To list or Not to List…

Who started Book Lists, anyway? Was it a wayward Confucian monk during the Tang Dynasty who listed his favorite tangrams? Maybe a Greek playwright trying to make some cash on a side hustle? Some of that Quid Pro Quo stuff? Oh, no…wait…that had to be a Roman. Maybe Julius down at the scriptorium decided to make the good citizens of Rome aware of which parchment scrolls were selling. So, who gets to make up the list of Top Ten Books of the year? And what does that even mean? And why ten? Is it the Top Ten best-selling books, Top Ten most intriguing books, Top Ten how-to-make a box books, Top Ten genre-specific books?