There’s a certain wistfulness to the year’s end: a pang that comes with the closing of a chapter, mixed with a giddy hope for the next one.

For book lovers, the end of the year is when we catalog what we’ve read and celebrate the feat of our efforts – as we rightfully should (our ever-shortening attention spans amid our ever-uncertain world can make reading a precarious, precious thing).

Listicles abound and best-of lists pop up like daisies this time of year. But what makes a book the best? It’s all in the eyes of the beholder.

On average, Americans read roughly 14 books over the course of 12 months, while the typical (median) American read five books, according to a 2021 Pew Research Center study. No matter how much you read this year, we want to hear from you.

From fiction to non-

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