Here we are at the beginning of another year. As usual, I read Lots of Things last year, and I plan to do the same in 2015. Here’s what I read in 2014, formatted as always: bold means I really liked it, italics means I hated it, and plain ol’ text means it was good enough.
- Snow Crash
- The Master and Margarita
- A Bloodsmoor Romance
- Pedro Páramo
- Wolves of the Calla
- Under the Net
- The Goldfinch
- Andrew’s Brain
- The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
- Death in Venice
- Song of Susannah
- The Dark Tower
- Cosmicomics
- At Night We Walk in Circles
- The Slynx
- Mao II
- Point Omega
- In the Night of Time
- The Inverted World
- A Dance with Dragons
- The Magicians
- A Tale Dark and Grimm
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
- The Shadow of the Wind
- Not a Drop to Drink
- The Penelopiad
- The Torrents of Spring
- The Financial Lives of the Poets
- Stranger Things Happen
- The Giver
- Bird Box
- Sputnik Sweetheart
- Butcher’s Crossing
- The Cleanest Race
- The Flamethrowers
- Richard III (biography)
- The 42nd Parallel
- Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- The Night Circus
- California
- The Glass Sentence
- Lotería
- Joe
- Doomed
- Annihilation
- People of the Book
- Unholy Night
- The God Delusion
- Authority
- The Bone Clocks
- White Noise
- Acceptance
- Little Wolves
- The Wind through the Keyhole
- Station Eleven
- The Maze Runner
- Revival
- The Bell Jar
- The Crossing
- The Glass Bead Game
- Over Sea, Under Stone
- The Enchanted
Lots of bold this year!
So, you ask, what was the best? Sort of like last year, I’m going to list a couple: the BEST book I read (as in objectively the best) and the book I most enjoyed. If you’re a regular reader, you probably know at least the first book already.
Drumroll, please…
Yep. This is the second year in a row that John Williams has taken the prize. Last year, it was Stoner, which is in my top five Best Books I’ve Ever Read. I’m not sure that Butcher’s Crossing made its way that high, but it just might be in the top ten. It’s perfectly constructed and definitely the best book of 2015. I had to get it from the library’s ILL system because there was no local copy, and I liked it so much that I asked for my own copy for Christmas. It’s sitting on my shelf next to Williams’s only other novel, Augustus, which I’ll probably read this year.
Okay, the best novel is down. This second category isn’t quite as easy, and my decision surprises even me. Ready?
What? I know. Where’d You Go, Bernadette was the first audiobook I listened to on my frequent walks with Zelda, and I enjoyed it so much that it made the top of the list. I somehow doubt it’d be here if I’d read the book, as the audiobook presentation made it for me. That’s one I’ll probably listen to again at some point.
Of course there are honorable mentions because I can’t make up my mind about this one. Butcher’s Crossing is my rock solid choice for Best Book, but I’m clearly fuzzy about Where’d You Go, Bernadette, so here are some close runners-up, in no particular order:
So there you have it: Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, The Inverted World by Christopher Priest, and The Wind through the Keyhole by Stephen King. Oh so good! I’m reliving them in my head right now. I sure hope Mr. Stephenking finds it in his heart to write another Dark Tower novel…
Onward!
2015 is off to a slow start: I’m reading another novel by Mr. Stephenking, and it’s LONG, so give me a couple weeks. I’m trying to make myself suffer through the second half of a crappy audiobook so I have something to post, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. I’ve decided to dispense entirely with any extracurricular reading goals (beyond the Usual Fifty), so we’ll see what happens. I’m not even going to try making a TBR list because we all know how that turned out last year. Yay, 2015!
Photo credit: Jack
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