
Books, Books, and More Books
It was another great year in book reading. I didn’t travel as much I did the previous year, but my commutes to work and various other reasons allowed me to keep the words flowing. I bumped up my goal from 40 to 42 last year, assuming that since I wasn’t traveling as much it wasn’t worth moving up to 50+ books. But even with the modest change, I still read 54 book by year’s end, and a number of good ones in fact. Again, GoodReads does such a better job at presenting my books list than I could do, so hop over there are review my year. Then quickly come back and checkout my hits—and missed—of 2016.
Favorite Read
Morning Star
“I will give Eo your love. I will make a house for you in the Vale of your fathers. It will be beside my own. Join me there when you die…But I am no builder. So take your time.” - Morning Star
Honorable Mentions
- Age of Myth by Michael J Sullivan
- The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks
Favorite Series
The Fear Saga
Get all three and binge on them, I’d bet you’d enjoy it.
Honorable Mentions
- The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
- The Chronicles of St. Mary’s by Jodi Taylor
Biggest Surprise
The Lock Artist
But in lieu of a non-fiction, I will jump right to biggest surprise of last year.
The Lock Artist was a book that randomly showed up in some recommendation list, and the description sounded interesting enough to try it. Boy, am I glad I did. A tragic kid’s life and his dive into safe cracking pulls on you in two different fronts. One is the tragic story of where he is at, and the second the emotional tension due to the criminal world he’s found himself tied to…and it keeps pulling you in. I really didn’t know what to expect, especially since GoodReads users tend to have a love/hate opinion of the book. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. Worth giving a try.
“I didn’t know that once you’ve proven yourself useful to the wrong people, you’ll never be free again.” - The Lock Artist
Honorable Mention
- Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
Bad Books
This year was much better than last year with regards to bad books. I will not link to it and will not say much. The Unnoticeables by Robert Brockway was recommended to me after reading Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong (which is not a bad book, by the way, and you should definitely read it). But The Unnoticables was a complete waste of time. The thought behind it was nice, but I kept feeling like the attempts to be funny were just stupid…like a comedian pausing after his joke only to hear crickets. Apparently his publisher wanted more so it is now a series, but I’d just avoid this book and probably the series.