How Does The New York Times Choose The Best Books Of All Time?

Saw the NYT 'Best Books of All Time' list online and honestly, their criteria feel subjective. How do they avoid bias across genres and decades?
2026-08-05 09:53:28
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9 Answers

LuxRyan
LuxRyan
Active Reader UX Designer
The whole 'best of all time' thing is fundamentally flawed, right? It's not like there's an objective scoreboard. The Times is curating a list, not discovering one. They're balancing literary prestige with popular appeal, trying to pick books that feel monumental and also readable decades later. A committee of their critics and editors probably argues for months. The final list always ends up feeling like a compromise between canonical staples and a few surprise picks meant to start conversations. You can almost hear the debates: 'Is this challenging enough?' 'Will people actually buy it?' 'Does it represent a shift in the culture?' It's more of a cultural snapshot of what the literary establishment values at that moment than a timeless verdict.
2026-08-06 09:45:14
17
FelixNash
FelixNash
Story Interpreter Data Analyst
Word of mouth among the cultural elite. Certain books attain a status where it becomes unthinkable to not include them. It's a self-perpetuating cycle: the Times includes a book, which solidifies its classic status, which ensures the next generation of editors includes it too. The 'how' is often tradition.

Breaking that cycle to include new voices is the hard part.
2026-08-07 12:58:05
11
MiaNeal
MiaNeal
Expert Electrician
I always imagine the fights over the last few slots. The top ten are probably locked in stone—'Ulysses,' 'Moby-Dick,' etc. But spots 95-100? That's where the blood sport happens. That's where a contemporary novel knocks out a dusty classic, or where a genre writer squeaks in. Those marginal choices are the most revealing. They show what the editors are personally passionate about, what trends they're betting on. The 'how' for those slots is pure, beautiful, subjective chaos masked by a veneer of deliberative judgment.
2026-08-07 16:04:24
13
Toby
Toby
Ending Guesser Worker
They choose books that the editors believe every 'educated' person should have an opinion on, or at least recognize. It's a cultural literacy checklist. This is why the list can feel stuffy or predictable—it's serving a different purpose than a 'here are thrilling page-turners' list. It's about constructing a shared reference library.

Useful for trivia night, maybe not for finding your next favorite read.
2026-08-08 20:05:44
4
EthanChat
EthanChat
Story Interpreter Office Worker
I read an interview once with a former editor. She said the late-stage arguments aren't about the top, but about the middle—the solid A-minus books from the last 25 years. Which ones have the staying power? They look at course adoption, foreign translations, references in other media. It's a cold, almost corporate analysis of a book's 'performance' in the culture. That's less romantic than pure critical judgment, but it makes sense. They're trying to predict which contemporary works will become the classics of tomorrow, and that's partly a numbers game.
2026-08-09 06:24:40
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Related Questions

How does the New York Times pick best books of all time?

12 Answers2026-08-05 06:38:51
The role of the individual critic's passion is key. One editor's lifelong advocacy for a particular author can sometimes tip the scales. The process isn't purely democratic; it's swayed by charisma, persistence, and the ability to make a compelling case in a room. So in a way, the list is a record of who argued most persuasively on a given day, filtered through layers of institutional history.

How did the New York Times choose its best books of 2017?

11 Answers2026-08-05 22:28:28
The process likely involves a ton of reading outside one's comfort zone. A critic who specializes in poetry has to fairly evaluate a massive work of history. That's tough. They must rely heavily on each other's expertise. 'Hey, you're the biography person, is this one as good as they say?' That collaborative checking is part of the quality control. It's not just one person's taste; it's a network of trusted tastes, which theoretically leads to a more robust final product. Unless they all have the same blind spots, which is always the risk.

How does the New York Times choose its best books ever list?

13 Answers2026-08-05 15:30:43
What even counts as 'ever'? That's the first problem. Are they judging by literary innovation, cultural impact, or pure storytelling? The Times' critics likely have a bias toward certain styles—often dense, realist, 'important' fiction. You'll see far fewer genre titles or works from non-Western traditions unless they've been thoroughly sanctioned by the literary establishment. The selection pool starts with what they've chosen to review, which already filters out vast swathes of publishing. So the mechanism is a panel, but the input is pre-curated. It's a feedback loop of taste. They're brilliant critics, no doubt, but their 'best ever' is a reflection of a specific, insular world. I find more interesting recommendations in niche forums or from translators who are actually digging globally. The Times list is a useful benchmark, but it's just one map of a much larger territory.

How does the New York Times choose its 10 best books each year?

14 Answers2026-08-05 12:32:05
Remember when they used to split it into fiction and nonfiction? I kind of miss that. Having a top five for each category gave more room for variety. The combined top ten feels more competitive and harsh, like a nonfiction book is directly ‘beating’ a novel for a scarce slot.

How did the New York Times choose its best books of 2022?

10 Answers2026-08-05 22:20:12
Ultimately, they're making a list for their audience. So while literary merit is key, they're also considering what their readers will find engaging and worthwhile. A dense, experimental novel might be critically adored but deemed too niche for the list. The process involves balancing artistic achievement with broader appeal. It's a tricky line to walk, and you can see them walking it every year.

How does the New York Times choose its best books of 2023?

15 Answers2026-08-05 22:51:25
Accessibility matters more than they let on. A 900-page experimental novel in verse has a higher bar to clear than a tight, 250-page family drama, simply because the judges know only a fraction of their audience will actually finish the former. The list has to be credible as a recommendation for a broad, intelligent audience. Even if they admire the 900-page monster, they might deem it too specialized for a 'best of' list meant for general consumption.

How does the New York Times pick its 100 best books of all time?

13 Answers2026-08-05 15:47:11
I appreciate that they revisit it. A static '100 Best' list from 1980 would be embarrassing today. The fact that they redo it means they acknowledge the canon is fluid. The process is iterative. They look at the last list, see what feels dated or what glaring omissions need correcting, and guide the new panel accordingly. It's a form of institutional learning. It shows a humility that I don't always associate with big media institutions—an admission that they might have gotten it wrong last time.

How does the New York Times choose its best 100 books list?

10 Answers2026-08-05 01:13:12
Hmm. I've never really looked at the list itself, just the arguments it causes online. Maybe I should check one out? Are they usually in order, like #1 is the absolute best? That seems impossible to decide.

How does the New York Times choose its best romance books?

12 Answers2026-08-05 16:51:57
The international angle is often missing. The list is overwhelmingly dominated by American and British authors writing in English. There's a whole world of romance being written and translated from other languages that rarely gets a look in. When it does, it's treated as a special 'exotic' entry. Their selection process seems geographically myopic, relying on the traditional Anglo-American publishing pipeline. They could do so much more to highlight translated works, which would genuinely expand the definition of 'best' and introduce readers to completely new storytelling rhythms and cultural contexts.

How does the New York Times choose its best seller books list?

4 Answers2026-07-21 13:34:52
My book club uses the list as a 'what to avoid' list half the time. Not that the books are necessarily bad, but they're often the biggest, splashiest titles that everyone is already talking about. We prefer digging for hidden gems. The list is useful for knowing what the mainstream conversation is, so we can consciously choose to be part of it or deliberately step outside of it. It's a cultural weather vane, for better or worse.
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