The Best Books of 2012: Lists by The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian and More

If books fig­ure into your hol­i­day gift-giv­ing plans, then we’ve got a lit­tle some­thing for you — a meta list of the best books of 2012. It’s now Decem­ber, the final month of the year, which means that news­pa­pers and mag­a­zines can start tak­ing stock of 2012 and declare their favorites.

The New York Times Book Review announced The 10 Best Books of 2012 this week­end, just a few days after nam­ing the 100 Notable Books of 2012. Some famil­iar names appear on the win­nowed down list — Robert Caro, Dave Eggers and Zadie Smith — but I’m most tempt­ed by Jim Holt’s Why Does the World Exist?: An Exis­ten­tial Detec­tive Sto­ry. The ques­tion has crossed my mind late­ly.

The Wash­ing­ton Post boils down three lists — The Best Graph­ic Nov­els of 2012, 50 Notable Works of Fic­tion, 50 Notable Works of Non­fic­tion — to one. Behold The Top 10 Books of 2012. Fic­tion-wise, I’m not blown away by the picks. But, when it comes to Non­fic­tion, they’re on the mark with House of Stone: A Mem­oir of Home, Fam­i­ly, and a Lost Mid­dle East by Antho­ny Sha­did, the award-win­ning New York Times jour­nal­ist who died ear­li­er this year in Syr­ia.

You can find more good reads with “Best of” lists cre­at­ed by NPR, Pub­lish­ers Week­ly, Esquire, Huff­Po and The Guardian. And if you’re look­ing for a deal, don’t miss this: Amazon.com is now offer­ing 40% off books appear­ing on its list of 2012 Edi­tors’ Picks. Mean­while Audible.com has pro­duced its own list of favorites, and it’s worth high­light­ing if only because, when you sign up for a Free Tri­al, you can down­load one of their selec­tions (or pret­ty much any oth­er audio­book you want) for free. Learn more and ini­ti­ate the free down­load here.

Now my dear fel­low read­ers, it’s your turn. We want to hear what books (pub­lished in 2012) left the strongest impres­sion on you. Give us your thoughts in the com­ments sec­tion below and we’ll pub­lish the Open Cul­ture Best of 2012 list lat­er this week. We look for­ward to hear­ing your picks!