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.
Friday I had a post about best lists from the widest possible view, for anyone, even those who aren't big readers. But today, I want to focus on lists that are for committed readers. People who follow the book world a bit more closely.
To be clear, when it comes to end of year best lists, it is a different audience. And what I do with these posts is to try to help you understand that every best lists has a different audience and you need to use that knowledge to help your readers better.
If you learn nothing else from my Attack of the Best Lists series it should be this: Best lists are NEVER one size fits all.
The right list, used as a resource for the right type of reader will garner amazing results. The wrong list for that type of reader may still work, but not as well.
Let's start with a resource that most library workers and regular library users know and trust very well-- BookPage.
BookPage is the newspaper that most libraries have available for patrons to take for free at their service desks. They have released their Top 10 books for 2023 in print and online. They have titles for al types of readers, yes, but also, these are books that they know have worked well for a wide swath of each type of reader as well.
Click here for that list with fiction, nonfiction, adult, YA and MG. It also includes multiple genre choices including one of my top reads of the year, Lone Women by Victor LaValle.
But more importantly, they also have easy access on that page to all of the 2023 lists of best books by genre AND one click access to the lists going back to 2019. This is a one stop shop for you and your patrons to find "best" titles from this year and the recent backlist.
Next up is the unique Best Books list from Book Riot.
But first, as I have said here on the blog many times, Book Riot is the best resource to see what hard core readers are interested in. Book Riot is the largest independent website focused on readers. All of their content is directed at readers directly. They want to get the most clicks as well, which means their content is purposefully up to date, interesting, and written in a conversational tone. It is exactly what we need to stay on top of the hottest trends because it is their mission to provide the most "clickable" content to readers, meaning they have the time and resources to do this work for us. Everything there is reader focused which dovetails perfectly with RA Service.
Their best books of the year site is made by having each writer, editor, contributor, etc... give one title for their book of the year. Because each person who works for them has a slightly different specialty, the list covers all ages and genres by default. Also they have a commitment to providing diverse voices as part of their policy.
The editors then take all of the titles and allow you, the user of this resource to browse all or to click on tags in a sidebar to help narrow your choices down.
Click here to get started using it for yourself, to build displays, or to help a specific patron.
The only downside to this reader focused resource is that they do not have easy access to past lists on the current year's page. And when I try to search, the same site we have for 2023 is not available for past years.
However, when I went to Largehearted Boy's Ultimate List of Lists for past years (more on this resource soon), I was able to get into the past Book Riot best lists with ease. I have posted them here for you, so you can have 1 click access from my blog:
2 comments:
The Notable Books Committee of the American Library Association produces a list to make available to the nation’s readers a list of 25 very good, very readable, and at times very important fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books for the adult reader.
https://rusaupdate.org/awards/notable-books-list/
It definitely is and I will post that in January 2023 during LibLearnX. Thank you though
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