NYT Best Books of the 21st Century Lists

How is it that I just found out about the NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, published back in August of 2024. There are actually 2 lists, the “original” Critics’ list, and then the Readers’ Choice list.

100 Best Books of the 21st Century

Readers Choose Their Best Books of the 21st Century

Something like 39 books overlap, while only 1 book came in the same place on both lists (Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro at #9).

Now I’ve only been reading in earnest since 2015. You can check out all the books I’ve read since then on my Books page. What’s shocking is that I’m at 913 books, although there are quite a few repeats (maybe 50?), and yet I’ve only read 2 books from the Critics’ list and 8 from the Readers’ Choice list. 2 and 8??!!!

I’m actually not that surprised. I’m an escapist book reader (just like I’m an escapist movie-goer) for the most part and do not gravitate to the heart-wrenching, hard-to-read, true life type stories. Sci-Fi and Mystery/Thriller are my main genres and I have read a few of the genre defining books, as some would argue:

Neuromancer

The Peripheral

Dune

I have been pushing into more of the mainstream, book club type books of late and I expect if they updated these lists to include 2025 and the first half of 2026, some of my favorites such as:

My Friends

Atmosphere

The Compound (actually I didn’t love this book but it won the sci-fi/fantasy category for 2025 on Goodreads)

The Incandescent

The Correspondent

Everything is Tuberculosis

would be on the lists. Well, given the myriad of “best classics” lists out there and now these 2 lists, I shouldn’t have any trouble finding my next read for the next 2 years