Your problem there is that picking “great” books is opinion based while picking the best medicine is adult based. And as we’ve already discussed to death the book “scholars” are picking as great tend to be books only they want to read and normal people only read when forced to in school. The “great” books wind up being one of the primary reasons people avoid school and hate reading, largely because scholars like them for tortuous and annoying language that normal people don’t want anything to do with. At some point you have to ask: is a book that 99% of the population will loathe and despise every single word of actually “great” or is it just that the literati are addicted to self abuse? You know my vote on that one.
Give an example of a book that 99% will loathe. And influence on other writers is a large factor - that is fairly objective. Say Joyce, whose influence can still be seen in everything from literary fiction to pulp thrillers.