Category: Books

This will be the second year I’ve put together the list of books I’ve completed during the previous year. This doesn’t include books I’ve started and didn’t finish for whatever reason. Also, no graphic novels, though I might write a separate post to list those. Graphic novels are growing into one of my favorite art forms. I’ve always enjoyed comics books, at least to some degree. I’ve many years’ worth of The Walking Dead and some of the other work coming out of Image (and other creators) is a lot of fun.

1. 12 Rules for Life – Jordan B. Peterson (Non-Fiction)
2. Shatterpoint – Matthew Stover (Star Wars Fiction)
3. Ford County – John Grisham (Fiction)
4. Dune – Frank Herbert (Fiction)
5. Look Closer – David Ellis (Fiction – He wrote Gone Girl)
6. Stardust – Neil Gaiman (Fiction – Based on a comic book)
7. Dune Messiah – Frank Herbert (Fiction)
8. Red Rising – Pierce Brown (Fiction)
9. Rogues – George R.R. Martin (Fiction – Collection)
10. Greenlights – Matthew McConaughey (Non-Fiction)
11. CEO Excellence – Carolyn Dewer (Non-Fiction)
12. It’s Your Ship – Captain D. Michael Abrashoff (Non-Fiction)
13. The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead (Fiction)
14. The Tools – Phil Stutz (Non-Fiction)
15. Redshirts – John Scalzi (Star Trek based Fiction)
16. The Godfather – Mario Puzo (Fiction)
17. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni (Non-Fiction)
18. Scrum – Jeff Sutherland (Non-Fiction)
19. Death by Meeting – Patrick Lencioni (Non-Fiction)
20. Battlefield Earth – L. Ron Hubbard (Fiction)
21. Outlive – Peter Attia, MD (Non-Fiction)
22. Looking for Alaska – John Green (YA Fiction)
23. Leaving Time – Jodi Piocoult
24. Wishtree – Katherine Applegate (Kids Fiction)
25. The Fault in Our Stars – John Green (YA Fiction)
26. Annihilation – Jeff VanderMeer (Fiction)
27. Shiloh – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Kids Fiction)
28. The Road – Cormac McCarthy (Fiction)

A lot more fiction than non-fiction this year. Enjoyed them all. Choosing my favorite fiction book is tough. Redshirts is the most unique, but The Godfather was a lot of fun. It’s a rare book whose movie does it justice. The Road is a McCarthy masterpiece. It’s dark but also hopeful. Battlefield Earth took me about 6 months to finish. I read about two hours a week. Then there is Rogues, a collection. I’ll leave it as a top four. I also read a few Young Adult and Children’s books. My son is in a book club, so I’ve started reading those books. Non-Fiction isn’t as tough but still. Greenlights was the most fun! Outlive and The Tools were both super heavy, not fun.

Happy new year!

Owen

I was reading my Kindle on a flight a few days ago and happened to think about jotting down a list of the books that I have read this year. Here is that list in no certain order. It is certainly not meant to impress anybody. It certainly should not other than perhaps folks that do not read at all and then they are not the type to be impressed by a list such as this anyway, now are they.

(1) The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins [I bought this just a few minutes after watching the movie trailer. This was a fast read and I finished it the same day as I bought it. The whole book was really intense. It did lose me at the end when it went full young adult on me. As a result I have not picked up the other two in the series yet. Perhaps in 2013].

(2 – 6) A Game of Thrones: A Song of Fire and Ice: Book One – George R.R. Martin [This series is a monster. The hardback copies are real doorstops. Martin can certainly spin a yarn. I have had to put these down several times but I always have to pick them back up. Each one has its own charm. Getting thru them all has at times been fantastic, and at other times something more like a chore. Mostly fantastic, and I was, at least before, not really a big fan of the genre.]

A Clash of Kings: A Song of Fire and Ice: Book One – George R.R. Martin

A Storm of Swords: A Song of Fire and Ice: Book Three – George R.R. Martin

A Feast of Crows: A Song of Fire and Ice: Book Four – George R.R. Martin

A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Fire and Ice: Book Five – George R.R. Martin

(7) The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman [I am actually listening to this book on audio and am about to the end. very interesting so far.]

(8) Imperial Bedrooms – Bret Easton Ellis [Ellis’ books to me seem, in a word, manic. They are extremely violent but somehow manage to be beautiful at the same time. I do not know how he pulls that off but in my opinion he does. I really enjoyed how he wrote a sequel to Less Than Zero without it really being a sequel. Warning: Do not read this to the kids at bedtime. Or at all.]

(9) Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein [This is the first book of from this author I have read but I have a long list of his books that I intend to read in the new year now that I have finished the Game of Throne series, as it stands.]

(10 – 12) How to Hit Longer and Straighter – Darrell Klassen [Why read books on golf instruction, much less three? Dunno. These are the first and only I have read and I believe they have helped my game on some level. I have no plans to read others.]

Perfect Shot Control – Darrell Klassen

How to Chip it Close – Darrell Klassen

(13) Anything You Want – Derek Sivers [I picked this up one late morning and finished it by late afternoon. It has some interesting stories about how he put together and ran his CDBaby business. I found it mostly forgettable otherwise.]

(14) Trail Food – Alan Kesselheim [I thought I would get some good ideas from this book. While there are some good ideas in this book, I did not use any of them. So, I guess it was either a waste of time and money, or it showed me what I was not willing to do in regards to preparing, and cooking, on the trail.]

(15) The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexander Dumas [A Classic that I never actually read in High School. I picked it up just this past week and cannot seem to put it down. That is good since it is about 1,500 pages long.]

Owen