Best and favorite books lists

       Gotta admire the best-of-the-year lists that hold out until after Christmas -- though I do have to wonder: if they hold out this long, why not all the way, until the year has actually come to an end ?
       Salon's Authors' favorite books: The ultimate literary guide to 2014 is of course far from the 'ultimate' guide -- really far, in fact -- but at least offers personal recommendations, so you can see what some of your favorite authors (or at least some writers whose names you've heard -- though I have to say, there are a lot here I don't recognize) claim are their favorites of the year.
       (I am kind of hoping that when Nell Zink writes: "I think I read only six other books published this year in English" that she was reading a hell of a lot of books in foreign languages; if I only read six books over the course of a year -- hell, over the course of a month -- I'd wither and die from lack of literary engagement. Hell, I get antsy if I don't finish off a book a day, and I can barely imagine a writer who spends so little time reading (well, I can imagine it, but it's a pretty ugly picture).)

       Meanwhile, another rare foreign best-list: Télérama -- who do have solid literary coverage -- offer Les 25 meilleurs livres de l'année 2014.