Once again, the good librarians at the Williamsburg (Virginia) Regional Library have performed a public service and compiled all the best lists, awards and other honors for books published in 2010 for their annual megalist -- available as an Excel spreadsheet. The fiction winner is Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, which is kind of interesting since it hasn't won the Big Name awards (though it still has a shot at the Pulitzer, which is announced this month). And I was delighted to see that three of the eight writers in the Speculative Fiction category (Gary Shteyngart, Charles Yu and William Gibson) will be here for the 2012 Key West Literary Seminar, Yet Another World (check out the rest of the amazing line-up: still room to register!). So, by the way, will the author of the No. 2 in fiction (and National Book Critics Circle Award Winner), Jennifer Egan. And yes, we have the vast majority of the top books listed here in the library collection.

BTW, for those of you who follow books more than basketball, that other big tournament is getting ready to wrap up -- The Tournament of Books -- and the championship round features the top two novels on Williamsburg's list, Freedom versus A Visit From The Goon Squad. The best part of this tournament is you can go back and read all the different rounds in whatever order you like. I suppose some might frown on this sort of competitive literary exercise, but it's all in good faith and good fun -- I've never seen cheap shots or nasty takedowns here. And any time I get to read anything by Elif Batuman, I'm happy. I wonder if they'd consider adding a nonfiction category?

Update: And the winner is ... A Visit From the Goon Squad! Which I'm delighted to hear, not only because I happen to have a copy of the book in my house (though I'll admit I haven't read it yet -- or Freedom, either) -- and because Egan will be here in Key West, in January, for the Key West Literary Seminar -- still time to sign up!).

I'm a sucker for those year-end best books lists. Sometimes they make me mad; often they make me feel like I need to broaden my reading horizons. I decided to come up with my own best-of-the-year list and conducted a highly unscientific poll among readers of my acquaintance. Here are the results (in my poll, it doesn't have to be a book published this year; just read this year): My best reads of the year came down to one work of fiction and one work of nonfiction. The novel was Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, winner of last year's Man Booker. I had a feeling I'd love it -- I had read and greatly admired Mantel's historical novel about the French Revolution, A Place of Greater Safety, and I am of course, obsessed with all things Tudor. So when I heard she'd written a novel about Thomas Cromwell, I figured she had written it just for me.

The work of nonfiction is Cleopatra, the new biography by Stacy Schiff. If you think you know the facts about this woman's remarkable life, think again. Schiff does a wonderful job rescuing Cleopatra from the millenium-long trashing of her reputation, conducted by men who 1) never knew her and 2) had very strong motives to portray her as an evil seductress. A great read even if you're not all that into ancient Roman or Egyptian history.

Here are the results from my unscientific sampling:

Connie, newspaper books editor: "The best book I read all year was Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom.' Yes, I know it is popular to bash this book, or say there were too many white people in it, or that it was "unrealistic" or that the characters were unlikable (what, you want to read about boring people???) But I loved it unreservedly. I could not put it down, and I loved every minute I was reading it. And aside from being funny and insightful and brilliant, it also reflects my entirely cynical worldview: we are hopelessly doomed, not just as a species, but from ever doing anything truly selfless!

"My second favorite was Jennifer Egan's 'A Visit from the Goon Squad,' which is ostensibly about the shifting music industry but really about a lot more. Clever, funny and hopefully not TOO prescient..."

Arlo, poet and literary seminar media director: "I also liked Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad," a novel-in-stories filled with brilliant off-to-the-side-insights into relationships between friends and lovers and clear-headed commentary on the time we're living in. The PowerPoint chapter is a special treat.

"I finally finished Richard Ford's masterful Frank Bascombe trilogy-- I'd been putting off 'The Lay of the Land' ever since it came out however many years back because I didn't want to live in a world without more Bascombe to look forward to. It's probably the sloppiest of the the three ("The Sportswriter" and "Independence Day" are the others), but I couldn't be sure that didn't make it the best.

Oh, and Charlie Smith's 'Three Delays' just plain knocked me down."

Bob, bookbinder and bookstore manager: "Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence."

My mom: "The book I'm reading right now is easily my best of the year: Daniel Patrick Moynihan: a Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary, by Steven R. Weisman, published in 2010.

"You should read it to understand a lot of things about America in the 20th century. Moynihan had a unique perspective and personal history. The Senate is a much poorer place without him (and Teddy)."

Best of the best of the best lists

It's that time of year