Attack of the Best Lists 2026: B&N

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 2026" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can click here.

Barnes & Noble has released their Best Books 2026 portal , and they are covering a lot of bases with 17 categories including books for all ages, in every genre, fiction and nonfiction categories, in audio and ebooks, and Spanish.

From the portal landing page: 

The Best Books of 2026

Meet the Best Books of 2026. This year’s new releases took us across the universe and beyond, with stories of hope, inspiring kids’ tales, thrillers that kept us guessing, memoirs of love and loss, fascinating historical deep dives and much more. With our hand-picked assortment of reads, you’ll find something exceptional for every reader.

You can access all 17 categories here.

Of course B&N has more than one best list. The more the merrier in their eyes because ultimately they want to sell as many books as possible. And as the holidays and gift-giving opportunities approach, they want it to be as easy as possible to help you find the right books for your people.

While getting the most sales is the reason, it is nice to see the categories themselves and the books found within a continuing to be diverse and inclusive. They have categories for Best Audiobooks, Best Spanish Books for adults and kids, and multiple nonfiction categories. They are thinking about how people read and making sure they see a category that works for them, their friends, and their family.

And as a result, it works for us as we serve our readers.

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 with these categories as well especially if you use the backlist of best lists. So while at the end of a year you can use these categories as a way to ask patrons to weigh in on their best reads of the last year, you can also use these categories and the backlist "Best" options  to make genre or reading category displays anytime of year. 

Ask you patrons to help by using this link to see how to turn a conversation starter into a display. 

Access the backlist of Best titles with my attack of the best lists coverage from year to year. (Unfortunately, B&N has disabled their portal pages for past years.) 

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