I stumbled upon this list from the NY Times this morning. It’s the top 25 books of the past 125 years, as nominated and voted on by readers of the NY Times Book Review. (The 125-year timeframe is a nod to the number of years the Review has existed.)

In October, editors at the Book Review asked you to help us choose the best book of the past 125 years. We received thousands of nominations — including novels, memoirs and poetry collections — from readers across the world.

We narrowed those submissions down to 25 finalists. It’s a list that reflects the submissions we received, with a few exceptions: Editors decided only one book by a given author could appear on the list, and didn’t count nominations for entire series, only individual books.

The winner was announced in December, and here’s a link to that announcement. (I never know if links to the NYT will work for non-subscribers, so (spoiler alert) the winner was To Kill a Mockingbird.

Here’s the list of the Top 25, in alphabetical order (click on the image to see a larger, actually readable, version):

I am toying with the idea of making my way through this list in the coming year. It scares me, and it’s not the sort of assignment I usually give myself. But there are so many books here that I haven’t read — some that I read many, many years ago — and, honestly, a few I’d never even heard of!

If we’re being honest, still, then I have to admit that there are two books on the list that stop me in my tracks — Infinite Jest and Ulysses. But at least there’s no Thomas Pynchon, so I guess I should count my blessings.

What do you think?

I’m scared…