2014 Books in Review
Early in 2014 I posted a book capsule post which started with in a probably vain attempt to avoid having a huge pile of book capsules at the end of the year... And I was right. It was a vain attempt, as I only did two more book posts, which covered a scarce three books in little detail. This is a shame, because I managed to read one hundred books in 2014, my first foray into triple digits since 2009 and more than double my nadir of 2011 Of course, a good 44 of those were graphic novels, but that still leaves 54 'real' books. The remaining two were books of poetry.
Part of the reason I got more reading done was that I've basically stopped picking up random books at the library. Now I request specific books, and I check out and read those books, and I only rarely pick up random books that look vaguely interesting. I found that the percentage of the 'randoms' that I liked was very small, and the percentage of the requested books I liked was very high. This makes sense, because any book I requested was one that I found about somehow (friend's recommendation, book review, facebook, whatever) that intrigued me enough to say "hey, I should read that." And even then it goes on a big list, and I pull stuff off that list if it still interests me. I avoid bag sales like the plague, as I always loaded up on "oh, that looks interesting" type books. The system is working; I enjoyed the vast majority of these books.
Another big trend in my reading list in 2014 was that I finally started providing financial support for some of the web comics I've been reading for years. In some cases it was by buying all the extant books. I also ponied up for a Kickstarter. While I'd read much of the content online, all of them had bonus materials, so I feel fine counting them. That covered a full 14/44 of the comics.
I also read two comics series all the way through in 2014. Way back in 2007 I'd been working my way through Bone, but then the library didn't have them, and I got distracted and forgot about them. This year I found one at Half Price books while I was unloading some unwanted books, which sparked my "oh yeah, I really liked that" memory, so I went to Carol & John's and bought the rest and binged read them. I liked them better in 2007, but they were still fun.
I also finally knuckled down and read all of Hellboy. I'd read the odd trade here and there in the past, and my favoring gaming campaign so far set us on a B.P.R.D.-like team, so I got them all from the library in order. My observation of the title is that Mike Mignola is a truly great artist (all that beautiful negative space!), and not such a great writer. Most of his stories ended with some sort of deus ex machina, or were simply "Hellboy can take so much damage that he's effectively invincible." The good news is that when Mignola started involving other writers the stories perked up a lot. This year I'm working through the separate B.P.R.D. title, and I'm really liking that thus far.
Between Bone and Hellboy that's another 14 comics. Ten of the remainder were binge read late at night while I was visiting my friend stephywang in Memphis as she has a large collection and similar tastes. Of particular interest and entertainment value were the Marvel title The Pulse and the Mike Carey title The Unwritten.
Ok, enough comics. Here's the full list and then I'll get to the books.
* = Graphic Novel
^ = Poetry Collection
Simon Garfield - Just My Type: A Book About Fonts - R 1/02
Simon Garfield - On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks - S 1/04
Elie Wiesel - The Judges - M 1/06
Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things - F 1/10
Greg Bear - Hull Zero Three - S 1/11
Brett Easton Ellis - American Psycho - M 2/03
Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis and Other Stories - F 2/07
George Will - Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball - M 2/17
Arthur Marx - Life With Groucho - S 3/08
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.1: The Tub of Happiness - T 3/11
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.2: The Teraport Wars - W 3/12
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.3: Under New Management - R 3/13
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.4: The Blackness Between - F 3/14
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.5: The Scrapyard of Insufferable Arrogance - F 3/14
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.6: Resident Mad Scientist - S 3/15
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.7: Emperor Pius Dei - S 3/15
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.8: The Sharp End of the Stick - Su 3/16
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.9: The Body Politic - Su 3/16
^T.S Eliot - The Waste Land and Other Poems - S 3/29
William Shakespeare - 1 Henry IV - S 4/05
^Garrison Keillor - Good Poems for Hard Times - Su 4/06
Terry Pluto - The Curse of Rocky Colavito - S 4/12
*Bruce Jones & Sam Kieth - Batman: Through the Looking Glass - T 4/12
John Brunner - Times Without Number - Su 4/20
Stephen King - Joyland - T 4/29
*Len Wein - DC Universe: Legacies - S 5/03
Ann Leckie - Ancillary Justice - W 5/14
John Brunner - The Crucible of Time - M 5/20
Stephen King - Doctor Sleep - W 5/21
*Urusla Vernon - Digger: The Complete Omnibus Edition - R 5/22
Drew Gilpin Faust - This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War - R 5/22
Bonnie S. Anderson & Judith P. Zinsser - A History of Their Own: Women in Europe From Prehistory to the Present Volume 2 - M 5/26
J.G. Ballard - Running Wild - M 5/26
*Garth Ennis & John McCrea - Hitman: For Tomorrow - S 5/31
*Sean Murphy - Punk Rock Jesus - S 5/31
Rachel Carson - Silent Spring - R 6/12
Catherynne M. Valente - The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two - F 6/13
Patrick W. Carr - A Cast of Stones - S 6/21
Sarah Vowell - The Wordy Shipmates - Su 6/22
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.10: Longshoreman of the Apocalypse - T 6/24
*Jeff Smith - Bone, V.6: Old Man's Cave - 6/29
*Jeff Smith - Bone, V.7: Ghost Circles - 6/29
*Jeff Smith - Bone, V.8: Treasure Hunters - 6/29
*Jeff Smith - Bone, V.9: Crown of Horns - 6/29
*Jeff Smith - Bone: Rose - 6/29
*Jeff Smith - Bone: Tall Tales - 6/29
Patrick W. Carr - The Hero's Lot - S 7/05
Patrick W. Carr - A Draw of Kings - S 7/05
*Jason Yungbluth - Weapon Brown: Omega Edition - S 7/12
Bill James - Popular Crime - S 7/19
Stephen King & Stewart O'Nan - Faithful - Su 7/20
Owen King - Double Feature - Su 7/27
Laura Taxel & Marilou Suszko - Cleveland's West Side Market: 100 Years & Still Cooking - M 7/28
David Halberstam - The Breaks of the Game - R 8/14
John Steinbeck - East of Eden - M 8/25
Gregory Clark - A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World - M 9/01
Bill James & Rob Neyer - The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers - S 9/6
Joe Hill - NOS4A2 - W 9/10
Kurt Vonnegut - Timequake - S 9/13
George Plimpton - Out of My League - S 9/20
*Rob Balder & Jamie Noguchi - Erfworld, v.1: The Battle for Gobwin Knof - S 9/27
*Rob Balder & Xin Ye - Erfworld, v.2: Love is a Battlefield - S 9/27
James L. Swanson - Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer - F 10/03
Priceonomics - Everything is Bullshit - W 10/08
*Gene Luen Yang - American Born Chinese - R 10/09
*Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso - Batman: Broken City - F 10/10
*Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli - Batman: Year One - F 10/10
*Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean - Black Orchid - F 10/10
*Will Eisner - A Contract With God - F 10/10
*Brian Michael Bendis - The Pulse, v.1: Thin Air - S 10/11
*Brian Michael Bendis - The Pulse, v.2: Secret War - S 10/11
*Mike Carey & Peter Gross - The Unwritten, v.1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity - S 10/11
*Mike Carey & Peter Gross - The Unwritten, v.2: Inside Man - S 10/11
*Various - Batman: The Collected Adventures: Vol 1 - S 10/11
John Brunner - The Avengers of Carrig - Su 10/12
Jane Jacobs - The Death and Life of Great American Cities - F 10/17
John Steinbeck - The Pastures of Heaven - S 10/18
Robert Townsend - Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits - T 10/21
*Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, Stan Woch - Saga of the Swamp Thing, v.4 - Su 11/09
Raymond Carver - What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - R 11/013
Terry Pratchett - Raising Steam - F 11/14
Mark Kurlansky - Salt: A World History - S 11/15
James L. Swanson & Daniel R. Webster - Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution - Su 11/16
*Mike Mignola & John Byrne - Hellboy: Seed of Destruction - S 11/22
*Mike Mignola - Hellboy: Wake the Devil - S 11/22
Studs Terkel - Talking To Myself: A Memoir of My Times - W 11/26
Terry Pratchett - Making Money - W 11/26
Marc Levinson - The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Larger - S 11/29
Terry Pratchett - Snuff - S 11/29
*Mike Mignola - Hellboy: The Chained Coffin / The Right Hand of Doom - Su 11/30
*Mike Mignola - Hellboy: Conqueror Worm / Strange Places - Su 11/30
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.11: Massively Parallel - T 12/02
Jim Benson - Why Limit WIP - W 12/03
*Mike Mignola, Richard Corben - Hellboy: The Crooked Man & Others - S 12/06
Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian - Su 12/07
*Mike Mignola & Duncan Fegredo - Hellboy: The Wild Hunt - Su 12/14
*Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, Kevin Nowlan, Scott Hampton - Hellboy: The Bride of Hell & Others - M 12/15
*Mike Mignola & Duncan Fegredo - Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury - M 12/15
Dave Isay - Listening is an Act of Love - Su 12/21
Raymond Carver - Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? - S 12/27
So what to say about the books? There was the usual pile of baseball books, of which the best was Men at Work by George Will. Yes, that George Will. I also branched into basketball with The Breaks of the Game.
I got caught up on my Discworld by reading three of the more recent novels, one of which was sadly the first Discworld book I flat out disliked. The only other fantasy that I really read was a trilogy by Patrick W. Carr which started with A Cast of Stones while I was home in North Dakota. It was predictable but enjoyable.
I was also briefly caught up with my Stephen King novels; Joyland in particular was really good. For variety, I read a book by each of his sons and found both NOS4A2 by Joe Hill and Double Feature by Owen King to be well worth the time invested.
I bought books in quirky local bookshops in different cities. In Portland I got the seminal work on city planning, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which I found to be utterly fascinating. In Memphis I snagged a pulp novel by John Brunner called "The Avengers of Carrig" which was entertaining enough to read on the plane but far below the standard of his more famous works like the science fiction The Crucible of Time and the alternate history Times Without Number. In San Francisco I found Steinbeck's The Pasture of Heavens, which was good but could not match another Steinbeck book set in the same area that I borrowed from a friend earlier in the year, namely East of Eden.
I borrowed Blood Meridian from a coworker and learned that Cormac McCarthy could make even slaughter seem beautiful. I bought the StoryCorps book "Listening is an Act of Love" as a gift for someone and read it through before wrapping it only to find that Kull wahad! I learned that Studs Terkel, whose oral histories are so fantastic, was also a heck of a memoir writer with Talking to Myself, which I borrowed from my father.
In further non-fiction I greatly enjoyed learning the history of the shipping container with The Box and was disappointed by a poorly written summary of a fascinating topic, namely Salt.
I also, for the first time in ages, failed to read a book, although that was because I couldn't renew Infinite Jest yet again. I may have to buy it.
I don't count re-reads, but I feel I should mention that if I did I'd have virtually all of the Vorkosigan books on there because rshruti borrowed them from me over the course of the year, and every time I pick one up off the shelf I feel compelled to read it again. So there's that.
In short, aside from the volume it was a typical year. There were a few classics, some fantasy, some science fiction, a bunch of non-fiction, some sports books and a lot of comics. My pull list is easily 50 plus items, and there are more suggestions everywhere, so I think the library will continue to be a popular destination for some time to come.
Part of the reason I got more reading done was that I've basically stopped picking up random books at the library. Now I request specific books, and I check out and read those books, and I only rarely pick up random books that look vaguely interesting. I found that the percentage of the 'randoms' that I liked was very small, and the percentage of the requested books I liked was very high. This makes sense, because any book I requested was one that I found about somehow (friend's recommendation, book review, facebook, whatever) that intrigued me enough to say "hey, I should read that." And even then it goes on a big list, and I pull stuff off that list if it still interests me. I avoid bag sales like the plague, as I always loaded up on "oh, that looks interesting" type books. The system is working; I enjoyed the vast majority of these books.
Another big trend in my reading list in 2014 was that I finally started providing financial support for some of the web comics I've been reading for years. In some cases it was by buying all the extant books. I also ponied up for a Kickstarter. While I'd read much of the content online, all of them had bonus materials, so I feel fine counting them. That covered a full 14/44 of the comics.
I also read two comics series all the way through in 2014. Way back in 2007 I'd been working my way through Bone, but then the library didn't have them, and I got distracted and forgot about them. This year I found one at Half Price books while I was unloading some unwanted books, which sparked my "oh yeah, I really liked that" memory, so I went to Carol & John's and bought the rest and binged read them. I liked them better in 2007, but they were still fun.
I also finally knuckled down and read all of Hellboy. I'd read the odd trade here and there in the past, and my favoring gaming campaign so far set us on a B.P.R.D.-like team, so I got them all from the library in order. My observation of the title is that Mike Mignola is a truly great artist (all that beautiful negative space!), and not such a great writer. Most of his stories ended with some sort of deus ex machina, or were simply "Hellboy can take so much damage that he's effectively invincible." The good news is that when Mignola started involving other writers the stories perked up a lot. This year I'm working through the separate B.P.R.D. title, and I'm really liking that thus far.
Between Bone and Hellboy that's another 14 comics. Ten of the remainder were binge read late at night while I was visiting my friend stephywang in Memphis as she has a large collection and similar tastes. Of particular interest and entertainment value were the Marvel title The Pulse and the Mike Carey title The Unwritten.
Ok, enough comics. Here's the full list and then I'll get to the books.
* = Graphic Novel
^ = Poetry Collection
Simon Garfield - Just My Type: A Book About Fonts - R 1/02
Simon Garfield - On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks - S 1/04
Elie Wiesel - The Judges - M 1/06
Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things - F 1/10
Greg Bear - Hull Zero Three - S 1/11
Brett Easton Ellis - American Psycho - M 2/03
Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis and Other Stories - F 2/07
George Will - Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball - M 2/17
Arthur Marx - Life With Groucho - S 3/08
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.1: The Tub of Happiness - T 3/11
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.2: The Teraport Wars - W 3/12
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.3: Under New Management - R 3/13
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.4: The Blackness Between - F 3/14
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.5: The Scrapyard of Insufferable Arrogance - F 3/14
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.6: Resident Mad Scientist - S 3/15
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.7: Emperor Pius Dei - S 3/15
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.8: The Sharp End of the Stick - Su 3/16
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.9: The Body Politic - Su 3/16
^T.S Eliot - The Waste Land and Other Poems - S 3/29
William Shakespeare - 1 Henry IV - S 4/05
^Garrison Keillor - Good Poems for Hard Times - Su 4/06
Terry Pluto - The Curse of Rocky Colavito - S 4/12
*Bruce Jones & Sam Kieth - Batman: Through the Looking Glass - T 4/12
John Brunner - Times Without Number - Su 4/20
Stephen King - Joyland - T 4/29
*Len Wein - DC Universe: Legacies - S 5/03
Ann Leckie - Ancillary Justice - W 5/14
John Brunner - The Crucible of Time - M 5/20
Stephen King - Doctor Sleep - W 5/21
*Urusla Vernon - Digger: The Complete Omnibus Edition - R 5/22
Drew Gilpin Faust - This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War - R 5/22
Bonnie S. Anderson & Judith P. Zinsser - A History of Their Own: Women in Europe From Prehistory to the Present Volume 2 - M 5/26
J.G. Ballard - Running Wild - M 5/26
*Garth Ennis & John McCrea - Hitman: For Tomorrow - S 5/31
*Sean Murphy - Punk Rock Jesus - S 5/31
Rachel Carson - Silent Spring - R 6/12
Catherynne M. Valente - The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two - F 6/13
Patrick W. Carr - A Cast of Stones - S 6/21
Sarah Vowell - The Wordy Shipmates - Su 6/22
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.10: Longshoreman of the Apocalypse - T 6/24
*Jeff Smith - Bone, V.6: Old Man's Cave - 6/29
*Jeff Smith - Bone, V.7: Ghost Circles - 6/29
*Jeff Smith - Bone, V.8: Treasure Hunters - 6/29
*Jeff Smith - Bone, V.9: Crown of Horns - 6/29
*Jeff Smith - Bone: Rose - 6/29
*Jeff Smith - Bone: Tall Tales - 6/29
Patrick W. Carr - The Hero's Lot - S 7/05
Patrick W. Carr - A Draw of Kings - S 7/05
*Jason Yungbluth - Weapon Brown: Omega Edition - S 7/12
Bill James - Popular Crime - S 7/19
Stephen King & Stewart O'Nan - Faithful - Su 7/20
Owen King - Double Feature - Su 7/27
Laura Taxel & Marilou Suszko - Cleveland's West Side Market: 100 Years & Still Cooking - M 7/28
David Halberstam - The Breaks of the Game - R 8/14
John Steinbeck - East of Eden - M 8/25
Gregory Clark - A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World - M 9/01
Bill James & Rob Neyer - The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers - S 9/6
Joe Hill - NOS4A2 - W 9/10
Kurt Vonnegut - Timequake - S 9/13
George Plimpton - Out of My League - S 9/20
*Rob Balder & Jamie Noguchi - Erfworld, v.1: The Battle for Gobwin Knof - S 9/27
*Rob Balder & Xin Ye - Erfworld, v.2: Love is a Battlefield - S 9/27
James L. Swanson - Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer - F 10/03
Priceonomics - Everything is Bullshit - W 10/08
*Gene Luen Yang - American Born Chinese - R 10/09
*Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso - Batman: Broken City - F 10/10
*Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli - Batman: Year One - F 10/10
*Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean - Black Orchid - F 10/10
*Will Eisner - A Contract With God - F 10/10
*Brian Michael Bendis - The Pulse, v.1: Thin Air - S 10/11
*Brian Michael Bendis - The Pulse, v.2: Secret War - S 10/11
*Mike Carey & Peter Gross - The Unwritten, v.1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity - S 10/11
*Mike Carey & Peter Gross - The Unwritten, v.2: Inside Man - S 10/11
*Various - Batman: The Collected Adventures: Vol 1 - S 10/11
John Brunner - The Avengers of Carrig - Su 10/12
Jane Jacobs - The Death and Life of Great American Cities - F 10/17
John Steinbeck - The Pastures of Heaven - S 10/18
Robert Townsend - Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits - T 10/21
*Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, Stan Woch - Saga of the Swamp Thing, v.4 - Su 11/09
Raymond Carver - What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - R 11/013
Terry Pratchett - Raising Steam - F 11/14
Mark Kurlansky - Salt: A World History - S 11/15
James L. Swanson & Daniel R. Webster - Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution - Su 11/16
*Mike Mignola & John Byrne - Hellboy: Seed of Destruction - S 11/22
*Mike Mignola - Hellboy: Wake the Devil - S 11/22
Studs Terkel - Talking To Myself: A Memoir of My Times - W 11/26
Terry Pratchett - Making Money - W 11/26
Marc Levinson - The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Larger - S 11/29
Terry Pratchett - Snuff - S 11/29
*Mike Mignola - Hellboy: The Chained Coffin / The Right Hand of Doom - Su 11/30
*Mike Mignola - Hellboy: Conqueror Worm / Strange Places - Su 11/30
*Howard Tayler - Schlock Mercenary v.11: Massively Parallel - T 12/02
Jim Benson - Why Limit WIP - W 12/03
*Mike Mignola, Richard Corben - Hellboy: The Crooked Man & Others - S 12/06
Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian - Su 12/07
*Mike Mignola & Duncan Fegredo - Hellboy: The Wild Hunt - Su 12/14
*Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, Kevin Nowlan, Scott Hampton - Hellboy: The Bride of Hell & Others - M 12/15
*Mike Mignola & Duncan Fegredo - Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury - M 12/15
Dave Isay - Listening is an Act of Love - Su 12/21
Raymond Carver - Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? - S 12/27
So what to say about the books? There was the usual pile of baseball books, of which the best was Men at Work by George Will. Yes, that George Will. I also branched into basketball with The Breaks of the Game.
I got caught up on my Discworld by reading three of the more recent novels, one of which was sadly the first Discworld book I flat out disliked. The only other fantasy that I really read was a trilogy by Patrick W. Carr which started with A Cast of Stones while I was home in North Dakota. It was predictable but enjoyable.
I was also briefly caught up with my Stephen King novels; Joyland in particular was really good. For variety, I read a book by each of his sons and found both NOS4A2 by Joe Hill and Double Feature by Owen King to be well worth the time invested.
I bought books in quirky local bookshops in different cities. In Portland I got the seminal work on city planning, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which I found to be utterly fascinating. In Memphis I snagged a pulp novel by John Brunner called "The Avengers of Carrig" which was entertaining enough to read on the plane but far below the standard of his more famous works like the science fiction The Crucible of Time and the alternate history Times Without Number. In San Francisco I found Steinbeck's The Pasture of Heavens, which was good but could not match another Steinbeck book set in the same area that I borrowed from a friend earlier in the year, namely East of Eden.
I borrowed Blood Meridian from a coworker and learned that Cormac McCarthy could make even slaughter seem beautiful. I bought the StoryCorps book "Listening is an Act of Love" as a gift for someone and read it through before wrapping it only to find that Kull wahad! I learned that Studs Terkel, whose oral histories are so fantastic, was also a heck of a memoir writer with Talking to Myself, which I borrowed from my father.
In further non-fiction I greatly enjoyed learning the history of the shipping container with The Box and was disappointed by a poorly written summary of a fascinating topic, namely Salt.
I also, for the first time in ages, failed to read a book, although that was because I couldn't renew Infinite Jest yet again. I may have to buy it.
I don't count re-reads, but I feel I should mention that if I did I'd have virtually all of the Vorkosigan books on there because rshruti borrowed them from me over the course of the year, and every time I pick one up off the shelf I feel compelled to read it again. So there's that.
In short, aside from the volume it was a typical year. There were a few classics, some fantasy, some science fiction, a bunch of non-fiction, some sports books and a lot of comics. My pull list is easily 50 plus items, and there are more suggestions everywhere, so I think the library will continue to be a popular destination for some time to come.