2017 has begun and its once again time to review the number of books read in the last year. I’m almost ashamed to state the number was way down from the previous 2 years, with only 64 books purchased and read in 2016. Here’s the breakdown:
64 digital books
3 audible books
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67 total books read/listened to in 2016
The largest attention of the year went to reading all of the Hieronymus Bosch mysteries written by Michael Connelly. A close second was his Lincoln Lawyer books as the leads in both series are actually half-brothers on opposite sides of the law in many ways. Interesting and highly recommended if you like biographically rich backgrounds with enough character growth to make them continuously intriguing. If you like them be sure to check out Bosch, the Amazon Prime series for a very good telling of the stories.
Beyond that I read a few of the Kris Longknife series, a sci-fi series by Mike Shepherd. It follows the military adventures of one Kris Longknife, billionaire and heir to a political empire, who wants to make her own impression on the galaxy. While it adheres to many common sci-fi tropes it denigrates itself by having characters using dialog, mannerisms, and decisions that were laughable in the 1950’s let alone centuries in the future. It’s as if culture stood still and events from centuries before was better known than the most current events of the series. Every time I ran into one it made me wonder the author included it and his editor left it in. A pretty mundane series that rolled from one semi- self inflicted comical situation after another and eventually solved by the heroine’s grit and massive bank roll. Avoid unless you have absolutely nothing else to read.
Also reread a bunch of paperbacks when new ones weren’t plentiful enough but can’t say exactly how many. Some Parker (Spenser series), some Heinlein, and some Grafton (Kinsey Millhone series) were in there but the rest is kind of lost.
Seemed to be a bad year for releases as nothing much caught my eye and the ones that might were hideously expensive due to publisher greed. Anything over $10 is too much to pay for a digital version of a manuscript yet publishers continue to push prices of $13 and above for the latest releases.
That’s all for now.
