New York Magazine came up with a novel, so to speak, idea: Ask a bunch of critics to share their favorite underrated book of the past decade. Check out the entire list here. Below are a few of the intriguing titles:

Experience by Martin Amis

Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah

The Tender Land: A Family Love Story by Kathleen Finneran

The Fall of a Sparrow by Robert Hellenga

Looking for a website on literature and books? How about 10,000 of them? The Librarians' Internet Index is a publicly-funded website where a team of librarians ferret out the best and brightest online resources for a myriad of subjects. Check out their lit listings here.

A couple of weeks ago we listed lists of the Best Books of 2007. Today we offer lists of the 100 best fiction and nonfiction books ever. At least according to the Modern Library. Here are their lists (and a competing one). And here are a few of your humble editor's favorite books from said lists:

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Wilson

The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm

Ah, December: Family gatherings, the company holiday party, Santa slipping down your chimney -- and the annual bevy of "Best Books" lists. Here are a few of our favorites:

New York Times' The 10 Best Books of 2007

Washington Post's Book World Holiday Issue

Boston Herald's Best Fiction and Nonfiction Books of 2007

Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year

School Library Journal's Best Books of 2007

We occasionally ask writers about books they've read that have inspired and informed their own work. This week, we contacted novelist Katharine Weber, author most recently of the award-winning Triangle. She graciously sent us these picks:

Krazy & Ignatz: The Kat Who Walked in Beauty by George Herriman. "The early years of Krazy and Ignatz and their complex relationship as shown in the first daily strips, in the years before Offissa Pup arrived to enforce the law. Think of Krazy as Ego, Ignatz as Id, and Offissa Pup as the Super Ego -- or just enjoy this incredibly beautiful volume as an introduction to the fantastically intriguing world of Krazy Kat."

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Shannon Reed is an award-winning playwright who teaches high school English to a large pack of bright young women at a private school on the beach in Queens, New York. She graciously contributed this column:

Despite a general predilection towards awesomeness, like any teacher, I have my blind spots. I'm terrible at looking interested during school assemblies. I show little patience when a student can't remember a basic procedure after about a month. I do not like to teach the intransitive verb; I get confused and confuse the girls. My top blind spot? I'm terrible at motivating my girls to read more.

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