I don’t read many new books, books published this year. I get most of my books from the library, and I can’t afford to pay twenty plus dollars for a new book unless I already know I will like it and want to own it. So most of my book purchases are classics and books I’ve already read and know I will want to re-read. These are some of the many lists that are popping up all over of “best books of 2006.” Maybe I’ll get around to a few of them in 2007.

Hornbook Fanfare List: Best (Children’s) Books of 2006. Of these I read The Book Thief (Semicolon Ambivalent Review here), but I didn’t really get what all the fuss was about. A few of the others sound intriguing.

Kirkus Reviews’ Best Children’s Books of 2006. Again, The Book Thief is the only one of these I’ve read, but I’ll probably get around to several of the others thanks to the Cybils.

New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year 2006. I haven’t read a single one of the books on this list, and what’s more hardly any of them sound very interesting. I might read a couple of the books on the nonfiction list. Can anyone say “The NY Times is out of touch with Real America”?

Amazon Best Books of 2006: Editors’ PicksI’ve actually only read one of these, The Thirteenth Tale, but a couple of them are on my list to read, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Reading Like a Writer. I haven’t read even one of Amazon’s Top 50 Best Sellers for 2006. Can anyone say, “Sherry’s out of touch with Amazon’s mainstream readers, and proud of it?”

Publisher’s Weekly 100 Best Books of the Year 2006. Same story, I guess I’ve really got to pick up Omnivore’s Dilemma and Mayflower.

Christian Science Monitor Best Fiction of 2006. I haven’t read any of these books either, but I do have The Inheritance of Loss and The Accidental on my list. I even have the latter book on my bedside bookshelf.

Christian Science Monitor Best Nonfiction of 2006. Mayflower is on the list again, and The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan sounds interesting.

Washington Post Best Books of 2006, Fiction and Nonfiction I did read The Secret River by Kate Grenville, and although it was rather violent, I thought it gave a vivid picture of the British colonization of Australia.

School Library Journal’s Best of 2006. We’re back to children’s and young adult books. Thanks to the Cybils, I’ve read or am reading several of these books: Yellow Star, Framed, Fly By Night, and, one more time, The Book Thief.

John Wilson (Books and Culture) Top Ten Books of 2006. This list is a different one from a different point of view; I had never even heard of any of the books oon thie list. However, I’m going to add at lest one of them to my list, Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England, by Timothy Larsen. Mr. Wilson says this book tells the story of the Victorians who moved from doubt to faith rather than the opposite.

Slate picks the Best Books of 2006. Editors and columnists each pick one or two favorite books from 2006. I didn’t see any of these on anyone else’s list, nor have I read any of them. So, it’s a distinctive list with a couple of pearls among the swine.

Economist.com Books of the Year 2006. I thought this list was one of the best of the lot, even though I haven’t read any of the books on it either. I found several that I want to read, however, including biographies of Thomas Hardy and George III, a couple of books on why foreign aid doesn’t work so well, a history of Wal-mart, the Omnivore again, and a book called Will and Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life.