NYT Book Review 100-list discussed

The New York Times Book Review’s “100 Best Books of the 21st Century” list resurfaced on Japanese-language social media on May 16, when an X account posted a summary and linked readers to the newspaper’s ranking. The list itself was published by The Times in July 2024 as a survey of books from the first quarter-century of the 2000s. The project asked hundreds of literary figures and other participants to nominate their top books published since Jan. 1, 2000, including translations. The resulting ranking has continued to circulate online well after its release, including through posts outside the United States. ### Which New York Times list is being discussed? The New York Times Book Review list being discussed is “The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century,” a ranking published in 2024. The Times presented it as a survey-based project tied to the first 25 years of the century, drawing on ballots from writers, critics and other book-focused participants. (goodreads.com) The ranking placed Elena Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend” at No. 1, followed by Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns” at No. 2 and Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall” at No. 3, according to The New York Times material captured in a PDF version of the package. Other titles in the top 10 included Edward P. Jones’s “The Known World,” Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections,” Roberto Bolaño’s “2666” and Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad.” (goodreads.com) ### How did The Times say it built the ranking? The New York Times project said 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers took part, with additional input from Book Review staff. Participants were asked to name the 10 best books published since Jan. 1, 2000, and translations were eligible, according to descriptions reproduced in multiple listings that cite the Times package. (static01.nyt.com) July 2024 materials describing the project said the effort was done in collaboration with The Upshot, the Times data and graphics desk. A Times Now summary of the package, citing the original Book Review feature, said the newspaper aimed to identify the most important and influential books of the first 25 years of the century. (goodreads.com) ### What exactly did the Japanese-language X account post? An X post dated May 16 from the account cited in the prompt linked readers to the New York Times Book Review article and described the ranking as a survey of the best 100 books of the 21st century. The post framed the list as a vote compiled from hundreds of people in the literary world, matching the methodology described in the Times package and in third-party reproductions of it. (timesnownews.com) The available web capture of the X URL in this reporting did not return readable post text through the browsing tool, so the account’s wording could not be independently reproduced verbatim here. The date, link target and the broader description in the prompt align with the New York Times project details visible elsewhere on the web. ### Which details from the list drew the most attention? (x.com) The No. 1 placement of Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend” is the clearest headline detail in the ranking. The top 20 also included Joan Didion’s “The Year of Magical Thinking,” Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” Rachel Cusk’s “Outline,” Min Jin Lee’s “Pachinko” and George Saunders’s “Lincoln in the Bardo,” according to the Times PDF. (x.com) The list mixed fiction and nonfiction and included translated works, graphic memoir and essay collections. Titles visible in the ranking include Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis,” Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow,” Svetlana Alexievich’s “Secondhand Time” and Patrick Radden Keefe’s “Say Nothing.” ### Where can readers find the full ranking now? (static01.nyt.com) The New York Times package remains available through the newspaper’s 2024 interactive feature, and copies or references to the full list also appear in library, bookselling and reader-community pages that cite the original. The PDF version indexed by search results shows the ranked titles directly, including the top 75 visible in the captured pages. (static01.nyt.com) As of May 17, 2026, the discussion online concerns a previously published Times ranking rather than a newly released 2026 list. Readers looking for the source material can trace it through the New York Times Book Review package published in July 2024 and the May 16 X post that linked back to it. (eyrie.org) (static01.nyt.com)