Following up last year’s review, here is a count of the novels I read or listened to this year:
Digital books: 101 (-15)
Printed books: 17 (Travis McGee series, misc other paperbacks)
Audio books: 12
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Total: 130 (115)
So, slightly less than last year but I don’t feel neglected having dropped from 131 reads in 2013. Looks like I’ve been pretty steady in my reading habits. Got a host of digital collections I’ve yet to read through yet as well. I bought a 14-book collections of fantasy I’m only one book into, and another trilogy that I’ve haven’t gotten to book two yet (but I will).
Some of my favorites for the year:
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace
- Comoran Strike series by J.K. Rowling (writing as Robert Gailbraith)
- Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells
- Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
- Mindspace Investigations by Alex Hughes (Books #1-5)
- Dark Lightning by John Varley (Thunder & Lightning #4)
- Coming Home by Jack McDevitt (Alex Benedict #7)
- Shattered by John Hearne (Iron Druid #7)
- Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger (Finishing School #3)
- Robert A. Heinlein, Vol 2: In Dialogue with His Century by William H. Patterson Jr.
Of them all The Martian earns my highest rating. When I told people about it I summed it up this way, “MacGyver on Mars”. nuff said! A hard science near-future novel with an interesting premise and main character with an attitude that made it a delight to read and when I got the audiobook version, to listen to as well. I’ve now read it twice and listened to the audio version three times and loved it each time. The narrater rocked as the character, hands down.
Creativity, Inc. tells the story of Pixar, my favorite creative company of all time, even beyond what Disney had done during the rest of my life. I take personal days to slip into the first screening of a new Pixar movie simply because the stories are so damn good. Now that they are part of Disney and their creatives are in charge, the story level of Disney releases has also raised to a more enjoyable level.
Hopefully I’ll find enough interesting reads to keep me on track for 2015.
