I have a love/hate relationship with year end “Best Of” lists. I love them, because I’m curious to see what books, movies, TV shows, styles of yogurts, sweatpants, and cute puppy videos are among the year’s best and most loved. But I hate them because, as Powell’s Staff Picks Top Fives remind me, there are way too many good books that come out each year for me to possibly read a good amount of them, let alone read them all.
Back in 2010, knowing I couldn’t keep up with new releases well enough to do a decent “Best Of” list, I began simply listing all the books I read as a study in… myself, I guess. How much did I read? What did I read about? What time of year did I read most? This probably ends up only being interesting to me, but heck, I’ve been doing it for over half a decade now so I guess I’ll keep it up!
(Check out previous My Year In Books posts: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.)
GRAPHIC NOVELS/Completed Comic Book Miniseries
JANUARY
Deep Dark Fears [Ten Speed Press]
One Punch Man Vol. 5 [Viz]
One Punch Man Vol. 6 [Viz]
One Punch Man Vol. 7 [Viz]
One Punch Man Vol. 8 [Viz]
FEBRUARY
Ghostbusters Vol. 7: Happy Horror Days [IDW]
MARCH
The Comic Book History of Comics [IDW]
Sea Guy: The Slaves of Mickey Eye [DC/Vertigo]
Five Ghosts Vol. 1: The Haunting of Fabian Gray [Image]
Five Ghosts Vol. 2: Lost Coastlines [Image]
Assassination Classroom Vol. 1 [Viz]
Oemnibus [Image]
Concrete Vol. 7: The Human Dilemma [Dark Horse]
Die Homer [Self-published]
APRIL
Space Dumplins [graphix/Scholastic]
Paper Girls Vol. 1 [Image]
Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Vol. 1 [Marvel]
Joe the Barbarian [DC/Vertigo]
MAY
Last Man Vol. 1: The Stranger [First Second]
Last Man Vol. 2: The Royal Cup [First Second]
Last Man Vol. 3: The Chase [First Second]
Nimona [HarperTeen/Harper Collins]
The Nameless City Vol. 1 [First Second]
Last Man Vol. 4: The Show [First Second]
Spera: Ascension of the Starless [Archaia]
AUGUST
Divinity Vol. 1 [Valiant]
Starlight: The Return of Duke McQueen [Image]
One Punch Man Vol. 9 [Viz]
Last Man Vol. 5: The Order [First Second]
Birthright Vol. 2: Call to Adventure [Image]
Incredible Hercules Vol. 5: The Mighty Thorcules [Marvel]
SEPTEMBER
Polar: No Mercy for Sister Maria [Dark Horse]
Incredible Hercules Vol. 6: Assault on New Olympus [Marvel]
OCTOBER
Howard the Duck Omnibus [Marvel]
Heroic Age: Prince of Power [Marvel]
Nailbiter Vol. 1: There Will Be Blood [Image]
Nailbiter Vol. 2: Bloody Hands [Image]
Nailbiter Vol. 3: Blood in the Water [Image]
Nailbiter Vol. 4: Blood Lust [Image]
NOVEMBER
The Fix Vol. 1: Where Beagles Dare [Image]
The Casebook of Rabbit Back Vol. 1 [Comicker Press]
Lost Angels Vol. 1: Paradise High [Comicker Press]
DECEMBER
King Baby [Scholastic]
NOVELS/PROSE
JANUARY
Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters [Broadway Books]
The Silkworm [Mulholland Books/Little, Brown]
FEBRUARY
Ready Player One [Broadway Books]
Tenth of December [Random House]
Portland Confidential: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Rose City [PTown Books]
MARCH
The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip [Random House]
Pronto [William Morrow/Harper Collins]
Congratulations, By The Way: Some Thoughts on Kindness [Random House]
The Story of Story/Build a Moving Story/One Rule That Will Make Your Stories Stronger [Muse Storytelling/Stillmotion]
Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination [Little, Brown]
I Was Told There’d Be Cake [Riverhead Books]
APRIL
Down The Darkest Street [Polis Books]
Slaughterhouse-Five [Dial Press/Random House]
Dear White People: A Guide to Inter-Racial Harmony in “Post-Racial” America [37Ink/Atria]
Remember To Wave [Tinfish Press]
MAY
Between Here and the Yellow Sea: Stories [Dzanc Books]
Raylan [William Morrow/Harper Collins]
Beezus and Ramona [Harper/Harper Collins]
JUNE
A Dance With Dragons [Bantam Books]
JULY
Mort(e) [Soho Press]
If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young—The Graduation Speeches [Seven Stories Press]
The Gunslinger: Dark Tower I [Signet]
AUGUST
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child [Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic]
Common Sense Pregnancy [Ten Speed Press]
Pregnancy: The Beginner’s Guide [DK]
Dude, You’re Gonna Be A Dad! [Adams Media]
SEPTEMBER
Mother Night [Dial Press/Random House]
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life [Penguin Books]
OCTOBER
Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama [Vintage Books/Random House]
The Elements of Style [Longman/MacMillan]
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft [Scribner/Simon & Schuster]
The Shining [Anchor Books/Random House]
NOVEMBER
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven [HarperPerennial]
Galápagos [Dial Press/Random House]
Stoner [NYRB]
DECEMBER
Player Piano [Dial Press/Random House]
Trask [Oregon State University Press]
A Light In the Attic [HarperCollins]
That puts the final tally at 81 reads: 43 graphic novels and 38 prose books. That’s a little but more than last year, but not the most pages I’ve turned in a single year. Still, I opted for some more dense reads this year, so I’m pleased with the amount I read in 2016. Right around my avergae of about 70 to 80 reads a year. With a kid on the way in 2017, we’ll see how much reading I get done. I’m going to modestly, or perhaps ambitiously, aim for 50 books. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve already begun reading to our soon-to-arrive little man, so probably a lot of children’s books, Shel Silverstein, and Dr. Seuss on next year’s list. Maybe even a whole “Kids Books” category!
Observations
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I read three books of graduation speeches this year. Maybe inspired by my wife’s December graduation? Not sure why I started reading them in March though.
Loads of pregnancy books, ‘natch!
Most prose read in a single year… since college? Ever?
Followed up my favorite comic of last year, One Punch Man, with a lot of Last Man this year. Black and white comics with a lot of punching are my jam!
I stuck with certain authors a lot more this year than, I think, I have in any previous calendar year. Aside from the aforementioned One Punch Man and Last Man (five volumes of each!), I read five books by Joshua Williamson, five by Kurt Vonnegut, and three each from Greg Pak/Fred Van Lente (and one other by Van Lente), J.K. Rowling, George Saunders, and Stephen King.
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