What have you been reading this year?

[EmperorNorton]

The year is almost over: Time for reminiscing.
What have you been reading this year? What did you enjoy particularly? What would you not recommend?

The books I remember reading this year, with a rating from * to ***** (not mentioning a bunch of stuff I had to read for my studies):

Abnett, Dan: Hammers of Ulric (**)
Bishop, David: A Murder in Marienburg (**)
Cleland, John: Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (***)
Crébillon, C.P. de: L'Écumoire (**)
Crébillon, C.P. de: Le Sopha (**)
Eco, Umberto: Foucault's Pendulum (*****)
Dallimore, Kevin: Foundry Miniatures Painting & Modelling Guide (***)
Fielding, Henry: Joseph Andrews (***)
Fielding, Henry: Shamela (***)
Fielding, Henry: Tom Jones (****)
Gaiman, Neil: Stardust (*****)
Gascoigne, Marc: Tales of the Old World (***)
James, M.R.: Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories (****)
Lee, Mike: Invasion! (***)
Lesage, Alain René: Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (***)
Martin, George R.R.: A Clash of Kings (****)
Martin, George R.R.: A Feast for Crows (***)
Martin, George R.R.: A Game of Thrones (*****)
Martin, George R.R.: A Storm of Swords (****)
McNeill, Graham: Guardians of the Forest (****)
Pratchett, Terry: Hogfather (***)
Pratchett, Terry: Soul Music (***)
Pratchett, Terry: The Science of Discworld (***)
Richardson, Samuel: Pamela Or Virtue Rewarded (***)
Saville, Steven: Retribution (*)
Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver's Travels (****)
Thorpe, Gav: Grudge Bearer (***)
Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Lord of the Rings (*****)
Vonnegut, Kurt: Slaughter-House-Five (****)
Weiss, Daniel Evan: The Roaches Have no King (**)
Werner, C.L.: Palace of the Plague Lord (*)
Wieland, Christoph Martin: Die Abenteuer des Don Sylvio von Rosalva (*****)
Yeovil, Jack: The Vampire Genevieve (****)
Zelazny, Roger: Chronicles of Amber (****)

[Boosnickerty]

Anything by Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Neil Gaiman. I spent most of this year tracking down English versions of Japanese books I've been wanting to read. Battle Royale is awesome, the trilogy based on The Ring were pretty good and I also have to recommend The Kouga Files which the anime Basilisk was based. If your interested in the Ring books, Koji Suzuki is the authors name.

[Darkseid Sr.]

Brother Odd -by- Dean Koontz (actually pretty good)
Oedipus Trilogy -by- Sophocles (My new standard of tragedy, sorry Faust)
Nearly everything written by Edgar Allen Poe (Genius. Simply genius)
Of Mice and Men -by- John Steinbeck (for the 3rd time)
East of Eden -by- John Steinbeck (Didn't like as much as his other works)

[JGonspy]

In the last few months I've had a couple of good reads. There were a bunch more earlier in the year, but I'm too lazy to go find them. These are all the ones that are close at hand.

Stephen Leacock: Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Rudy Wiebe: The Temptations of Big Bear
W. O. Mitchell: Who Has Seen the Wind
Robertson Davies: Tempest-Tost
Ernest Buckler: The Mountain and the Valley
Mordecai Richler: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Bret Hart: Hitman

I'd recommend all of them, though that last one may be targeting a more specific audience.

A cookie for anyone who can name what all my books have in common!

[readyeddy?]

I read just about everything I can get my hands on. My job is peculiar as I get an average of five to six twenty minute breaks a night, so I do a lot of reading. What I do is rotate between genres. I'll read a Sci Fi, Fantasy or Horror first, then I'll read a Western novel, then I'll read a miscellaneous novel next. This could be a classic or a biography, mystery or whatever intrigues me, I even read a liberated chick book once. It wasn't bad except all the guys were depicted as inept nitwits.
My most recent reads were in reverse order:

The Beast In Canada Diablo - A collection of three novellettes by Les Savage, Jr written in the Forties.

The novelization of the original King Kong film (apparently released a year before the film.)

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway - A classic, but I found it dry.

[DocDoom187]

I wish I could do this, but I have literally read hundreds of books in the past year. However, some off the top of my head.

Focault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco(*****)
The Odyssey, Homer (***)
19 Minutes, forget the author (***)
Johnathon Strange and Mr. Norell, Susan Clarke (*****)
Prince of Fire, Daniel Silva (****)
The Messenger, Daniel Silva (****)
Einstein, His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson, (****)
The Templar Legacy, forget who at the moment (** and a half)
Intensity, Dean Koontz (***)
Brother Odd, Dean Koontz (** and a half)
Water for Elephants, name escapes me at the moment (*****)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom (*****)
The Alchemist, Paulo Coehlo (*****)
The Last 3 Harry Potter Books (*** and a half)
The Castle in the Forest, Norman Mailer (*** and a half)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith (****)
Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus (****)
Agamemnon, Aeschylus (***and a half)
The Clouds, Aristophanes (****)
The Frogs, Aristophanes (****)
Inferno, Dante (*****)
It, Stephen King (**)
The Hound of the Baskerville, Sir Arthur Conan Doyal (*****)
A Collection of Sherlock Holmes Shorts(don't remember the actual title but this was what it was), Sir Arthur Conan Doyal (*****)
The Road, Cormac McCarthy (*** and a half)
The Secret, Rhonda Byrne (**)
Next, Michael Crichton (****)

More to come when I remember them.

[Frontman]

I've been reading the "Horus Heresy" line of novels. Damn good books.

[gawain]

In spite of being a rabid fan of Tolkien, I'd never really gotten into much fantasy writing outside of his stuff. This year, partly because I've been DM'ing a D&D campaign, I gave in and read a bunch of R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books: the Icewind Dale trilogy, and the four part Legacy of the Drow series, and enjoyed them all quite well, except for the final book in Legacy, which had a bit of a telegraphed ending, but was otherwise decent.

[SinisterIllusion]

Anything by Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Neil Gaiman. I spent most of this year tracking down English versions of Japanese books I've been wanting to read. Battle Royale is awesome, the trilogy based on The Ring were pretty good and I also have to recommend The Kouga Files which the anime Basilisk was based. If your interested in the Ring books, Koji Suzuki is the authors name.

I love Battle Royale. My Mother-In-Law bought for me a few years back. We were just browsing the book store when I ran across it. I doubt she would've bought it had she known the content. :grin:

Back to OP's topic. I didn't get many chances to read this year. Mostly re-read what I already have. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (no movie based on his work will ever be as good as his writing) was a good re-read. Picked up Star Wars: Path of Destruction, wasn't to found of the ending but everything up to it was great. Just bought the first book in the Star Wars: Legacy series (testing the waters before I buy the rest). Also bought No Country for Old Men by Cormac Mccarthy since I loved Blood Meridian and I want to read the book before I see the movie.

[AbeSapien]

These are all the comic book collections and graphic novels I bought/readd this year.

I'll post a list of books later.

Dark Shadows: The Comic Strip Book (****)
Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 AD Volumes 1 (***)
Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 AD Volumes 2 (****)
Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 AD Volumes 3 (****)
Sandman Mystery Theater: The Night of the Butcher (*****)
Sandman Mystery Theater: The Scorpion (****)
Sandman Mystery Theater: The Vamp (***)
Ghost World (***)
What’s New with Phil and Dixie? Volumes 1 and 2 (***)
Starman: Night and Day (****)
Essential Dazzler Vol.1 (***)
Essential Dr. Strange Vol. 2 (***)
Essential Dr. Strange Vol. 3 (**)
Essential Spider-Woman Vol. 2 (***)
Essential Defenders Vol. 2 (****)
Essential Defenders Vol. 3 (***)
Essential Ms. Marvel Vol. 1 (****)
Showcase Presents: Batgirl Vol. 1 (****)
Showcase Presents: Metal Men Vol. 1 (*****)
Music for Mechanics: Love and Rockets Vol. 1 (*)
Tank Girl volume 1 (*****)
Tank Girl volume 2 (****)
Tank Girl volume 3 (***)
Tank Girl: The Odyssey (**)
Tank Girl: Apocalypse (**)
The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes Volumes 1 Batman (****)
The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes Volumes 2 Wonder Woman (***)
The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes Volumes 3 Superman (***)
The Goon Vol. 1 (***)
The Goon Noir (***)
Fool’s Gold (***)
Complete Alex Raymond Flash Gordon (****)
Strangers in Paradise pocket book Vol. 1 (*****)
Robot Dreams (****)
Persepolis (****)
Dungeon Zenith: The Barbarian Princess (***)
Dungeon Parade: A Dungeon Too Many (***)
The Incredible Change-bots (****)
Good Night Irene: The Collected Stories of Irene Van de Kamp (*****)
Korgi (**)
The Essential Painkiller Jane (***)
Painkiller Jane Vol. 1 (**)
Rex Libris: I, Librarian (***)
Pinky & Stinky (***)
Army of Darkness: Shop Till You Drop (**)
Aphrodite IX: Time Out of Mind (**)
Action Philosopher’s Giant Size Thing Volume 2 (**)
Star Trek: The Key Collection volumes 1-5 (***)
The best of Twisted Toyfare Theater volumes 4-8 (*****)
Twisted Toyfare Theater 10th Anniversary Collection (****)
DOOM Patrol: Magic Bus (****)
Doom Patrol (archive edition) volumes 1 (***)
Doom Patrol (archive edition) volumes 2 (****)
Good as Lilly (***)
The Plain Janes (****)
Clubbing (***)
Kimmie66 (**)
Re-Gifters (*)
Animal Man (***)
The Complete Bite Club (***)
Stardust (***)
Runaways HC Volume 1 (*****)
Runaways HC Volume 2 (****)
Runaways HC Volume 3 (*****)
Devil Dinosaur Vol. 1 (**)
Nextwave HC Volume 1 (****)
Nextwave HC Volume 2 (*****)
Young Avengers volume 1 (****)
Young Avengers volume 2 (****)
Runaways/Young Avengers crossover (***)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Volume 1 (****)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Volume 2 (*****)
The Perry Bible Fellowship (*****)
Empowered Volume 1 (*****)
Empowered Volume 2 (****)
Space Pinchy (**)
Man with the Screaming Brain (**)
Fear Agent Volumes 1 and 2 (***)
Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser (****)
Battle Pope volumes 1, 3, and 4 (***)
Glister (***)
Madman vol. 1 (***)
The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo (***)
Predator Vol. 1 (**)
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (****)
Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Other Stories (*****)
Hellboy Animated Volumes 1-3 (***)
The Complete Chester Gould Dick Tracy 1931-1933 (**)
The Complete Chester Gould Dick Tracy 1933-1935 (****)
The Complete Chester Gould Dick Tracy 1935-1936 (***)
Mouse Guard Fall 1152 (*****)
Mister X: The Definitive Collection Volume 1 (***)
Artesia (***)
Artesia Afield (***)
Kolchak the Night Stalker (****)
Kolchak the Night Stalker: Terror Within (****)
Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Lovecraftian Horror (**)

[Ross...]

currently picked up "the arena" Dc story with monarch. Pretty cool if i were you guys id pick it up.

[readyeddy?]

So we're going to turn this into a comic book thread?

[JGonspy]

I'll turn it back on track. I just started reading As For Me and My House by Sinclair Ross. Only got about a fifth of the way in, but it's fairly good so far. Although if I read yet another book about a family living in a small town with a farm, I may blow my brains out.

[EmperorNorton]

Just finished my last book for this year, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.
Revolutionary without a doubt, but complicated.

[Gentlegamer]

Will 2008 finally be the year I read through Durant's Story of Civilization series?

Only time will tell.

[AbeSapien]

Here's a partial list of the books I read this year. As I remember some I'll add more. They're all pretty high in the ratings b/c if I don't like a book I just stop reading it.

Ebert, Roger: I Hated Hated Hated This Movie (*****)
Ebert, Roger: Your Movie Sucks (****)
Green, Bill: I'm a Lebowksi, You're a Lebowski (***)
Greer, James: Guided By Voices: A Brief History (****)
Kaufman, Alan: The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (****)
Keillor, Garrison: Pontoon Boat (*****)
Mazzanoble, Shelly: Confessions of a Part-time sorceress (***)
Nevins, Jess: The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana (*****)
Rand, Ayn: Night of January 16th (*****)
Rand, Ayn: The Virtue of Selfishness (****)
Rand, Ayn: The Fountainhead (****)
Rand, Ayn: We the Living: (***)
Thompson, Hunter S: Hey Rube (***)
Thompson, Hunter S: Generation of Swine (****)
Woodworth, Marc: 33 1/3 Bee Thousand (****)

[SeekerMuadib]

I wish I had more time to read. But as it is I read the most when I eat lunch at work. Or more to the point that is when I read books, comic books are for when I am going to bed.

But just some books I have read over the past few months or are still working on finishing.

BEST ZOMBIE BOOK EVER - World War Z by Max Brooks.

I just recently started to read S.M. Stirling's - Dies the Fire

The New Jedi Order series - I believe I am into the fourth book now, not sure. But I will grab the next book in the series and read it when ever.

Still working on finishing reading the pre-prequels and sequels to Dune from Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Henderson.

High Seas Cthulhu - short stories of Cthulhu in the time of the tall ships.

Just picked up but not read yet - Frontier Chtulhu - once again short stories involving Cthulhu mythos in the Wild West.

So for now that is it. Like I said I do not get to read as much as I like. Plus I have a big old box of books I bought from years past and just not read yet. So I still got plenty of junk in which to read. Not too mention my weekly does of comic book fun.

[tidge]

I used to occasionally post when I'd finished books. I hit a bit of a slump lately, but here is some of what I read in 2007. The wife and I also use audio books quite a bit, so I'll add those:

Audio Books (all unabridged)

Erik Larson's Devil in the White City A story about the City of Chicago, the Columbian Exposition of 1892, and the USA's first serial killer. Recommended. It actually has a lot to offer on divers subjects.

Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Boring, repetative and forumlaic.

Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things. A nice collection of short bits read by the author. I'd have prefered this in print I think.

Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys. An incredibly well read/performed piece. Highly recommended. The Audio version is incredible.

Raymond Chandler's Long Goodbye and Slipback read by Eliot Gould. I love Chandler. I don't really like the Altman film version of TLG (starring Gould) but this older audio books take away some of the bad taste left in my mouth.

JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion, read by Martin Shaw. IMO, this version is the ONLY way to access these stories. His reading is incredible. It's often available on discount and in the newsgroups.


Re-reads (I often am reading 3 things at a time, I try to re-read something I've already read as one of the three)

Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God. I reread these in an effort to prepare myself for either Count Belasarius or King Jesus, but they actually tired me out to move onto the new books!

Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and Pebble in the Sky. An Asimov collection "Opus 100" was a new read, and so I decided to re-read some of his classic I had around.

The Happy Hollisters. (about 10 books in the series) This was nightly readings with my son :p, but counts as re-reads for me!

New reads (that I can remember...)

Alan Moore's Voice of the Fire. Recommended fiction, with caveats. I wrote a short review on HCRealms.

Richard Rhodes Dark Sun. History of the Soviet nuclear weapons development, and the manufacture of the H-bomb. It's not as sexy a tale as The Making of the Atomic Bomb, but it covers different ground.

Jack Yeovil's (Kim Newman) Genevieve. I mean to get around to rereading Anno Dracula and the subsequent books I never got to, so I read this Warhammer universe story. Decent fiction.

David Brin's Kiln People. Recommended SF. As a fan of the noir detective genre, I could be harsher on this book than it deserves...but it's still a mostly fun story. He obviously had fun writing it.

I read a few other non-fiction physics books (that were slightly outdated because they just predated the observation of dark energy) as well as the history The Republic of Pirates (that was interesting, but I didn't finish it before I had to return it to the library! Curse my habits!)

There was also a clever little fiction novel about magic/Las Vegas/Card Tricks, etc. that I am blanking on the title.

I read Arthur C Clarke's Fountains of Paradise just because I never had read it. I'll probably have to re-read it for a solid opinion. I also read Asimov's The Gods Themselves for the first time...very clever stuff, I'd have pegged this as a David Brin story if I hadn't known it was Asimov.

I also read a biography of Grouncho Marx by Ann somebody...not bad, but it was written in a contemporary (just after the time of his death) style that didn't really overcome it's own genesis as a Playboy article.

More books I picked and didn't start/finish:

I've got several Michael Chabon novels but I can't get started: Summerland and The amazing adventures of Cavalier and Clay. I'm mostly through Vogt's classic Slan. I pulled out my Anglo-Saxon reader(s) in an effort to refamiliarize myself with vocabulary and forms to re-read Beowulf (in Old English) but I think that's a lost cause. I've got Vannevar Bush's 1949-sh bok Modern Arms and Free Men as well as some pre-Dyanetics (but not SF) works of L Ron Hubbard I mean to get to.

[tidge]

Ebert, Roger: Your Movie Sucks (****)

Rand, Ayn: The Fountainhead (****)


The first one is on my request list at the Library, I have an unread copy of the second one in my trunk. :p

[tidge]

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway - A classic, but I found it dry.

This is a strangly ironic comment! Rep!

[tidge]

American Gods by Neil Gaiman (no movie based on his work will ever be as good as his writing) was a good re-read.

The audio-book version of American Gods is quite good.

[Hatut Zeraze]

I know I am forgetting some, but here are the ones I can remember for sure:

1. Flight - Sherman Alexie
2. Cell - Stephen King
3. The Conscience of a Liberal - Paul Krugman
4. Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk
5. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
6. The Republican War on Science - Chris Mooney
7. Citizen Vince - Jess Walter
8. Don't Point That Thing at Me - Kyril Bonfiglioli

rereads:
9. Bug Jack Barron - Norman Spinrad
10. Bluebeard - Kurt Vonnegut

[DocDoom187]

10. Bluebeard - Kurt Vonnegut
Speaking of, I just finished Slaughterhouse Five today. What a great book. It was a quick read, had a lot of meaning, and was brilliantly worded. Wow.

[Rokk_Krinn]

Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things. A nice collection of short bits read by the author. I'd have prefered this in print I think.


Some of it does read better than it sounds - in part I think becase of the "seque"-stories within stories or the way things were broken up - but there's still a real treat to hearing an author (especially Neil) reading their own work. Actually a few of them - such as his take on Goldilocks - are better I think. While I normally prefer reading to listening this is one I'm happy to have in both forms (rare for me to do but being I know Neil and enjoy listening to him read I bit the "double purchase" bullet).

I think from Amazon alone last year I purchased 300+ books (and, yes, read the ones that were meant for regular reading) so making a list might be a bit of an endeavour even if I don't include books from regular bookstores, shopping markets, etc. Still, think I may have to sit down and at least figure out the "highlights" of the year (both good and bad).

[Hatut Zeraze]

Speaking of, I just finished Slaughterhouse Five today. What a great book. It was a quick read, had a lot of meaning, and was brilliantly worded. Wow.

I'm with you, man. I think I've read all of his novels. His style and vision are a pretty addictive combination.