Books I Read In 2014

I set out to read two books each month this past year and I hit that goal, reading 24 books in total. This was the year I really got back into using the library and checking off random books that have been on my 'to-read' list for awhile. Here they are below in order of my reading.

I started off with a collection of short stories by Scott Snyder, whose comic work I really love. The second book I read, Map of Time, was one of the most disappointed reads I've had in a while, same with Fall of Hyperion. The first book, Hyperion, was great, unique sci-fi, but I found the sequel really boring. Embassytown by Mieville was amazing and a great exploration of language and linguistics, really freaking original, and only the second book of his I've read. I'll have to read more next year for sure. I read some random books I didn't know much about, like Arctic Rising, Fair Coin, Angelmaker - all really enjoyable reads. The Twenty-Year Death was a fun throwback noir story. I read a Joe Hill book for the first time and it was enjoyable. I dug into The Luminaries this past summer and liked it a lot, great settings and mood and a fun variety of characters. David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks was my favourite read of the year, but all of his books usually are. I've been working on my young adult novel so I dug into a few, House of Secrets, which I didn't like at all and felt it really needed an editor to reign it in and sharpen the characters, and Boundless by Kenneth Oppel, which was great as all of his books are. The editor of my novel recommended I read 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, since my story is about an adventure. Jules Verne's novel is a classic for a reason, it's so great, full of exciting scenes and speculation. Chandler's The Long Goodbye is the only book this year that I've read before. I've read all of his books a couple of times now and it had been about ten years since reading this one and it was even better than I remembered. Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn was a great followup read, really cool look at a unique character in detective style of story.

I'm currently reading Donna Tart's The Goldfinch, but it'll take me into 2015 to finish it since it's long and this time of year is busy. I've got a long list of books to read in the new year, but with lots of things happening next year I'm not sure how many I'll get to. Hopefully a handful at least!

On top of these books I also read a lot of comics each week. I might post about them later this week or next.