Amazon recently released 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime, a new editorially-curated list of essential books. This list was hand-selected by the Amazon Books editorial team. The complete list is available on the retailer's website.

"With 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime, we set out to build a roadmap of a literary life without making it feel like a homework assignment," said Sara Nelson, Editorial Director of Print and Kindle Books at Amazon.com. "Over many months, the team passionately debated and defended the books we wanted on this list. In other words, we applied plenty of the bookish equivalent of elbow-grease, and we can't wait to hear what customers have to say about our final picks."

The list of 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime encompasses a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction, including children's, teen, and young adult. It is intended to span decades. "We listed the books alphabetically by title," said Nelson, "because our assumption is that no book is more important than another." The Amazon Books editorial team will audit the list regularly to make sure it stays culturally relevant.

Some books that didn't make it to the list, but were shortlisted include

-          Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner (Jon Foro);

-          Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Mari Malcolm);

-          The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Robin Rothman);

-          Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (Neal Thompson);

-          Moby Dick by Herman Melville (Chris Schluep);

-          Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (Sara Nelson);

-          Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver (Kevin Nguyen);

-          Wonder by R.J. Palacio (Seira Wilson)