This news is about 9 months old, but I thought people might still find it interesting and I didn't see a thread about it.

At the end of last year the New York Times book review celebrated its 125th anniversary by having a contest for readers to choose the best book published during that time.

25 finalists (maximum one per author) were chosen from nominations, and over 200,000 ballots were cast.

The winner ("by a narrow margin") was Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

The Fellowship of the Ring came in second place, ahead of George Orwell's 1984 and a lot of other heavyweight competition. And Harry Potter too.

(IMO, Fellowship gets off to a pretty slow and uneven start, until Tolkien seems to find his story-telling rhythm with the appearance of Strider in Bree. I'd have nominated Return of the King, which is absolutely riveting from start to finish, as well as containing the Appendices that add incredible depth to the story.)