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What Have You Read This Year?

Deepsix and Chindi by Jack McDevitt
The Mysterious Planet by Lester Del Rey
There Is No Darkness by Joe & Jack Haldeman
Raft, Timelike Infinity, Ring, and Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter

Currently Reading:

Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwell
The Light of Others Days by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter
 
S. Gomez said:
Oh shoot, something I've (re)discovered this year is the joy of listening to audiobooks. When read by the right voice, they're perfect to send me off to Slumberland. Listened to the whole of The Chronicles of Narnia (some fantastic actors, including Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh, and Patrick Stewart). Neil Gaiman does his own work very well indeed; I went through Fragile Things, M Is For Magic and Coraline. I just finished a set of a few Sherlock Holmes stories and desperately want to find the rest.
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I love audiobooks, saves finding the glasses, and gives an excellent introduction to good Zzzzzz's. My absolute favourite are Alan Bennetts 'Talking Heads'. A collection of monologues voiced by brilliant actors, Maggie Smith, Patricia Routledge and the man himself. I had some Sherlock too but the friend I borrowed them off wanted them back:(
Much easier than trying to get comfortable in bed with a hardback:lol:
 
Zero Minus Ten -- Benson, Raymond
Starship Troopers -- Heinlein, Robert A.
Atrocity Archieves, The -- Stross, Charles
Yiddish Policeman's Union, The -- Chabon, Michael
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy -- LeCarre, John
Select, The -- Wilson, F. Paul
On Basilisk Station -- Weber, David
Bloodline -- Wilson, F. Paul
Honor of the Queen, The -- Weber, David
Moonraker -- Fleming, Ian
Keep, The -- Wilson, F. Paul
Small Favor -- Butcher, Jim
Stars Down Under, The -- McDonald, Sandra
Diamonds are Forever -- Fleming, Ian
Soon I Will Be Invincible -- Grossman, Austin
Doctor No -- Fleming, Ian
Jack: Secret Histories -- Wilson, F. Paul
Speak for England -- Hawes, James
World War Z -- Brooks, Max
Short Victorious War, The -- Weber, David
And Then There Were None -- Christie, Agatha
Goldfinger -- Fleming, Ian
Summon the Thunder -- Ward, Dayton & Dilmore, Kevin
Superpowers: A Novel -- Schwartz, David J.
Final Solution, The -- Chabon, Michael
Virgin -- Wilson, F. Paul
Child 44 -- Smith, Tom Rob
For Your Eyes Only -- Fleming, Ian
Reap the Whirlwind -- Mack, David
American Sphinx -- Ellis, Joseph L.
Thunderball -- Fleming, Ian
What Happened -- McClellan, Scott
Many Religions--One Covenant -- Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal
Playing for Pizza -- Grisham, John
Caliphate -- Kratman, Tom
Devil May Care -- Faulks, Sebastian
Marsbound -- Haldeman, Joe
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed -- Williams, Sean
Spy Who Loved Me, The -- Fleming, Ian
Call of Cthulhu -- Lovecraft, HP
Succession--The Risen Empire -- Westerfield, Scott
Rules of Modern Policing -- Hunt, Gene
By the Sword -- Wilson, F. Paul
On Her Majesty's Secret Service -- Fleming, Ian
You Only Live Twice -- Fleming, Ian

I am currently 500 pages through Steven R. Lawhead's Byzantium. I should complete that and the final Fleming Bond book before Christmas, which would give me a total of 47 books read this year. A far cry from my wife's 75, but hey, who's counting?
 
^I count! :lol: 82, which will hopefully grow to 84 before New Year's Eve. Of course, a good many (but not half) of those are technically re-reads.
 
Hell's Angels - Hunter S Thompson
The Liar - Stephen Fry
The Long Way Round - Charlie Boorman & Ewan McGregor
The Island - Aldous Huxley

I think that's it actually. :alienblush:
 
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

The Tracker by Leslie Thompson

Death Wish by Brian Garfield

First Blood by David Morrell

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

The Children of Men by P.D. James

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

The Revolution by Ron Paul

The Case Against the Fed by Murray N. Rothbard

Star Trek: Strangers from the Sky by Margaret Wander Bonanno

Star Trek: The Price of the Pheonix by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

Up Next:

Star Trek: Final Frontier by Diane Carey

1984 by George Orwell

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

 
Prose books I've read so far this year:

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.

The first four Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books - Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, Swords in the Mist, and Swords Against Wizardry - by Fritz Leiber.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.

Ringworld by Larry Niven.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (amazing - now one of my two or three favorite novels).

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis.

Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris (a great biography of TR's years as president and a fine follow-up to The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, which I read in high school).

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (holy crap, Martin is really ruthless in this one with the bloodletting).

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis.
 
While I am pleased to have found a new author in Stephen Lawhead, I am a bit concerned about the '09 list. I am up to date on The Dreseden Files, the Repairman Jack books, the Vanguard series, and will have completed the original Bond books. The only other Bond book I have to obtain and read is Kinsley Amis's Colonel Sun, as I've already read (and barfed from) Sebastian Faulk's attempt at adding another book to the Fleming Canon. I don't consider Benson or Gardner's books to be part of the Fleming Canon as they updated Bond for the times they were written in, and they are, well in my opinion, absurd serieses.

I am looking forward to Gaiman's Graveyard Book, and trying Lawhead's take on the St. Patrick legend and the Robin Hood legend, but after that I'm going to be worried. I have one more Honor Harrington novel in my possession (book four), but if it's as contrived and techno-babbly as the first three, I'm done with that series.
 
El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges
HMS Unseen by Patrick Robinson
Herzog by Saul Bellow
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Star Trek: Orion's Hounds by Christopher Bennett.
Star Trek: Destiny Trilogy by David Mack
 
Maestro said:
I am looking forward to Gaiman's Graveyard Book...
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I loved it. A very cool book; not quite a novel, not quite a short story collection, it straddles the line in an awesome way. Hope you enjoy it.

I just finished Stardust for the second time, and it still holds as much a spell on me as it did when I first read it. Reading it with the illustrations is so much richer an experience.
 
Well, here's the final list, gang. I doubt I'll get another one in this year. It's been a wild ride of literature. I can give the following tidbits of literary advice: 1.) Fleming's original Bond books are an entity all to themselves. The movies really don't do them justice. Read them in order, as they have a big of an arc. 2.) Repairman Jack and Harry Dresden are kick-ass serieses. Give them both a chance. 3.) Vanguard is good Star Trek. 4.) Screw the critics, Stephen Lawhead's Cymru-set Robin Hood is outstanding.

Here's the list:
Zero Minus Ten-Benson, Raymond
Starship Troopers-Heinlein, Robert A.
Atrocity Archieves, The-Stross, Charles
Yiddish Policeman's Union, The-Chabon, Michael
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy-LeCarre, John
Select, The-Wilson, F. Paul
On Basilisk Station-Weber, David
Bloodline-Wilson, F. Paul
Honor of the Queen, The-Weber, David
Moonraker-Fleming, Ian
Keep, The-Wilson, F. Paul
Small Favor-Butcher, Jim
Stars Down Under, The-McDonald, Sandra
Diamonds are Forever -Fleming, Ian
Soon I Will Be Invincible-Grossman, Austin
Doctor No-Fleming, Ian
Jack: Secret Histories-Wilson, F. Paul
Speak for England-Hawes, James
World War Z-Brooks, Max
Short Victorious War, The-Weber, David
And Then There Were None-Christie, Agatha
Goldfinger-Fleming, Ian
Summon the Thunder-Ward, Dayton & Dilmore, Kevin
Superpowers: A Novel-Schwartz, David J.
Final Solution, The-Chabon, Michael
Virgin-Wilson, F. Paul
Child 44-Smith, Tom Rob
For Your Eyes Only-Fleming, Ian
Reap the Whirlwind-Mack, David
American Sphinx-Ellis, Joseph L.
Thunderball-Fleming, Ian
What Happened-McClellan, Scott
Many Religions--One Covenant-Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal
Playing for Pizza-Grisham, John
Caliphate-Kratman, Tom
Devil May Care-Faulks, Sebastian
Marsbound-Haldeman, Joe
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed-Williams, Sean
Spy Who Loved Me, The-Fleming, Ian
Call of Cthulhu-Lovecraft, HP
Succession--The Risen Empire-Westerfield, Scott
Rules of Modern Policing-Hunt, Gene
By the Sword-Wilson, F. Paul
On Her Majesty's Secret Service-Fleming, Ian
You Only Live Twice-Fleming, Ian
Byzantium-Lawhead, Stephen R.
The Man With The Golden Gun-Fleming, Ian
The Graveyard Book-Gaiman, Neil
Hood-Lawhead, Stephen R.
Backup-Butcher, Jim
 
Darth Bane: Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn

The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson

Intensity by Dean Koontz

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk

Currently reading:

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry

Star Wars: Coruscant Nights - Street of Shadows by Michael Reaves

Duma Key by Stephen King
 
I too have a title to add. I'm in the middle of a book I got for Christmas: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. My reaction to it so far is that it's a modern novel, and that comes with a whole slew of baggage from me. But on the other hand, it's by a Dominican author. And it's about a college-age guy born in the Dominican Republic and living in North America, overweight, a nerd of galactic proportions, an aspiring writer, and desperate for a girlfriend. There was some sort of weird karmic thing going on, 'cause he sounds just like me. :)

I'm waiting for a hold from the library, but the book will likely not get started until 2009. That's, like, so far away! It's called The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox; I'm looking forward to it.
 
Well, for starters, I probably read somewhere between 7000 to 8000 test papers. That takes most of the joy out of reading for me right there.

I also read
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Looking back at it, this is a pretty weird collection.
 
Although fatherhood has slowed me down, I still read hundreds of books each year. The ones that stand out-

Caliphate
some of Jack McDevitt's Patricia Huggins novels
the Myriad Universe tp
and, of course, my annual re-read of Finney's Time and Again.
I also returned to Discworld for the first time in years, picking up Going Postal.
 
I've read less this year than I would like but by far the best book I read in 2008 (or in my life to this point) is "The Last Picture Show" by Larry McMutry. This book captures what it is like to grow up in a small town perfectly. Thinking about it now I need to reread it.
 
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