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 2025" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can click here. 

Time Magazine has had one of the most useful (to use) lists over the last 5 years. Why? because each year they give us their "100 Must Read Books." The books that entertained and enthralled them. Here is the link to the 2025 list.

Notice they don't call these books "best," they are "must reads." I love this language. It speaks perfectly to library users. These are books the editors think you should read for a variety of reasons. They are not trying to tell you to only read the most critically acclaimed books. They have chosen those but also bestsellers and titles that speak to our moment in history as well.

This is a list you can display proudly, and quite honestly, having looked through it myself, easily. Easily because you have these books already. Easily because there are many ways to promote it via their website, which has a visual representation of each cover that people can scroll through quickly or click on a specific title for an annotation with details. 

Here is the entry for The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones.

I love this entire concept as a way for you to have your year end "Best Books" discussions at your library. Ask your staff and patrons for their "Must Read Book of 2025." Don't be more specific than that. Simply use my conversation starter to displays post to ask for nothing more than what people's "must read book of 2025 was." Then sit back and watch the diverse and interesting list your library community creates. Not only will it be unique to your community but also, it will give you a sense of what titles have resonated with your readers in a way that is hard to capture. This is necessary information you need to craft your collections going forward.

And notice my advice does not limit people to the book having come out this year. The question is vague on purpose. You will get older titles. which leads to my reminder that it is not only this 2025 list that is a great choice for readers, but also, the backlist of lists. Time has been making this "100 Must Read Books" list since 2019. Here are the links to the last 5 years for you to use with your patrons immediately:

20242023202220212020Mine those backlists as suggestions, for book discussion titles, sure bets or great reads you may have missed displays. These are excellent titles for a general audience. They can and should be used now and as a resource all year long.
And keep the Time Must Read Books coverage bookmarked all year long. You can use these titles to suggest any time of year. And the past few year's as well. Not only is there an annotation for each title that you can "use the words of others" as a way to hand-sell the title to the reader in front of you, but also, the term "must read" in and of itself is enough to get someone to give it a try.