The Best Southern Nonfiction of All Time

Oxford American (2009), 25 Books

The best southern United States nonfiction books of all time judged by 130 literary experts and authors.

Top 10 British, Irish or Commonwealth Novels from 1980 to 2005

The Observer (2006), 10 Books

The Observer asked 150 literary luminaries to vote for the best British, Irish or Commonwealth novel from 1980 to 2005.

Great Books of the Western World

Great Books Foundation (1990), 130 Books

Great Books of the Western World is a series of books originally published in the United States in 1952 by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. to present the western canon in a single package of 54 volume...

The 50 Best Books of the Century

Intercollegiate Studies Institute (2014), 50 Books

ISI defined "best" as "volumes of extraordinary reflection and creativity in a traditional form, which heartens us with the knowledge that fine writing and clear-mindedness are perennially possible."

All the books are non-fiction.

The first 5 are ranked, the rest are alphabetical.

The 100 Best Books of the Decade(2000)

Times (2009), 100 Books

The Time's list of the 100 Best Books of the 2000s. It's a mix of fiction and nonfiction.

100 Most Influential Books of the Century

Boston Public Library (2000), 100 Books

Boston Public Library's list of "The 100 Most Influential Books of the Century". A booklist for Adults.
Compiled by Dawn Cook, General Library, Adult Reader and Information Services, Boston Public Library, May 2000

Donald Barthelme’s Reading List

Believer Mag (1985), 82 Books

81 books recommended by Author Donald Barthelme to his students at the University of Houston.

Harvard Book Store Staff's Favorite 100 Books

Harvard Book Store (2011), 106 Books

In early 2010 Harvard Book Store employees worked together to come up with a list of our favorite books. Each staff member submitted a list of their favorite books of all time, in (rough) order of preference. Their selections were then weighted according to the order and the results were tabulated. It was by no means a perfect system, but it was the best way we could think of to quantify opinions that are in no way quantifiable.

Now, we read a lot, so it was hard to narrow it down. What we came up with are the books that moved us, that changed the way we think about the world, and that we will happily read over and over again. We hope you enjoy them too.

The Modern Library | 100 Best Nonfiction

The Modern Library (1999), 100 Books

who voted:
The same ten-member Modern Library Editorial Board that produced the companion “100 Best Novels” list also voted on the non-fiction list in 1999. The board was:
• Daniel J. Boorstin (historian)
• A. S. Byatt (novelist/critic)
• Christopher Cerf (publisher/author, board chair)
• Shelby Foote (historian/novelist)
• Vartan Gregorian (scholar/philanthropist)
• Edmund Morris (biographer)
• John Richardson (art historian)
• Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (historian)
• William Styron (novelist)
• Gore Vidal (novelist/essayist)

how they voted:
Modern Library sent each board member a ballot of 440 pre-selected titles from its catalogue. Members marked every book they thought belonged on the list (an approval-voting method). Titles with the most checks were ranked highest; ties were broken internally by Random House staff.

The Modern Library | 100 Best Novels

Modern Library (1999), 100 Books

Modern Library's 100 Best Novels is a 1998 list of the best English-language novels published during the 20th century, as selected by Modern Library from among 400 novels published by Random House, which owns Modern Library. The purpose of the list was to "bring the Modern Library to public attention" and stimulate sales of its books

The board of review consisted of Daniel J. Boorstin, A. S. Byatt, Christopher Cerf, Shelby Foote, Vartan Gregorian, Edmund Morris, John Richardson, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., William Styron and Gore Vidal.

Booker Prize

Booker Prize (Yearly Award), 59 Books

The Booker Prize for Fiction, also known in short as the Booker Prize, is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe.[1] The winner of the Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success and, for this reason, the prize is of great significance for the book trade.[2] It is also a mark of distinction for authors to be nominated for the Booker longlist or selected for inclusion in the shortlist.

Who votes?
The Booker Prize is always voted on by 5 unknown people.

50 Memorable Books from 50 Years of Books to Remember

The New York Public Library (2005), 49 Books

A representative selection from over 1500 titles on annual lists of Books to Remember from 1956 to 2005.

Chosen by a group of librarians who are specialists in their genres, these outstanding works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry provide an informative or transformative reading experience, and are chosen for their literary excellence, uniqueness of concept and command of subject matter.

The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time: The List

The Observer (2003), 100 Books

The list of essential fiction from the past 300 years from Robert McCrum of The Observer.

Costa Book Award - Best Novel

Costa Coffee (Yearly Award), 57 Books

The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship.
The awards, launched in 1971, are given both for high literary merit but also for works that are enjoyable reading and whose aim is to convey the enjoyment of reading to the widest possible audience. As such, they are a more populist literary prize than the Booker Prize.

110 Best Books: The Perfect Library

The Telegraph (2008), 112 Books

From classics and sci-fi to poetry, biographies and books that changed the world… we present the ultimate reading list.

Radcliffe's 100 Best Novels

Radcliffe Publishing Course (1998), 100 Books

Compiled in July 1998, Radcliffe’s 100 Best Novels was chosen by exactly 100 students enrolled in the six-week Radcliffe Publishing Course, a Harvard-based boot camp for aspiring editors and marketers. Acting on a challenge from Random House’s Modern Library, the class had two days to create a “rival” canon: they voted on the same 400 English-language novels of the 20th century that the Modern Library board had just considered, marking their favourites on a simple ballot, after which the tallies were aggregated and ranked from 1-100. Because the voters were young, predominately female, and drawn from across the U.S. publishing pipeline, their final list leaned toward mid-century classroom staples, women and writers of colour, and even a few children’s and genre classics—offering a snapshot of how the next generation of industry professionals balanced literary reputation with cultural resonance on the eve of the new millennium.

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Pulitzer Prize (Yearly Award), 99 Books

All the books that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction from 1918 to the present.

Rough head-count of people who shape the result each year

5 subject-matter jurors who screen the entries and forward three titles.

19 Board members who cast the decisive votes.
So, a maximum of 24 people take part in the decision path for the Biography / Autobiography prize each cycle.

Names are not secret, just easy to overlook.

Jury names stay under wraps until winners are announced, then they’re displayed on each category’s web page (and occasionally turn up in press coverage or book-specific Wikipedia entries, as in the 2011 example above).

Board membership is public all year and archived from one cycle to the next.

National Book Award - Fiction

National Book Foundation (Yearly Award), 77 Books

The National Book Awards are among the most eminent literary prizes in the United States. Started in 1950, the awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the prior year, as well as lifetime achievement awards including the "Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" and the "Literarian Award". The purpose of the awards is "to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.

who votes?
There are 5 people who vote every year

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

PEN/Faulkner (Yearly Award), 45 Books

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the author of the best American work of fiction that year. The winner receives US $15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US $5000. The foundation brings the winner and runners-up to Washington, D.C. to read from their works at the Great Hall of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is an outgrowth of William Faulkner's generosity in donating his 1949 Nobel Prize winnings, "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers." Mary Lee Settle was also one of the founders after controversy at the 1979 National Book Award.[1] It is affiliated with the writers' organization International PEN.
The award was first given in 1980.

National Book Critics Circle Award - Nonfiction

National Book Critics Circle (Yearly Award), 49 Books

The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote the finest books and reviews published in English.

National Book Critics Circle Award - Fiction

National Book Critics Circle (Yearly Award), 50 Books

The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote the finest books and reviews published in English.

TIME Magazine All Time 100 Novels

TIME Magazine (2005), 100 Books

Time critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo pick the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.