2014 Year in Books
I read 45 books this year. I had challenged myself to read 40, so I met that challenge and passed it respectably. I’m a moderate-paced reader, not nearly as fast as some of my peers. Most of my reading is done on my 35 minute subway ride to and from work. But, since I always have my kindle on me, I often find myself reading in waiting rooms, at the end of my lunch break, or waiting for my food to arrive in restaurants. One place that I used to read often was before bed and I seldom do that now. My toddler keeps me busy and I’m often so tired that I go straight to bed.
My most favorite books this year were When You Reach Me (Stead), Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? (Moore), A Tale for the Time Being (Ozeki), and Saga Vol 3 (Vaughan). I also really enjoyed Life After Life (Atkinson), The Bees (Paull), The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (North), God Bless You Mr. Rosewater (Vonnegut), and Time and Again (Finney).
I read an abnormally large number of time travel books this year. I didn’t quite realize that was a thing I was trending toward until I started to look at my year in review. When You Reach Me, Time and Again, and Kindred are straight up time travel. A Tale for the Time Being, Life After Life, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, and All My Real Children all dwell in concepts of time -- do-overs, parallel lives, butterfly effects, etc. Time is an interested concept to dwell upon, and I am glad I did.
Only 4 of the books I read (8%) were published in 2014, but 20 (44%) were published in the last five years. The oldest book I read this year was The Invention of Morel, published in 1940, so I didn’t really explore many classics. I read some books that would probably be considered as modern classics, or at least are on their way to being considered classics: Morel, Kindred, Time and Again, Speedboat, A Morbid Taste For Bones, Invisible Cities, God Bless You Mr Rosewater, Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?, We Have Always Live in the Castle, Norwegian Wood, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, and Blood Meridian. Favorites here are Time and Again, God Bless You Mr Rosewater, Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?, and Norwegian Wood. Least favorites were Speedboat and Blood Meridian.
I read 14 (31%) books related to my book club - either book club choices or from our white elephant favorite books exchange. Favorites in that batch were: We 3, A Tale For the Time Being, and the Invention of Morel. Dislikes were: Super Sad True Love Story, Blood Meridian, Zeroville. I love my book club. It continues to get me to read things I would never otherwise read and think about books through the perceptions of others. I think it is one of the greatest ways I grow all year long.
The longest book I read, and the one I invested the most time into was Bone. However, I don’t think that most people would have to spend as much time on it as I did. At 1,300+ pages, it is indeed long. But it’s a fairly simply drawn graphic novel, so it had the potential to move quite fast. I just read it at home, so it took a while.
So, it was a good year for my reading habits. I think next year I’d like to read a few more classics, especially some from earlier eras. I’m also unashamedly pursuing more sci-fi and fantasy novels because I love them.