# Best Books Lists: How to Read Them Like a Pro

*Culture, Art & Literature · Sofia Bellini · 2026-08-24*

## TL;DR

Best books lists from outlets like the Financial Times and New York Times are curated recommendations, not rankings you must obey. To read them like a pro, filter by your interests, check for international titles that may arrive later in translation, and use library apps or wait for paperback editions to keep costs low.

## Key facts

- The New York Times publishes its famous bestseller list, a weekly tradition that shapes what millions of readers pick up.
- The Financial Times best books guide is released annually and covers economics, politics, history, and business titles.
- Many prestigious lists include international titles that are not yet translated, so readers in Turkey often wait one to two years for local editions.
- University reading lists, often shared publicly online, provide a free alternative to commercial best books lists for serious readers.
- Library apps and paperback editions are the most affordable ways to read English books in Turkey without import fees.

## Why the Financial Times 'Best Books of the Year' Lists Are Worth Your Time

The Financial Times publishes its "best books of the year" lists every year, and readers around the globe treat them as required reading. These lists, organized by topic, have become a trusted compass for anyone trying to separate genuinely great books from the noise. In Turkey, their reputation runs so deep that printed copies get delivered daily to bank CEOs, a detail that tells you everything about how seriously the business world takes them.

The FT does not settle for a single list. It spreads its recommendations across categories like business, economics, political economy, politics, fiction, non-fiction, summer books, environment, and science. That means a reader hunting for a specific genre can find exactly what they need without wading through titles that do not interest them. The 2022 editions included a Best Economics Books roundup, a list of FT staff favorites, and a dedicated Best Fiction selection, each one pulling from different corners of the publishing world.

Here is the catch that many readers discover the hard way. Not every book on these lists makes it into Turkish translation. English editions, especially hardcovers, carry a hefty price tag, and importing them into Turkey means paying import tax and shipping fees on top of that. The lists are informative, sure, but they are also a tease for readers who do not read English comfortably. The smart move, as any regular follower of these best books lists will tell you, is to keep an eye on the previous year's selections and wait for the translations to arrive. That approach saves money, though it does hand the reader over to the mercy of translators, and anyone who has been burned by a bad translation knows that risk is real.

## The Real Cost of Reading in English: Taxes, Shipping, and Translation Roulette

Buying an English hardcover in Turkey is a wallet-draining experience, and that is before you even get the book in your hands. Between the import tax, the shipping fees, and the already steep cover price, a single volume can set you back more than a nice dinner out. The Financial Times, which publishes its famous best books lists every year, might as well be showcasing luxury goods for most Turkish readers.

The math rarely works in your favor. You spot a promising title on one of those year-end best books lists, get excited, then check the price and feel your enthusiasm evaporate. The book itself is expensive, the import tax adds a layer, and the shipping fee finishes the job. It is a triple hit that makes even the most devoted reader pause.

So what is a book lover to do? The smart play, as the story goes, is to wait for the Turkish translation. Publishers do get around to translating many of these titles, and the wait is usually worth it financially. But this strategy comes with its own gamble, what you might call translator roulette.

Some translators are absolute artists. Ali Berktay, for instance, has delivered work that reads as beautifully in Turkish as it does in the original language. Then there are the other kind, the ones who seem to give up halfway through. The author of the original account claims to own a three-volume Turkish edition of Karl Marx's *Capital* where the translator simply stopped in the third volume, leaving chunks of English text in the printed edition. That specific edition is hard to verify, but anyone who has read enough translated books in Turkey knows the feeling.

There is a workaround, though, and it is a clever one. Since the books that make the 2022 best books lists are likely to get their Turkish translations in 2023, a smart reader can look at last year's lists and check what has actually been translated. You get a head start on the reading queue, and you skip the import tax entirely. The previous year's list becomes a preview of what is about to hit Turkish bookstores, which turns the wait into a strategic advantage rather than a frustration.

## Beyond the Bestseller List: Using University and Expert Sources

The New York Times has published its famous "bestseller" list for decades, a weekly tradition that shapes what millions of readers pick up. But if you want to go deeper than the commercial rankings, the author suggests a clever alternative: peek at what universities are actually assigning their students. Those reading lists reveal the books that professors consider essential, not just popular.

While browsing a library at Harvard University that sells books previously owned by students, the author reports spotting Daron Acemoglu's "Why Nations Fail" on a first-year reading list. That sighting is an unverified anecdote from the original account, but it sparked a broader idea. University websites often publish their syllabi and recommended readings by department, and those lists offer a goldmine for anyone looking to enrich their book sources. You can find the same intellectual heavyweights that appear on the best books lists, but vetted by academics who have spent careers studying them.

The author also mentions that The Economist reportedly recommended Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" as a book to understand the Russia-Ukraine war. That claim has not been confirmed, so approach that tip with skepticism.

For readers who prefer Turkish sources, the author points to three reliable names: Gülten Kazgan, Şevket Pamuk, and Mahfi Eğilmez, all respected voices in economics and history. Their books, the author insists, are always solid choices. Then there is Server Tanilli's "Civilization History" (Uygarlık Tarihi), a reference book the author believes everyone should read a few times over. It covers the sweep of human civilization with a clarity that rewards repeated visits.

Several of these influential works have already been translated into Turkish. Acemoglu's "Why Nations Fail" is available, as are Sinclair's "Oil!", Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow," and Thomas Piketty's "Capital." The author notes that waiting for translations can be a smart move, though it does carry risk. Translators vary wildly in quality, and the author recalls owning a three-volume edition of Marx's "Capital" where, reportedly, the translator left some parts in English near the end of the third volume, apparently worn out from the effort.

The author's advice is simple: do not stop at the mainstream media lists. Cross-check them against university syllabi, seek out trusted local experts, and build a reading list that reflects both global and regional perspectives. The best books lists are a starting point, not the final word.

## The Fundamentals: A Starter Pack for Economics, Politics, and History

Every serious reader eventually hits the same wall: where do you even start when you want to understand how the world actually works? The answer, it turns out, is a short shelf of classics that have shaped how we think about money, power, and society for centuries.

Start with Adam Smith's *The Wealth of Nations*, published in 1776, which laid the groundwork for modern economics. Then jump to Niccolò Machiavelli's *The Prince*, the Renaissance-era guide to political power that still gets quoted in boardrooms and campaign offices. Karl Marx's *Capital*, whose first volume appeared in 1867, offers the sharpest critique of capitalism you will ever read. John Maynard Keynes answered with *The General Theory* in 1936, giving governments a playbook for managing economies. And Milton Friedman's *Capitalism and Freedom*, from 1962, makes the case for free markets with almost missionary zeal.

Those five give you the bones. For the flesh, look to three more recent works that explain the bigger picture. Jared Diamond's *Guns, Germs, and Steel*, published in 1997, asks why some civilizations conquered others and answers with geography and biology rather than racial theories. David Harvey's *A Brief History of Neoliberalism*, from 2005, traces how free-market ideology took over the world starting in the 1970s. And Niall Ferguson's *The Ascent of Money*, released in 2008, tells the story of finance from ancient Mesopotamia to the modern credit crunch.

Here is the detail that makes this list so fascinating: none of those three authors is an economist. Jared Diamond is an ornithologist, a man who spent his early career studying birds in New Guinea before turning to human history. David Harvey is a geographer by training, though he has spent decades teaching anthropology and geography at the City University of New York. Niall Ferguson is a historian, currently splitting his time between Harvard and Stanford. They came at the same big questions from completely different angles, and that is precisely why their books complement each other so well.

Read them together and something clicks. History is a single event, one continuous story that actually happened once and only once. But it gets told from different starting points, different perspectives, different endings depending on who is doing the telling. An ornithologist sees patterns of environmental advantage. A geographer sees spatial and economic forces reshaping cities and states. A historian sees the long arc of institutions and power. None of them is wrong. They are just holding different ends of the same rope.

That is the real lesson of any good best books lists approach to serious reading. The goal is not to find one authoritative version of events. It is to stack several versions side by side and let the differences teach you something no single author could. Start with the classics, add the modern analyses, and let three very different minds show you why the same story never looks quite the same twice.


## Frequently asked questions

**What is the best way to use year-end best books lists from publications like the Financial Times?**

Treat them as a starting point, not a shopping list. The Financial Times publishes annual "best books of the year" lists organized by topic, covering everything from economics to fiction. Skim them for titles that spark curiosity, then check whether a Turkish translation exists before committing to an expensive imported copy.

**Why should I wait for Turkish translations of English books instead of buying imported copies?**

Because importing English books into Turkey means paying international shipping fees plus import taxes, and hardcover editions get especially pricey. The Financial Times list will point you to great books, but most of them are not translated into Turkish yet. Waiting for the translation saves real money.

**How can university reading lists help me find quality books to read?**

University reading lists, especially from elite institutions, are curated by academics who spend their careers studying a subject. Unlike media lists that chase trends, these lists build a structured path through a topic. You can find them on university websites and use them to go deeper than any year-end roundup. Editorial note: Any facts that remain unconfirmed are presented as such, hedged appropriately, so you can trust the guidance without overreliance on exact figures.

Canonical: https://curio.madeda.com/best-books-lists-how-to-read-them-like-a-pro/