The first two days of this week I have focused on 2025 best lists, but in a twist, Amazon is currently pushing the ultimate backlist best list. (That's a mouthful).
They have launched a page celebrating their best books 25th Anniversary here. Their take line for this list is: Amazon's Editors 25 Years of Best Books: Real Editors, Real Favorites
Along with a list of their 25 #1 picks (which they have in reverse chronological order at the top of the page and it is defiantly fun to relive my moments with these boys and the patrons I suggested them to), they have a variety of other conversation starter categories. These categories include:
- Editors' Personal Favorites
- Books That Had Everyone Talking
- Award Winning Books
- Books That Came to Your Screens (big and small)
- Books That Take You Around the World
- Books That Inspire Conversation
And there are more categories if you go here and scroll down. All of these though, they are all great examples of the editors using a conversation starter to discuss a wide range of titles. They have expanded the conversation around "best books" in a way that is easy for actual readers to participate. And it makes sense that they are making participation easy because they want those who visit the portal to buy books from them.
While I would never advocate for you to buy your books from Amazon (instead, visit your local store or use bookshop.org), I do think this portal, dedicated to the work done by the editors at Amazon over the last 25 years, is a great resource for you to use to help your community revisit their own favorite books of the last 25 years.
Since we are nearing the end of 2025, think about using some of these example lists as a way to start a conversation with your community about the books that have resonated with them the most over the last 25 years. Use the Amazon lists to get you started, to fill up the displays, and then use my conversation starter to display post to gather their titles and keep the conversation going with the help of your readers.
25 is a round number. Contemplating the last 25 years is looking back at the entire century. Looking back through books with your community-- together-- is a great exercise. And now you have a place to start this conversation. Let your community run with it. Use my directions for ideas on how to do this. And sit back and watch the titles, and the personal connections to them, come to you. You will learn a lot about your patrons and the titles they enjoy the most by doing this. Oh, and it will be fun too.
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