Readers Pick Their 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

NY Times, 100 Books

Here's the description directly from the website:

When the Book Review published a list of the 100 best books of the century, we knew we’d hear from readers who were incensed or gutted or driven wild by grief. How could So-and-So’s book not make the cut?

One of the best things about working in books is just this: the passion of our constituency. No way would we deprive readers of the chance to vote for their own list and make their voices heard.

And so you have. There’s some overlap between your list and ours — we agreed on 39 books. As for the 61 new entries here, what stands out most is that they’re the books that captured cultural moments and sparked lively literary conversations. They’re also great. Enjoy!

This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site almost 2 years ago.

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