As 2015 drew to a close, our inboxes and social media feeds were deluged with Best of Lists. As someone who has made a profession out of collecting and summarizing information, I welcome these lists. It offers me a chance to compare and see what others have enjoyed, chosen to highlight, and more often than not leads me to discover books, movies, and music that I missed out on over the past 12 months. All of these discoveries and critical raves lead me straight to the MORE Online Catalog, where I’ll make some requests and then wait for the best of 2015 to show up on my holds shelf. I’ll also use Freegal to browse the past year’s chosen tracks and download songs to enjoy at my leisure.

The fact is, there’s simply too much to take in each year.  Though I make my best effort to sample new music, read everything I can, and screen new films, I’ll nevertheless miss an alarming amount of the year’s best.  That’s why it’s so satisfying to use these “Best of 2015” lists to guide me to experiences I don’t want to miss.

I’ve been seeking out and tucking away some of these lists over the past few weeks, and now want to share them with you for your consideration. They range from the more standard, Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Books of 2015, to radio program interviews that highlight the year’s best Nancy Pearl’s Favorite Books of 2015, to the more esoteric, Bill Gates Chooses the Best Books He Read in 2015.

There is no end of 2015 lists to consider, and this collection is but a few, but hopefully you find them as useful as I do and feel inspired to check out some of these suggestions. Hope you have a Happy New Year filled with great discoveries!

BOOKS

Bill Gates Chooses the Best Books He Read in 2015
The Atlantic: The Best Book I Read This Year (Atlantic’s Editors)
NPR’s Book Concierge: Our Guide To 2015’s Great Reads
Nancy Pearl’s Favorite Books of 2015 (audio from WPR Radio Program)
Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Books of 2015
Publisher’s Weekly: Best Books of 2015

MUSIC

A.V. Club: The 15 Best Albums of 2015
Slate: Best Jazz Albums of 2015
Pitchfork’s The 100 Best Tracks of 2015
All Music: Best of 2015
Rolling Stone: Highest Rated Albums of 2015

FILMS

The Guardian: The 50 best films of 2015 in the US: the full list
The Atlantic: The Best Movies of 2015
Rotten Tomatoes: Top 100 Movies of 2015
A.V. Club: The 20 Best Films of 2015

PODCASTS

The Atlantic: The 50 Best Podcasts of 2015
The Hundreds: The Best Podcasts of 2015

TELEVISION

A.V. Club: Best TV of 2015: The Ballots
NPR: The Best Television of 2015 (audio from NPR radio program)

Please use the comment section below to let us know what wasn’t to be missed in 2015 for you!