The Book Thread Book • Page 17

1. 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I don't really consider myself a King fan even though I've read a ton of his work, but this book blew everything I read of his (excluding The Stand) outta the water.
2. Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli. So much fun from start to finish, and made me become a true fan of Apple under Steve Jobs, as well as better understand him outside of exaggerated biopics.
3. Tie among The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman), A Once Crowded Sky (Tom King), and The Fireman (Joe Hill). I haven't finished Hill's yet, but I also read about 150 pages every time I pick it up. The world and characters are so enthralling. Gaiman's was extremely mythological with a warm center, and King's was a literary novel about superheroes, which scratched every literature itch I have.

 

I just finished Slaughterhouse-Five yesterday and started Cat's Cradle today. It took me too long to dive into Vonnegut, but I'm loving it.

 

Looking back, I didn't read nearly as much this year as I thought I did. I think my top three would be:

1. Special Topics In Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
2. The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass - Stephen King
3. The Familiar Volume 3: Honeysuckle and Pain - Mark Z. Danielewski

 

EDIT: whoops did not see 3, well whatever here's 10.

1. The Fireman - Joe Hill
2. Hero of Ages (Mistborn 3) - Brandon Sanderson
3. End of Watch (Bill Hodges 3) - Stephen King
4. The Secret Life of Souls - Jack Ketchum & Lucky Mckee
5. White Sand - Brandon Sanderson
6. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
7. Steelheart - Brandon Sanderson
8. Honeysuckle and Pain (The Familiar 3) - Mark Z. Danielewski
9. On Writing - Stephen King
10. Bird Box - Josh Malerman

(runners up)
Disappearance and Devil's Rock - Paul Tremblay
The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion 2) - Dan Simmons
The Wise Man's Fear (Kingkiller 2) - Patrick rothfuss

I've also been reading the Wheel of Time series and I can't really compare that experience to any of these. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

I also gave a few 1 Star reviews on Goodreads this year which is super rare for me so I guess the worst books of the year...
1. Ashes of Pompeii (Purge 5) - Sam Sisavath
2. 24690 - A A Dark
3. What Vengeance Comes - Anthony M Strong

I also think I can put together a list of only 2016 books but I still have one I need to read.

 

Top 3 is really tough for me. But here's where it currently stands. Most of my non-comic book reading has been non-fiction I would say.

Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me by Steven Hyden
Ahsoka by E.K. Johnston
Showboat by Roland Lazenby

 

History of the Rain
Gilead
All the Light We Cannot See

 

Top 3:

Play It As It Lays (Didion)
Dance Dance Dance (Murakami)
The Bell Jar (Plath)

Also a big fan of:

The New York Trilogy (Auster)
The Names (DeLillo)
The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway)
A Visit from the Goon Squad (Egan)
Joyland (King)
The Terror (Simmons)
Journey to the End of the Night (Celine)

 

A Kim Jong Il Production - Paul Fischer
Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception - Claudia Hammond
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate - Naomi Klein

It's mostly been a year of buying random books for 3 bucks or less off of the nook store.

 

1. The Dark Tower #7 - Stephen King
2. The Fireman - Joe Hill
3. Redeployment - Phil Klay

 

Books:
1. Warlock Holmes-A Study In Brimstone by G.S. Denning
2. Psych's Guide To Crimefighting by the Totally Unqualified by Shawn Spencer
3. Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
4. Lock and Key:The Initiation by Ridley Pearson
5. Can I Say:Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums by Travis Barker

These were the only actual books I read this year so this was pretty easy to do.

Audiobooks:
1. Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
2. Presto:How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette
3. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
4. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

I listened to the rest of HP series(except DH so far), Bill Hodges trilogy, and all 3 Robert Galbraith novels as well as some short stories by Stephen King as well.

Graphic Novels:
1. Nailbiter Vol 1-4
2. Dark Night: A True Batman Story
3. Archie Vol 1-2
4. Batman/TMNT Vol 1
5. I Hate Fairyland Vol 1

Honorable mention:
Black Magick Vol 1

 

Yessss Auster is the best, trying to finish up all of his work

 

My three:
Go Tell it on the Mountain
Girlchild
In the Time of the Butterflies

Graphic Novels:
I Kill Giants (x1500000)
March
City of Clowns

 

oh man, i didn't know they were re-releasing the original Goosebumps books. goddamn, i loved those as a kid (like most awesome kids).

unhappy that not all are released and / or aren't going to be and not super happy with the new covers as they feel too cartoony to me. luckily i found this awesome set that i bought immediately:




collector's tin with 5 of the "most popular" books (agree with 4 of the 5 if memory serves) - with original artwork! awesome.

 

Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl is the most well-written rock memoir I've read. Carrie Brownstein really is a genius.

 

Late addition to my favorite books of the year, The Fisherman by John Langan. Absolutely phenomenal. A real horror epic.

@Night Channels I'm looking at you...In the afterword he says "the genre publishers said to was too literary, the literary publishers, too genre." So you know, it's too well written and too terrifying.

 

As always, thanks for the recommendation. I'll probably start it after I finish Malus Domestica.

 

I haven't heard of Malus Domestica but the first thing it says on Amazon is "In the grand tradition of Stephen King's It..." I'll have to check that out. EDIT: And n0s4a2, damn

 

I've got this on Audible to listen to soon.

 

A 2017 Reading Challenge to keep you well rounded • /r/books

A friend showed me this and I'm gonna attempt it.

So far my list is All Quiet on the Western Front, Breakfast of Champions, Complete Poems of Edgar Allen Poe, Dune, Eye of the World, Farewell to Arms, Joyland, Looking for Alaska, Number9Dream, On Writing, Stranger in a Strange Land, and to Have and Have Not.

Gimme some recommendations.

 

I've been reading LOTR for like a year and a half but I'm going to try to be better next year. I bought American Gods and the second Mindy Kaling book over the weekend

 

Cats Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, Bossypants, Lies of Locke Lamora.....think that's it for the year. Need to do a LOT better haha.

 

Carlos Ruiz Zafon's "The Shadow of the Wind" is my rec until I die. Qualifies potentially for #1, #6, #33, and #51.

 

It's a masterpiece. The book has a few stellar illustrations so you'll definitely want to search those out on the internet if you're listening.

 

There's a lot of great stuff on that list so far.

 

Iirc you were the one who told me to get Joyland actually.