Wool
by Hugh Howey
★ Top 25 book of 2011 · #23 on Best Books of 2011
People live underground in a self-made prison, glimpsing a toxic world outside on a fading view. Criminals are sent out to clean it and die, and Sheriff Holston is about to learn why they go.
Best for: Dystopian sci-fi readers who enjoy claustrophobic worlds and buried secrets
Wool is #23 on BookWard's Best Books of 2011, out of 53 2011 books that cleared our data bar.
What Wool is about
The people in Wool live underground, in a prison of their own making. Through a view of the outside world they can see what their forefathers left behind: a land described as spoiled and rotten. Toxic airs ruin the view over time and kill anyone who braves them, so it must be cleaned.
That job falls to criminals. Those who break the rules are sent to cleaning, which is really a sentence of death. Sheriff Holston has always wondered why the condemned do the work willingly, and he is about to find out. Tense, bleak and suspenseful, the story is about secrecy, control and the stubborn pull of curiosity, and it suits readers who like survival tales where the truth is the most dangerous thing in the room.
Wool on the Best Books of 2011
Wool came out in 2011. Of the 53 books first published in 2011 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #23 on our Best Books of 2011 list.
Why it made the list: 474 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.4 out of 5 (14 ratings); 33 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2011 list
- Fifty Shades Darker E. L. James, #21
- The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern, #22
- The Secret of the Nagas Amish Tripathi, #24
- Debt David Graeber, #25
See all Best Books of 2011 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2010 Best Books of 2012.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 396 want to read it, 33 are reading it now and 45 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.4 out of 5 from 14 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 53 | 55% |
| Reader love | 70 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 57 | 20% |
Questions about Wool
When was Wool published?
Wool by Hugh Howey was first published in 2011.
Was Wool one of the best books of 2011?
Wool is #23 on BookWard's Best Books of 2011, out of 53 2011 books that cleared our data bar. 474 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.4 out of 5 (14 ratings); 33 are reading it right now.
Why is Wool on the Best Books of 2011 list?
474 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.4 out of 5 (14 ratings); 33 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2011
- Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari, #1
- The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller, #2
- Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman, #3
- Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson, #4
- The Son of Neptune Rick Riordan, #5
- The Mark of Athena Rick Riordan, #6
See the full Best Books of 2011, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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