Many, if not all, of the people whose blogs I read or follow on social media are voracious readers and as is the custom at this time of year, we all share our favourite books of the year. I find it helpful to collect all those links into one place (here’s last year’s lists) which is what I’m doing here.

As Tyler Cowen says, “A good list has never been more valuable, and please note my recommendations are never done to fill a quota, “achieve balance,” right previous wrongs, or whatever. They are what I think are the best books.  Scary how rare that has become.”

I also make a note if any of their books make it on to my wish lists which gets longer every year. If I’m blessed enough to die an old man my to-read list may stretch to the moon and back. Number of books marked with a *

I’ve split the categories between individuals and organisations this year and I’ll regularly update this post (and accompanying twitter thread) as I see more lists.

Individuals

• Andrew Wilson always reads a daunting amount of books. Here’s his pick of 2021. *1
• Alistair Chalmers read an even more astonishing 166 books in 2021. Here’s his top 10 *
• Leah Libresco: My Favorite Books of 2021 *2
• Jennie Pollock: My favourite reads of 2021 *2
• Lex Loizides: Review of Books 2021
• Liam Thatcher. Reading Roundup 2021 *2
• Sheridan Voysey: The Best Books I Read in 2021 (and One I Destroyed) *1
• Tyler Cowen: Best non-fiction books of 2021 *1 & My favorite fiction of 2021 *1
• Tim Harford: My books of the year 2021 *3
• David Bunce: My favourite books of 2021 *1
• Trevin Wax: My Favorite Reads of 2021 *1
• Russell Moore: My Favorite Books of 2021 *1
• Jared Wilson: My Top 10 Books of 2021
• Mark Meynell: Best Reads of 2021 *2
• Dawson Jones: Top 25 books of 2021 *2
• Ryan Holiday: The (Very) Best Books I Read In 2021
• Jason Kottke: The Best Books of 2021
• Aaron Armstrong: My Favorite Books of 2021 *1
• Sam Hailes: Top 3 *
• Gary McMurray: Thread of his 2021 reading list *2
• Thomas Creedy: What I read in 2021 – the long (and incomplete) list.

Organisations

• The Gospel Coalition: The Gospel Coalition 2021 Book Awards *2
• Christianity Today: 2022 Book Awards
• The Spectator: Books of the Year I — chosen by our regular reviewers *2
• The Economist: The best books of 2021 *2

Of course not everyone loved every book they read: The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2021