At the beginning of this year, I set a goal of always having two books in my “Now Reading” list – one fiction and one non-fiction. That definitely left me with a much slower reading pace (I just don’t get in to non-fiction as much), a number of the books I read this year were physical books, which meant I only read them at home. The end result is that I read 24 books in 2014. A far cry from the 79 that I read last year. Here’s the list, in the order I read them, with a very brief review following each one.
- S. – J.J. Abrams – ****
- Complicated. The conceit of this book is that it’s a library book that has notes scribbled in the margins between (at least) two other people, and you’re trying to follow 3 different stories (one of which is not written linearly). This took me almost a month to read, by itself! A really interesting read, but it hurt my head.
- Just a Geek – Wil Wheaton – ***
- Just Alright. Good stories, well written, but I’d also read/heard many of them over the years. His writing has improved considerably in the 10 years since this was published.
- Mistborn: The Final Empire – Brandon Sanderson – *****
- Fantastic! This series was great. I loved the world that Sanderson created and the rules for how magic worked. A really easy read, and highly recommended.
- The Well of Ascension – Brandon Sanderson – ****
- Great. Book 2 of the Mistborn series continued everything I liked about the first.
- The Hero of Ages – Brandon Sanderson – ****
- Interesting. The third book in the Mistborn trilogy, wraps up the story line (apparently there is a book 4 set off in the future which I have not yet read). A satisfying and somewhat surprising ending to a great series.
- Improv for Everyone – Greg Tavares – **
- Not for me. Somewhat condescending. The author tries to apply hard-and-fast rules to improv, which doesn’t work. Super micromanage-y in how to approach scenes. If I tried to do even half of this stuff is never not be in my head in a scene.
- The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch – ****
- Fun! I really enjoyed this book (and its sequels, later in the list). It’s basically a heist film (e.g. Ocean’s 11) in fantasy novel-form. Good characters, surprising twists, very interesting world building. Recommended.
- Raising Steam – Terry Pratchett – ***
- Lost Steam. Not my favorite Discworld novel by a long shot. It was missing compelling characters. I haven’t been a fan of the so-called “Moist” set of books in this series, and this was the worst of that bunch. I hope this is not a sign that Sir Terry is losing his fight with dementia. Worth reading if you’re a Discworld fan, for completionism’s sake.
- An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth – Chris Hadfield – ****
- Compelling. Probably the best non-fiction book I read all year. Cmdr. Hadfield is a surprisingly good writer an an excellent story teller. This book did a great job of both making me really want to go to space and also realizing that I probably shouldn’t (and wouldn’t) be allowed to go. Recommended.
- Red Rising – Pierce Brown – ****
- The Hunger Games meets Wool. Interesting story, if a bit typical of YA dystopian novels. I’ll definitely pick up the sequels at some point.
- The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny – Peter McGraw – ****
- Thought provoking. This book uses a narrative/journalistic style to tell the story of two people investigating a theory of what makes something “funny”. The Benign Violation theory of comedy says that it’s funny if it contains both something harmless and naughty at the same time – like an old lady with chronic flatulence.
- Time’s Eye – Arthur C. Clarke – ***
- Interesting concept, poor execution. It’s a time travel book by Clarke, so I really wanted to like it. It was just OK. I may pick up the sequel at some point to see if some of the more fundamental questions are answered, but I doubt they will be.
- The Long Mars – Terry Pratchett – ****
- I’m still loving this series. The third in The Long Earth trilogy, which I think is supposed to eventually have five books.
- Directing Improv – Asaf Ronen – ***
- Mixed feelings. This had some interesting ideas, and was reasonably well written, but I ended up skimming a few chapters that were not relevant.
- Ready Player One – Ernest Cline – *****
- Awesome. This book reminded me, in some ways, of Snow Crash meets Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Except that it was completely different. Great take on the whole cyberpunk/Matrix dystopian future genre.
- Wool – Hugh Howey – ****
- Good. This is really a short story followed by additional writing to make it into a full novel. The first part (the original short story) was excellent. The book got progressively less interesting to me throughout, but I still very much enjoyed it, overall. I may read the sequels, someday.
- Red Seas Under Red Skies – Scott Lynch – ****
- Book two of the Locke Lamora series. Good stuff here. The author spent way too much time going into the details of boating, but otherwise a solid book. The twists were unforeseen, and the ending was exciting, although not 100% satisfying. But it did make me immediately read the sequel.
- The Republic of Thieves – Scott Lynch – ****
- The aforementioned sequel, and third book in the Locke Lamora series. Big series-spanning questions are addressed in this book, and mostly answered. A lot of the more fantastical elements of the world are brought to the forefront in this book. When’s book 4 coming out?
- The Blood of Olympus – Rick Riordan – ****
- The end. A big climactic ending to the series (really to two different series, since The Heroes of Olympus series continues the Percy Jackson series). Good stuff. Yay, YA novels!
- World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War – Max Brooks – ****
- Better than the movie. So much better. I didn’t hate the movie (in fact it made me want to read the book), but how did THIS book turn in to THAT movie? The movie should have been a faux-documentary.
- The Slow Regard of Silent Things – Patrick Rothfuss – ***
- Bizarre. Rothfuss takes one of his more eccentric characters and makes her the main (only) character of this short novella. Told from her point of view, this was somewhat difficult to read. Interesting, but not really what I like in a book. Bring on The Doors of Stone, already!
- What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions – Randall Munroe – ****
- xkcd-cellent. The author of the xkcd comic and former NASA scientist uses his wonderful sense of humor and scientific knowledge to answer dumb questions. The results are fascinating and funny. I follow the “What If?” blog (blag?) online, and had read several of these already, but Randall Munroe had updated many and really brought the book together in a fun way. Makes an excellent bathroom book.
- Rogues – George R.R. Martin, et al – ****
- Long & good. A collection of short stories set in various Fantasy worlds, each starring a “rogue” as the hero. Including stories from Martin, Gaiman, and Patrick Rothfuss. The Rothfuss story, “The Lightning Tree” was probably my favorite, as it stars Bast from The Kingkiller Chronicle, and sheds some light on his character.
- The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch – Lewis Dartnell – ***
- Drier than I’d hoped. This book had grand goals, which it approaches, but does not quite reach. Needed more pictures (seriously – a picture is worth 1000 words). Also, if you were to buy this it’s probably make more sense to have it as a physical book, rather than a digital version, so you can actually read it post-apocalypse.
Average of two books a month. Not bad! I think I’ll continue this two-books-at-a-time-thing into 2015.
2013 Books: https://www.facebook.com/hapdrastic/posts/10200897760426992
