Wherein we (among others) share three of our favorite reads of the year with TNBBC's The Next Best Book Blog and offer them to you as a preview for the more extensive, and yes, life-changing list of books and other pop cultural detritus we found ourselves

Did that sound self-important enough? Great, we really wanted to nail the correct tone there. Enjoy. And big props to the Tom Williams, Lavinia Ludlow and dirty poet respectively for the stellar writing.