Fifty Books for Our Times from Newsweek

One of my on going diatribes is for librarians and readers to remember the one thing that libraries do better than book stores, and that is that we have the backlist. Libraries will always have, for example, copies of that book which was popular 3 years ago, but no one remembers now. Yes we have the newest books and the classics, but unlike the bookstores, we have everything in between. Oh, and by the way, our books are free to borrow.

Promoting the backlist is where libraries can help readers best. This week, Newsweek is focusing on the backlist with this list 50 books for our times. As they say in the article, who needs them to tell you that The Great Gatsby is a great book?

This really is a great list, with helpful annotations. They cover a wide range of genres and have fiction and nonfiction. There should be something here for just about any reader.

Thanks to Early Word for singling out this great list.