Was not sure why it was not the Lord of the Rings that was nominated but the Fellowship of the Ring came 2nd in the New York Times Poll and it looks like it was very close to winning.

What’s the Best Book of the Past 125 Years? We Asked Readers to Decide.

By The New York Times December 28, 2021

In October, as we marked the Book Review’s 125th anniversary, we invited readers to nominate the best book published during that time. This was a nod to our history: In its first few decades, the Book Review often asked readers to anoint the best books, the best short stories, the best poems. We wanted this project, like those early ones, to reflect readers’ tastes and preferences.

Responses began pouring in from all 50 states and 67 countries. In November, we presented a list of the 25 most-nominated books (one per author) for a vote. After tallying more than 200,000 ballots, the winner, by a narrow margin, is … To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/20 ... ks/best-book-winners.html