Reading log, 2018

Not many great books this year, but there were a few. My favorite is Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain. Number two is Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, about climbing Mount Everest.

I also enjoyed the collection of short stories by Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others. The titular story, “Story of Your Life,” was made into the science fiction movie Arrival, released in 2016.

• James M. Cain
  Mildred Pierce (1941)
• Ted Chiang^†
  Stories of Your Life and Others (2002)
• Gretchen Bakke^†
  The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future (2016)
• Ursula K. Le Guin
  A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
• Jon Krakauer
  Into Thin Air (1997)
• James S. A. Corey^†
  Leviathon Wakes (2011)
• Elmore Leonard^†
  Maximum Bob (1991)
• Lauren Beukes^†
  Zoo city (2010)
• Alice Feeney^†
  Sometimes I Lie (2017)
• A. J. Finn^†
  The Woman in the Window (2018)
• Eric H. Cline^†
  1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (2014)
• Michael Lewis
  Moneyball (2003)
• Devin Murphy^†
  The Boat Runner (2017)

†	First time to read author

Reading log, 2017

The year 2017 marks when I caved and got a smartphone. Nevertheless, I still found time to read ordinary books.

My favorite from the year is Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny (1969), a science fiction novel about planetary colonists who possess god-like technological capabilities and literally turn themselves into gods to be worshiped by people lacking those technologies. However, my one-sentence synopsis fails to capture the poetic beauty of the writing. That said, this book is not for everyone.

A more general recommendation is City of Thieves, by David Benioff (2008). It's about two young men in Stalingrad during the siege of World War 2 and their mission to procure a dozen eggs for a wedding cake for a Russian general's daughter.

Lastly, I'll point out that every book I read in 2017 was by an author I had never read before. This wasn't my original intention, but by summer it had become a thing and I kept the streak going. Towards the end of the year, I scoured my file of reading suggestions to find new authors, leading me to read a romance novel (!) set in pre-revolution eighteenth century France (These Old Shades, by Georgette Heyer (1926)) and Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)—both of which were great reads.

• Daniel Suarez^†
  Daemon (2009)

• Roger Zelazny^†
  Lord of Light (1967)

• Malcolm Gladwell^†
  Outliers (2008)

• Anthony Williams^†
  C++ Concurrency in Action (2012)

• Charles C. Mann^†
  1941: New Relelations of the Americas Before Columbus (2005)

• David Benioff^†
  City of Thieves (2008)

• Michael Lewis^†
  The Undoing Project (2016)

• Mary Shelley^†
  Frankenstein (1818)

• James M. Cain^†
  The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)

• Robert Montgomery^†
  Sheppard Lee (1836)

• Dashiell Hammett^†
  Red Harvest (1929)

• Georgette Heyer^†
  These Old Shades (1926)

• Harriet Beecher Stowe^†
  Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

†	First time to read author

Reading log, 2016

Here it is, my annual reading list, for 2016.

Far and away my favorite of the year was The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. Never having read it until this year, I was surprised that it's a pro-socialism book, not an anti-food-packing-industry book. Said Sinclair about the novel after its publication: “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”

• Elizabeth Gaskell^†
  Cranford (1853)

• G. K. Chesterton
  The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)

• Oscar Wilde^†
  The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

• Anne Morrow Lindbergh^†
  Gift From the Sea (1955)

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle^†
  A Study in Scarlet (1887)

• Charlie Jane Anders^†
  All the Birds in the Sky (2016)

• Oscar Wilde
  The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  The Sign of the Four (1890)

• Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu^†
  C++ Coding Standards (2005)

• Upton Sinclair^†
  The Jungle (1906)

• H. G. Wells
  The War of the Worlds (1897)

• Charlotte Brontë
  Jane Eyre^‡ (1847)

• Theodore Sturgeon^†
  More Than Human (1953)

• Hugh Howey^†
  Wool (2012)

• Emily St. John Mandel^†
  Station Eleven (2014)

†	First time to read author
‡	Reread

Reading log, 2014

Another year, another list of books.

Far and away the best books in this list are the four making up the series The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe. It had been a long time since I had read epic fantasy that felt as enormous as worlds are supposed to be, and as weird.

• Joe Hill
  NOS4A2 (2013)

• Albert Camus
  The Stranger (1942)

• T. C. Boyle
  When the Killing's Done (2011)

• Leo Frankowski
  Cross Time Engineer (1986)

• Stanislaw Lem
  Solaris (1961)

• William Poundstone
  Labyrinths of Reason (1988)

• Walter Alvarez
  T. Rex and the Crater of Doom (1997)

• Bill Bryson
  A Walk in the Woods (1998)

• Gene Wolfe
  The Shadow of the Torturer (1980)

• Gene Wolfe
  The Claw of the Conciliator (1981)

• Gene Wolfe
  The Sword of the Lictor (1982)

• Gene Wolfe
  The Citadel of the Autarch (1983)

• Philip K. Dick
  The Man in the High Castle (1962)