Attack of the Best Lists 2023: Barnes & Noble Featuring Reader Friendly Categories

This post is part of my year end "Attack of the Best Lists" coverage. To see every post in my "Attack of the Best Lists 2023" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can click here.

Barnes & Noble has released their Best Books 2023 portal organized into dozens of categories, and it is exactly those numerous categories that I want to focus on here today.

Of course B&N has lots of best lists. The more the merrier in their eyes because ultimately they want to sell as many books as possible. And at the holidays, they want it to be as easy as possible to help you find the right books for your people.

You can be cynical if you want, but I'd rather look at it as a for-profit bookseller gifting us (pun intended), the not-for-profit book loaner, a huge set of conversation starters from which we can create our own best lists, identify sure bets, and even make evergreen displays long after the year end hoopla dies down.

Let me explpain. 

This graphic is an incomplete list of some of the categories you will find in their 2023 Best Book portal.

It is a list of natural language options, not book world speak. Some examples:

• The Most Meaningful Journeys
• Best Books to Mend Your Broken Heart
• The Best Reads Under 200 pages

Each list is only 3 books. They are right there on the screen for you to see the covers and click on them.

While the number of lists may seem overwhelming, the fact that the full page of choices is visually easy to browse (scroll) AND that they are titled with language leads to people feeling confident to use it to find the right book.

Speaking of the ease at which the average reader can access enticing titles, keep a list of those B&N categories to use as display titles and conversation starters anytime of year. 

You can make a display anytime of year entitled, "The Best of Novel Rich People Problems" or "The Best Dinner Party Conversation." You can start with the three titles here but then find ones that you think fit the title. Also ask you patrons to help by using  this link to see how to turn a conversation starter into a display. 

While this B&N page is for the Best Books of 2023, you can use it anytime. You do not have to only use this treasure trove of a resource right now. I works all year long. You can find backlist titles to fill-out a display. Since theses display and list ideas are not a "genre," you have limitless options. You can put anything that strikes your fancy into those displays. The result, you will attract more readers, both with the natural language titles and with the range of choices. When we show people how to think more broadly about finding the right read, and stop worrying about our arbitrary rules and barriers we give them permission to try something different.

Model the behavior we want to see and it will follow. For too many years we have modeled the wrong behavior, focusing on gatekeeping or being very narrow with our lists and displays. And don't forget I have entire programs on how we prioritized white, straight books for far too long, making us responsible for many of the messes we are in now with book banning. 

Let's start doing better. It can all begin with this best list and today's post which both serve you to think more broadly about how we help readers all year long.

Look for more "Attack of the Best Lists" post coming soon.