Books 2013
I didn't do a great job of choosing recreational reading in 2013. I've spent too much time grazing at the genre fiction buffet, and though I read some good SF, I feel I've shuffled past the point of diminishing returns. I'll read more greens with my sweets in 2014.
Some highlights... the book I enjoyed most in 2013 was probably Rebecca Lee's short story collection, Bobcat.
It isn't just the self-interest talking (or so I believe): I enjoyed the heck out of a bunch of the stories collected in This Is How You Die.
Henry IV, Part 1 jumped to the front of the pack of favorite-Shakespeare-so-far.
Novels and Novellas:
Emshwiller, The Secret City
Chiang, The Lifecycle of Software Objects
Thompson, The Killer Inside Me
Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Anderson, Call Me Joe
Heinlein, Double Star
Leiber, The Big Time
Kosinski, Steps
Wilson, Robopocalypse
Twain, The Mysterious Stranger
Pohl, The Merchants' War
Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Moore, Greener Than You Think
Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau
Clarke, Childhood's End
Lem, The Futurological Congress
Clement, Mission of Gravity
Niven and Pournelle, Lucifer's Hammer
Plays:
Sheridan, The School for Scandal
Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
Shakespeare, Richard II
Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1
Short story collections:
Bacigalupi, Pump Six and Other Stories (Most of these read like abandoned novels-- too spongey for short stories. "The People of Sand and Slag" is tighter than the others, and is worth a look.)
Smith, The First Person and Other Stories (Recommended: "True Short Story" (it's metafunny), "Fedelio and Bess" (why not fuse two operas?))
Link, Stranger Things Happen (Too fantastical to hook me. I enjoyed "Louise's Ghost," though even that one took a long time to get going, and had some quirks I couldn't make sense of.)
Saberhagen, ed, Pawn to Infinity (Recommended: George R.R. Martin's excellent "Unsound Variations." A couple of other solid short stories make this good airplane reading if you're at the intersection of the "enjoys chess" and "enjoys SF" circles.)
Lee, Bobcat and Other Stories (Not a skip-able story in the bunch.)
Bennardo, Malki, North, eds, This Is How You Die (Lots of impressive stories. Among others: North's "Cancer," Kaiden's "Execution by Beheading," Sellar's, "Toxoplasmosis of the Brain [etc]," Francis's, "Lazarus Reactor Fission Sequence.")
Essay collections:
Wallace, Consider the Lobster
Some highlights... the book I enjoyed most in 2013 was probably Rebecca Lee's short story collection, Bobcat.
It isn't just the self-interest talking (or so I believe): I enjoyed the heck out of a bunch of the stories collected in This Is How You Die.
Henry IV, Part 1 jumped to the front of the pack of favorite-Shakespeare-so-far.
Novels and Novellas:
Emshwiller, The Secret City
Chiang, The Lifecycle of Software Objects
Thompson, The Killer Inside Me
Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Anderson, Call Me Joe
Heinlein, Double Star
Leiber, The Big Time
Kosinski, Steps
Wilson, Robopocalypse
Twain, The Mysterious Stranger
Pohl, The Merchants' War
Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Moore, Greener Than You Think
Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau
Clarke, Childhood's End
Lem, The Futurological Congress
Clement, Mission of Gravity
Niven and Pournelle, Lucifer's Hammer
Plays:
Sheridan, The School for Scandal
Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
Shakespeare, Richard II
Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1
Short story collections:
Bacigalupi, Pump Six and Other Stories (Most of these read like abandoned novels-- too spongey for short stories. "The People of Sand and Slag" is tighter than the others, and is worth a look.)
Smith, The First Person and Other Stories (Recommended: "True Short Story" (it's metafunny), "Fedelio and Bess" (why not fuse two operas?))
Link, Stranger Things Happen (Too fantastical to hook me. I enjoyed "Louise's Ghost," though even that one took a long time to get going, and had some quirks I couldn't make sense of.)
Saberhagen, ed, Pawn to Infinity (Recommended: George R.R. Martin's excellent "Unsound Variations." A couple of other solid short stories make this good airplane reading if you're at the intersection of the "enjoys chess" and "enjoys SF" circles.)
Lee, Bobcat and Other Stories (Not a skip-able story in the bunch.)
Bennardo, Malki, North, eds, This Is How You Die (Lots of impressive stories. Among others: North's "Cancer," Kaiden's "Execution by Beheading," Sellar's, "Toxoplasmosis of the Brain [etc]," Francis's, "Lazarus Reactor Fission Sequence.")
Essay collections:
Wallace, Consider the Lobster