Blind Prophecy

Since it’s that time of year… in a tradition dating back to at least last year, I present…

Books I read in 2006:

• Music to My Sorrow (Mercedes Lackey)
• Evensong (Gail Godwin)
• Eragon (Christopher Paolini)
• Eldest (Christopher Paolini)
• Tales of the City (Armistead Maupin)
• How to Change Anybody (David J. Lieberman)
• How We Are Hungry (Dave Eggers)
• Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman)
• Forest of the Heart (Charles de Lint)
• One Good Knight (Merecedes Lackey)
• Newcomer’s Handbook for Moving to San Francisco and the Bay Area (Michael Bower, Ruth Rayle)
• AfterBurn: Reflections on Burning Man (Lee Gilmore, Mark Van Proyen)
• Micah (Laurell K. Hamilton)
• Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)*
• Night (Elie Wiesel)
• More Tales of the City (Armistead Maupin)
• Further Tales of the City (Armistead Maupin)
• Babycakes (Armistead Maupin)
• Significant Others (Armistead Maupin)
• Sure of You (Armistead Maupin)
• Spirit in the Wires (Charles de Lint)
• The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR (Al Ries, Laura Ries)
• Guerilla P.R. Wired (Michael Levine)
• About a Boy (Nick Hornby)
• Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke)
• A Song for Arbonne (Guy Gavriel Kay)
• City of Madmen and Saints (Jeff Vandermeer)
• Widdershins (Charles de Lint)
• Song in the Park (Martin Brant)
• City Magic (Christopher Penzak)
• The History of Love (Nicole Krauss)
• To the Power of Three (Laura Lippman)
• When Darkness Falls (Mercedes Lackey)
• Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
• House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)
• Foucault’s Pendulum (Umberto Eco)
• Choke (Chuck Palahniuk)
• Perdido Street Station (China Mieville)
• Only Revulotions (Mark Z. Danielewski)*
• The Night Listener (Armistead Maupin)*
• America: The Audiobook (Jon Stewart)
• Primal Branding (Patrick Hanlon)
• All Marketers Are Liars (Seth Godin)
• The Golden Compass (Phillip Pullman)
• Fragile Things (Neil Gaiman)
• The Subtle Knife (Phillip Pullman)
• The Amber Spyglass (Phillip Pullman)
• The Scar (China Mieville)
• The City, Not Long After (Pat Murphy)
• Aerie (Mercedes Lackey)
• Iron Council (China Mieville)
• The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins)
• Whose Freedom? (George Lakoff)
• Thinking Points (George Lakoff)
• Letter to a Christian Nation (Sam Harris)
• Outside the Museum Dog (Jonathon Carroll)
• On Brand (Wally Olins)
• The Best of H.P. Lovecraft*
• The G Quotient (Kirk Snyder)
• The Areas of My Expertise (John Hodgman)
• Altered Carbon (Richard K. Morgan)

* Started but unfinished for various reasons

I probably missed a few, but it’s pretty complete. It’s also almost double what I recorded last year. While I included a few audiobooks this year, I left off (once again) graphic novels and purely reference books (even those I read nearly cover-to-cover). The thing that this list most reinforces is how I moved outside my reading comfort zone this year, trying several nonfiction titles, non-Fantasy/Sci-fi stuff, and exploring new authors in the past year.

Favorite discovery of the year: His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman. It almost made up for reading the Narnia books in ’05. Second place goes to the wide world of nonfiction related to marketing/PR/communications theory.

Worst book of the year: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Yes, yes, I know this won awards and stuff, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open for more than a page or two. My attention wandered and it was tedious at best. I tried, but I only got a little past halfway. Second place went to Song in the Park, by Martin Brant… softcore gay erotica where all the characters spoke in epiphany-laced monologues.

Biggest disappointment of the year: Micah by Laurell K. Hamilton. This was LKH’s “last chance” to impress me with the Anita Blake storyline… all she had to do was give me a plot, a detective story that was slightly more interesting than who she’s fucking this week… Didn’t happen, though.

Biggest surprise of the year: Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norell, by Susanna Clarke. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting much. I ended up being very pleasantly surprised. Second place goes to The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, which probably had a more profound effect on me, but wasn’t quite as much of a “surprise.”

The best book of the year: Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville. Although it was a really tough call. Runners-up in this category (and probably would better be described as a tie for first place) include: Night, by Elie Wiesel; The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, by Al Ries, Laura Ries; and House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski.

Up next… movies of 2006 and/or comics of 2006 (depending on my mood).

Filed under: livejournal by Jere Keys