I've had a bit of a bad year in terms of books, lots of disappointments.

A Song of Ice and Fire: I read in it's entirety this year, perhaps one of the standout titles.

Dresden Files: Ghost Story.

The Way of Kings: I didn't really feel it, this is the second Sanderson book I've felt ambivalent about, perhaps because I went in expecting aSoIaF with magic armour and got this idealistic prophet storyline. Mostly it felt like a thousand page introduction. The next book will probably be much better.

Elantris: A good one, but again something was missing. I'm just beginning to think I just don't like Sanderson's idealistic fairy-tale style.

The Painted Man- Awesome book. The sheer tension that I felt whenever sunset came in the book was unlike anything I've ever felt before. I got seriously sucked in.

The Desert Spear: The sequel to the Painted Man. The first third of the book was good, then it quickly veered into infuriating territory, I've think I've had a rant or two on the topic.

Shit My Dad Says: Had some good laughs.

Wild Cards 1-06: Great. Fucking. Series. It never lets you forget the origins of people's powers and how many suffered while only a few benefited and it actually deals with the political ramifications of an alien virus killing a significant portion of NYC, deforming the survivors and giving about 1% powers. The protagonist (if you can call him that in an anthology series) and the antagonists of the second and third novel were kinda Mary Sue-ish, but I didn't care.

I stopped because the writers decided to take it in a new direction with new characters after half-a-dozen books, which I never take kindly to.

Both Locke Lamora books: Simply fan-fucking-tastic. We really need to lock the author in a cupboard and get him writing 24/7.

Both Tucker Max books: Hilarious in their own sexist, douchebag, frat-boy way. Following the hate surrounding these books was almost as interesting as the books themselves.

Ron Jeremy's Autobiography: Very interesting.

Wise Man's Fear: I probably read Name of The Wind this year too, but I can't quite remember. Whatever. Whenever I read it, it was the most fun thing I did that week.

American Gods: Disappointing.

Both books in The Strain trilogy: Best horror books this year for me. The tension in the first one was just incredible.

The Black Company: For a book written in the Eighties with a bunch of tropes I despise this was surprisingly good.

These are just the ones I can think of off-head. There are a few I never completed because they disgusted me, or were just plain boring, but I don't count those.

 

Mixed feelings on that one. This is probably one of the exceptions to my earlier statement. Some of the concepts were interesting (as well as the initial setup), so I trudged through to get to the good stuff that I thought was going to come. Unfortunately, it never materialized. The plot becomes haphazard, and ultimately doesn't make that much sense. I don't know why it's touted as a fantasy classic.

 

This makes me sad at how little I've read over the entire year (especially since my eReader broke). Definitely plan to change that now.

 

2 hours a day of commuting and reading in the evenings...

Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files - I've got this habit of rereading the whole Dresden series with every new book...
Arthur C. Doyle - complet Sherlock Holmes saga (4 books + 5 anthologies)
Robert A. Heinlen - Stranger in a Strange Land
George R. R. Martin - A Game of Thrones - will finish the rest by the end of the year
Wilbur Smith - River God, Seventh Scroll, Warlock
H. Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines
Phipil Pullman - His Dark Materials trilogy
Pratchett & Gaiman - Good Omens
Pratchett - I Shall Wear Midnight, Strata, a few Discworld Novels
Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys
Ursula Le Guinn - A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore
David Eddings - Belgarath the Sorcerer, Polgara the Sorceress, the Belgaria, the Malloreon (reread)
the Bible (only the Old Testament)
Brahm Stoker - Dracula
Patricia N Elrod - The Vampire Files (12 books)
Harry Connolly - Child of Fire, Game of Vages -

a dozen or so books in Polish
a few fantasy/sci-fi anthologies (including Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life)
and a pile of, as it turned out, below-average novels that I won't bother to mention

 

To be honest it's hard to remember exactly what took place this year and what was in previous years, but here we go...

Fiction:

The big three:

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (^)
A Dance with Dragons by George Martin (^)
Ghost Story by Jim Butcher (^)

The Wind-Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (*)
Hamlet by You-Know-Who
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb (*)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (^)
The Passage by Justin Cronin
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (^)
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
The Magicians by Lev Grossman (*****)

Plus at least two reads of Kingkiller, a complete re-read of SoIaF, and various Dresden Files re-reads. Plus fanfiction, though that has been a lot less this year than in previous years.

Non-fiction:

For brevity, will exclude articles and books that I didn't read in their entirety (unless otherwise indicated).

Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter (^, re-read)
Chomsky, A Guide for the Perplexed by John Collins (^)
Mathematics and Reality by Leng
The Nature of Mathematical Knowledge by Thomas Kitcher
Philosophy of Biology by Rosenberg and Arp ($)
The Philosophy of Artificial Life by Boden ($)
The Scientific Image by Van Fraassen
How The Laws of Physics Lie by Nancy Cartwright
Every Thing Must Go by Ladyman and Ross (^)
It's About Time by Mermin (^)
The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking
The Mathematical Universe by William Dunham
A Brief-History of Time by Stephen Hawking (re-read)
Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman (^, re-read)
Six Not-So-Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman
Q.E.D by Richard Feynman (re-read)
Physics and Philosophy by Warner Heisenberg
An Introduction to Probability and Inductive Logic by Ian Hacking (~)
Representing and Intervening by Ian Hacking
Foundation Mathematics by K.A. Stroud (^, ~)
Chemistry by Ratcliff et al (~)
Biochemistry by Voet and Voet (~, +)
Essentials of the Human Brain by John Nolte (~)

^ = good book
* = disappointing
~ = textbook
$ = anthology
+ = did not finish/in-progress

Dick-waving complete.

 

I don't know if this was your experience, but I thought both of these had fantastic premises and then ended up failing to live up to my expectations. I still liked them, but they could have been better (especially The Wind-Up Girl...really cool idea, if slightly unrealistic).

 

I read a lot this year, but the majority of it was YA novels so I won't bother listing out specific titles.

Although I'm with Joe- Infinite Jest was amazing. It took me two months of gym classes to get through it, but it was completely worth it.

The Pirates of Somalia was another interesting book. It's one of the few non-fiction books I've read recently.

Then I also read several books that people recommended on here- Lies of Locke Lamora, the Codex Alera series, and whatnot.

 

Per Goodreads:
Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch
The Half-Made World - Felix Gilman
1984 - Orwell
Animal Farm - Orwell
The Time Machine - HG Wells
Brave New World - Huxley
Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy - Adams
Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Side Jobs - Butcher
Wise Man's Fear - Pat Rothfuss
Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie
Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay
Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson
Ghost Story - Butcher
Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks
Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
These Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World of ESPN - Andrew Miller
Death By Black Holes - Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Assorted reads by James Patterson, David Baldacci, Steve Berry etc.

Italics = First Time I Read It

 

-Devlin's Luck, Devlin's Honor, Devlin's Justice by Patricia Bray
-The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
-Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
-The First Betrayal, The Sea Change, The Final Sacrifice by Patricia Bray
-The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
-Mageborn: The Blacksmith's Son by Michael G. Mannning (for 99 cents this was amazing)
-A Dance of Cloaks by David Dalgish (Great book and I plan to read the rest of the series.)

Currently reading The Kinshield Legacy by K.C. May and I own Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

 

Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Nighttime

Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Nighttime
Orson Scott Card: The Lost Gate
Orson Scott Card: A War of Gifts
Orson Scott Card: Lost Boys
Orson Scott Card: Treasure Box
Orson Scott Card: First meetings
Jim Butcher: Storm Front
Arne Berggren: Fisken
Arne Berggren: Konfirmanten
Neil Gaiman: Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman: Stardust
Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere
Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman: Good Omens
Chuck Palahniuk: Pygmy
Bret Easton Ellis: Less Than Zero
Bret Easton Ellis: The Rules of Atraction
Douglas Coupland: jPod
P. G. Wodehouse: The Girl on the Boat
Chuck Klosterman: Killing Yourself to Live
Michael Lawrence: The Toilet of Doom
Are Kalvø: Absolutt Oslo
Bret Easton Ellis: Lunar Park
Geoff Emerick: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles
Claes Holmström: Tredje Stenen fra Solen
Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book
Donna Tartt: The Little Friend
Susan Eloise Hinton: The Outsiders
Charles Webb: The Graduate
Iain Banks: The Steep Approach to Garbadale
Sveinung Mikkelsen: Zombi
Lars Saabye Christensen: Maskeblomstfamilien
Tore Renberg: Det var Mine Gamle Dager
Lars Ramslie: Fatso
Thomas Brussig: I den Korte Enden av Sonnenallee

 

Ive read way too much this year, currently reading a few maths and biology textbooks.

 

Since last November, I've read - or at least finished - quite a few books. Here are all the ones I remember off the top of my head. (*) means it's a re-read. There are probably more, but these are what I remember.

-The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (I've found myself re-reading it a lot lately. On my fourth complete re-read of the month.)(*)
-The Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher (Re-read it at one point while bored.)(*)
-The Ciaphas Cain Series by Sandy Mitchell
-The Ultramarines Series by Graham McNeil
-The Grey Knights Series by Ben Counter
-The Gaunt's Ghosts Series by Dan Abnett
-The Eisenhorn Series by Dan Abnett
-The Ravenor Series by Dan Abnett
-The Salamanders Series by Nick Kyme
-The Horus Heresy series by Various Authors
-The Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter
-The Destiny's Children Series by Stephen Baxter
-The Honor Harrington Series by David Weber
-The Empire From Ashes Series by David Weber
-The Player of Games by Iain M Banks
-Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
-Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks
-Matter by Iain M Banks
-Surface Detail by Iain M Banks
-Look to Windward by Iain M Banks
-Blindisght by Peter Watts
-Crysis: Legion by Peter Watts (Don't judge me: it was actually good.)
-Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
-Cadian Blood by Aaron Dembski Bowden
-Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski Bowden
-Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
-Accelerando by Charles Stross
-American Gods by Neil Gaiman(*)
-Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross
-The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross
-The God Engines by John Scalzi
-Old Man's War by John Scalzi
-The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
-Halo:Cryptum by Greg Bear (Again, don't judge. It's by Greg Bear.)
-Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
-Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
-Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
-Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
-Broken Angels by Richard Morgan
-Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling
-The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
-Wise Man's Feat by Patrick Rothfuss
-A Game of Thrones by GRR Martin
-A Clash of Kings by GRR Martin

For school, over the last year, I've read the following.

Oedipus Rex(*)
Macbeth
Othello
King Lear(*)
Hamlet(*)
The Tempest(*)
Brave New World(*)
1984(*)
To Kill A Mockingbird
Of Mice and Men (*)
Catcher In The Rye(*)
The Great Gatsby
Paradise Lost(*)
Frankenstein(*)
Moby Dick(*)
Doctor Faustus
Lord of The Flies(*)

In terms on nonfiction, I've read a few textbooks, some Sagan, and a lot of Kurzweil.

 

Fiction

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The End of Eternity, Isaac Asimov
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi
The Sea, John Banville
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
Zoo City, Lauren Beukes
Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Talents, Octavia E. Butler
The Tartar Steppe, Dino Buzzati
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, John le Carre
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
In the Heart of the Country, J.M. Coetzee
Over Sea, Under Stone, Susan Cooper
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Zendegi, Greg Egan
City of Veils, Zoe Ferraris
Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
From Russia With Love, Ian Fleming
Dr. No, Ian Fleming
American Gods, Neil Gaiman
Sandman: The Dream Hunters, Neil Gaiman
Strange Evil, Jane Gaskell
Feed, Mira Grant
Pandora's Star, Peter F. Hamilton
Judas Unchained, Peter F. Hamilton
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
Have Space Suit, Will Travel, Robert A. Heinlein
Starman Jones, Robert A. Heinlein
Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse
The Sinister Pig, Tony Hillerman
God's War, Kameron Hurley
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson
Southern Gods, John Hornor Jacobs
Chasing the Dragon, Nicholas Kaufmann
Lisey's Story, Stephen King
Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Hero, Perry Moore
Shadow on the Sun, Richard Matheson
The Revisionists, Thomas Mullen
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
Blaze of Glory, Sheryl Nantus
The Ghosts of Belfast, Stuart Neville
The Scarlet Pimpernel, Emmuska Orczy
Life As We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer
True Grit, Charles Portis
Going Postal, Terry Pratchett
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
The Human Stain, Philip Roth
The Wise Man's Fear, Patrick Rothfuss
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
The Girl Who Played Go, Shan Sa
A Silver Thread of Madness, Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Elantris, Brandon Sanderson
The Android's Dream, John Scalzi
The Lonely Londoners, Samuel Selvon
Hyperion, Dan Simmons
The Fall of Hyperion, Dan Simmons
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
Battle Royale, Koushun Takami
The Kreutzer Sonata, Leo Tolstoy
Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope
The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Catherynne M. Valente
The Habitation of the Blessed, Catherynne M. Valente
After the Golden Age, Carrie Vaughn
Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaughn
Borges and the Eternal Orangutans, Luis Fernando Verissimo
A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge
A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
Hostile Intent, Michael Walsh
The Way of Shadows, Brent Weeks
I am Not a Serial Killer, Dan Wells
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

Non-Fiction

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage, James Bradley
The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing
Packing for Mars, Mary Roach
The Making of a Chef, Michael Ruhlman
Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, Jane Smiley
The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout
Catching Fire, Richard W. Wrangham

Not counted

Manga, graphic novels, anthologies, academic/technical/financial reading

Reviews for most of these can be found on my reviews page.

 

Secret Texts Trilogy by Holly Lisle
The Rai-Kirah Trilogy by Carol Berg
The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan
The Magicians Apprentice by Trudi Canavan
The Rogue by Trudi Canavan
The Age of 5 Trilogy by Trudi Canavan
Executive Orders by Tom Clancy
The Bear and The Dragon by Tom Clancy
Patriot Games by Tom Clancy
Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Wise Mans Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
The Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Series by Laurell K Hamilton (20 books)
The Merry Gentry Series by Laurell K Hamilton (8 books)
Nightseer by Laurell K Hamilton
14 of the Richard Sharpe Novels by Bernard Cornwell
The Empire Trilogy by Raymond E Feist
The Riftwar Trilogy by Raymond E Feist
The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (13 books)
Brisingr and Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
The Ravenor Trilogy by Dan Abnett
The Eisenhorn Trilogy by Dan Abnett
Titanicus by Dan Abnett
The Lost Omnibus by Dan Abnett (4 books)
Duty Calls by Sandy Mitchell
Fatal Terrain by Dale Brown
The Geneva Deception by James Twinning

This is of course leaving out all of the non-fiction stuff I've read for Uni, and is probably not a complete list of what I've read this year since I don't exactly keep a record as I go along. This is what I remember reading.

 

Eight? Huh. How are they actually going? I gave up after (I think) the third, possibly fourth book when I realised that the last two books had taken place over one day, and the plot had barely advanced.

 

I recall that one of the books covers the all of about 20 hours...

The writing is mediocre, the content also mediocre. But 8 mediocre rather than bad books was a good way to kill a couple of days over the summer.

 

I tend to read more non-fiction books, since I get a lot of my fiction needs from fanfiction.

Fiction

• The Plumed Serpent, by D.H. Lawrence
• Last and First Men, by Olaf Stapledon
• Star Maker, by Olaf Stapledon
• Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien (re-read)
• The Children of Húrin, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Complete Chronicles of Conan, by Robert E. Howard
• Roßhalde (German language version), by Herman Hesse
• The Last Question, by Isaac Asimov (re-read)
• Faust (German language version), by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Non-Fiction

• Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy, by William Barrett
• Works and Days, by Hesiod
• The Second Battle of Mag Tuired
• The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality, by Brian Greene
• The Treason of the Intellectuals, by Julien Benda
• Fragments, by Heraclitus
• In Stahlgewittern ("Storm of Steel"), by Ernst Jünger
• Der Untergang des Abendlandes ("The Decline of the West"), by Oswald Spengler (re-read)
• The Book of Lord Shang, by Shang Yang
• Zen Buddhism, by D.T. Suzuki
• The Ancient City: A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome, by Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges
• The Third Reich in Power, by Richard J. Evans
• The Rommel Papers, by Erwin Rommel (re-read)
• The Republic, by Plato (re-read)
• Nicomachean Ethics, by Aristotle
• Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten ("Foundations for a Metaphysic of Morals"), by Immanuel Kant
• Über die Grundlage der Moral ("On the Basis of Morality"), by Arthur Schopenhauer
• Die Geburt der Tragödie ("The Birth of Tragedy"), by Friedrich Nietzsche (re-read)
• Zur Genealogie der Moral ("On the Genealogy of Morals"), by Friedrich Nietzsche (re-read)
• The Enneads, by Plotinus
• The Confessions, by St. Augustine
• Selected Writings, by Meister Eckhart
• The Crisis of the Modern World, by René Guénon
• The Path of Cinnabar, by Julius Evola
• The Sacred and the Profane, by Mircea Eliade

If the title is in German, then I read the German language version.

 

Bumping this, because I found quite a few things I liked from this thread way back in 2011.

So here is what I've read this year, in no particular order:

Non-Fiction
Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator, by Ryan Holiday
Conversationally Speaking, by Alan Garner
Enjoy the Decline, by Aaron Clarey
NurtureShock, by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman
Worthless, by Aaron Clarey
The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg
What Every BODY is Saying, by Joe Navarro
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins
Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by John Tierney & Roy Baumeister
Fearless: The Undaunted Courage..., by Eric Blehm
Top Dog, by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, by Don Miller
The Mental Game of Poker, by Jared Tendler
Omaha Poker by Bob Ciaffone
Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy, by Jeff Hwang
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller..., by Marc Levinson

Fiction
My Uncle Oswald, by Roald Dahl
Confessions of a D-List Supervillian by Jim Bernheimer
Memoirs of an Antihero, by Drew Blank
Broken Quill, by Joe Ducie
Soon I Will be Invincible, by Austin Grossman
Playing for Keeps, by Mur Lafferty
In Hero Years… I’m Dead, by Michael Stackpole
Charlotte Powers 1: Power Down, by Ben White
The Greater Good, by Sandy Mitchell
Old Man's War, by John Scalzi (reread)
Storm Front -> Cold Days, by Jim Butcher (rereads)
Wearing the Cape, by Marion Harmon (reread)
Villains Inc, by Marion Harmon (reread)
Bite Me: Big Easy Nights, by Marion Harmon (reread)
The Girl Who Would Be King, by Kelly Thompson
Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
Ex-Communication, by Peter Clines
Furies of Calderon -> First Lord's Fury, by Jim Butcher (rereads)
A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Doyle
Moving Pictures, by Terry Pratchett
The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley
The Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch
The Rig, by Joe Ducie
World War Z, by Max Brooks
Distant Star, by Joe Ducie (reread)
Broken Quill, by Joe Ducie (reread)
Knight Fall, by Joe Ducie

 

Most recently:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Also, tried and failed once again to finish Grave Peril by Butcher

 

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (absolutely fucking epic. so excited for words of radiance)
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson (totally forgettable)
Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (you must read this. now. NOW.)
The Lies of Lock Lamora by Scott Lynch (Good)
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (only okay)
The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch (only okay)

+ an Order to Hallows reread.

And that's it. I need to read less fanfiction.