1
2 other answers2
No single answer24
The number is how many models gave that answer.

What they said

in their own words

Claude Haiku 4.5 · picked Don Quixote

“Ten Greatest Books of All Time 1. Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes Pioneered the modern novel form and remains a masterwork of satire, imagination, and human psychology.”

GPT-5.6 Terra · picked The Odyssey

“No ranking can be definitive, but this is my strongest all-time top ten for artistic achievement, influence, and lasting human insight: 1.”

Claude Sonnet 5 · picked Don Quixote

“Any "greatest books" list is inherently subjective, but here's a defensible ranking drawing on literary influence, craft, and enduring impact: 1.”

Hermes 3 405B Instruct · picked Hamlet

“Ranking the ten greatest books of all time is a highly subjective task, as individual preferences, cultural backgrounds, and personal experiences greatly influence one's choices.”

Does the wording change the answer?

no

“What are the ten greatest books of all time? Rank them. Include authors and a brief reason for each.”

Don Quixote, 3 of 4

“Rank the ten greatest books of all time. Include authors and a brief reason for each.”

Don Quixote, 34 of 46
Every model’s answer (70)
Hermes 3 70B Instruct1984
Claude Haiku 4.5Don Quixote
Claude Sonnet 5Don Quixote
DeepSeek Chat V3 0324Don Quixote
ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B Don Quixote
GLM 4.7 FlashDon Quixote
GPT-4o MiniDon Quixote
Gemini 3.1 ProDon Quixote
Gemma 3 27b ItDon Quixote
Gemma 3 4BDon Quixote
Grok 4.6Don Quixote
Hunyuan 3Don Quixote
Kimi K2Don Quixote
Ling 3.0 FlashDon Quixote
Llama 3.1 70b InstructDon Quixote
Llama 3.1 8B InstructDon Quixote
Llama 3.2 3B InstructDon Quixote
Llama 3.3 70BDon Quixote
Llama 3.3 Euryale 70BDon Quixote
Llama 4 MaverickDon Quixote
Mistral Ministral 14b 2512Don Quixote
Mistral Ministral 3 3B 2512Don Quixote
Mistral Ministral 3 8B 2512Don Quixote
Mistral Small 2603Don Quixote
Mistral Small 3Don Quixote
Mistral Small 3.2 24b InstructDon Quixote
Muse Glimmer 30BDon Quixote
Qwen 2.5 72b InstructDon Quixote
Qwen3 235b A22b 2507Don Quixote
Qwen3 30b A3bDon Quixote
Qwen3 VL 235b A22b InstructDon Quixote
Qwen3 VL 30b A3b InstructDon Quixote
Skyfall 36b V2Don Quixote
UncensoredDon Quixote
UnslopNemo 12BDon Quixote
Hermes 3 405B InstructHamlet
Qwen3 32BThe Bible
Step 3.5 FlashThe Complete Works of William Shakespeare
GPT-5.6 TerraThe Odyssey
Microsoft WizardLM-2 8x22BThe Odyssey
MiniMax M2The Odyssey
Minimax M2.7The Odyssey
Qwen3 14bThe Odyssey
ReMM SLERP 13BTo Kill a Mockingbird
Weaver (alpha)To Kill a Mockingbird
Nova MicroWar and Peace
Claude 3 HaikuNo single answer
Cydonia 24B V4.1No single answer
DeepSeek Chat V3.1No single answer
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70bNo single answer
DeepSeek V3.2 ExpNo single answer
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423No single answer
DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision ExpNo single answer
GLM 4.5 AirNo single answer
GPT OSS 120bNo single answer
Gemma 3 12BNo single answer
Hunyuan A13B InstructNo single answer
Inception Mercury 2No single answer
Llama 3 8B LunarisNo single answer
Llama 3.1 Euryale 70B v2.2No single answer
MiniMax M2.5No single answer
Minimax M2.1No single answer
Mistral NemoNo single answer
MythoMax 13BNo single answer
Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3BNo single answer
Nemotron 3 SuperNo single answer
Nova Lite 1.0No single answer
Phi-4No single answer
Qwen 2.5 7b InstructNo single answer
Qwen3 Next 80b A3b InstructNo single answer

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