My Year in Reading review

Charlie · Joined: 16 Jan 2011 Posts: 112

For 5 years I have been keeping track of every book I read in an Excel spreadsheet, mostly for the hell of it. It is probably noteworthy that my reading has slipped a lot since having kids, but I still managed to squeak out a couple dozen books in 2012. I had some free time, so I figured I'd throw the list in a post, in case anyone is interested in potential reading options. I've also give out some 'awards' where I thought it might be fun.

Charlie

A Discovery of Witches; Deborah Harkness
Valentine's Exile; E.E. Knight
Valentine's Resolve E.E. Knight
Fall with Honor; ;E.E. Knight
Dance with Dragons; George R.R. Martin
Winter Duty; E.E. Knight
Blood Red Road; Moira Young
March In Country; E.E. Knight
Planesrunner; Ian McDonald
Dragon Champion; E.E. Knight
Rot and Ruin; Jonathan Maberry
Kraken; China Mieville
The Wise Man's Fear; Patrick Rothfuss
Worldshaker; Richard Harland
Dust and Decay; Jonathan Maberry
Red Glove; Holly Black
Black Heart; Holly Black
Maze Runner; James Dashner
Railsea; China Mieville
The False Princess; Eilis O'Neal
The Warded Man; Peter V Brett
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword; Ruth Benedict
Partials; Dan Wells
Red Shirts; John Scalzi
Guns, Germs, and Steel; Jared Diamond
Legion; Brandon Sanderson
The Way of Kings; Brandon Sanderson

Most Read Author of 2012: E.E. Knight
I was catching up on Knight's Vampire Earth series, which starts with Way of the Wolf for anyone interested. Distopian future, evil alien vampires, extremely fast paced. Easy reading with lots of man vs evil alien combat. I also read the first book in his fantasy series about dragons, 'Dragon Champion'. It was decent, but has not inspired me to eat up the follow up novels.

Thing I Found in an Airport: Discovery of Witches by Debra Harkness. Echoes of Twilight but better written and for an older audience. Not a bad gift if your spouse is a Twi-Mom in search of a new vampire boyfriend to dream about when you are in bed together.

Stuff in the Young Adult Section Meant for Grown Ups: Anything by Holly Black. The Red Glove and Black Heart books are the sequeal to White Cat. All part of the Hexworker series, I think. Definitely meant for teenagers but written well enough for most adults to enjoy; but only if the idea of stealing someone's memory or changing them into a table just by touching them appeals to you. Jonathan Maberry's Rot and Ruin (Zombie apocalypse coming of age) and Ian McDonald's Planesrunner (my ipad lets me travel between dimensions) are also good reads.

Stuff Better Left to the Teenagers in the Young Adult Section: Blood Red Road and Worldshaker. They were books two and three of a 'buy 2 get the third free' trip to Barnes and Noble. Probably should have just bought book 1.

Epic Fantasy: Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Sequel to Name of the Wind. New twist on a classic plot. Takes ages for him to write new books though.

Best of the Least: I only read a few non-fiction books this year. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond is a great reference material for Fantasy worldbuilding, basically taking a very educated guess at why the world turned out the way it did today. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict is the reader-friendly version of a report written for the U.S. government during World War II to help policy makers understand Japanese Culture during the time and assess how they might react to various strategies during the war; ie, should be assassinate the Emperor or not? Not very light reading material, but a war buff or Asia-file might find it interesting.