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The NBCC Best of 2007
November 29, 2007

The National Book Critics Circle did something new this year and created its own Best of 2007 list, which you can check out here in Scott McLemee's Quick Study blog or here in Critical Mass, the NBCC blog (where you can also see who voted -- and full disclosure: yours truly did vote and my votes were counted, even though I'm not listed here -- not that I am in the same league as Anne Tyler, Jonathan Raban, Jane Smiley, or John Updike. The fact is, the NBCC polled former finalists, past winners, and member critics).

NBCC President John Freeman writes: "Before the internet, book recommendations traveled at the rate of sound. You had to talk to someone to pass on word about what to read. Or read it in a review. Or write a letter. Now you can go to the website of a newspaper, a magazine, or a literary blog to find out what's new and what's good.

But with all this connectivity, it felt like a moment had yet to be seized about finding out what a lot of people said was good. And what better people to ask than award winning novelists, historians, poets, critics and biographers?"

This has to be one of the best uses of "the internets" that I've seen in a while (despite my obvious bias), and I'm glad to see, too, that starting in 2008 the NBCC will be offering a "Best Of" list on a monthly basis. 

And while only my non-fiction pick (we were allowed to submit one title in each category) won, I'm happy to say that I've already read three of the five fiction picks -- and am currently reading Tree of Smoke. I just learned about Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses the other day, and I'm eager to read it, too. 

Did the NBCC voters choose well? What do you think?

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on November 29, 2007 | Comments (1)