When I teach writing, I make sure to repeat one thing I've been told often and believe wholeheartedly: If you want to write, read. My own literary heroes have expanded my horizons, unfettered my imagination, and taught me to fall in love with words as well as stories. Favorite authors and favorite books are the primary reason I write; their beautiful storytelling long ago inspired me to create and tell my own stories, in my own way. They push me constantly to not only craft and publish stories, but to strive to make them resonate with my readers, the way their books have done with me.
This year I set a goal of reading 50 books, not a huge goal, but more than I've read in a year in a long time. Goodreads says I hit 48. I actually exceeded 50 by a bit if you count friend's manuscripts and a couple of things that didn't get recorded, like my non-fiction research, but hey, I'm happy with 48. I had some favorites, but there were so many books I enjoyed for different reasons that it's not always easy to rank them. If pressed, I'd say some standouts were The Night Circus, American Gods (a perennial favorite), Slaughterhouse-Five (perennial favorite I hadn't read in decades), One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (obviously a perennial favorite as I read it for the 2nd time for pleasure AND a 3rd time to try and figure out how Neil Gaiman writes so damn well), Viriconium, On Stranger Tides (again, because Tim Powers is a master of magical realism), and The Last Days of New Paris (again, because China Mieville is a master of weird).
I keep a running list during the year in the sidebar of my blog and will post that here (in the order I read them) as I wipe the slate clean today to begin my 2018 reading goals.
Happy new book year, and I hope you find many gems that brighten your life in the coming year.
The Night Circus
The Obelisk Gate
American Gods (again)
Deryni Rising (again)
The Road
Norse Mythology
Ravenwood
All the Birds in the Sky
Runtime
Steal the Sky
Three Wells of the Sea
Slaughterhouse-Five (again)
Finch
The Magicians
Greener Pastures
The Doors of Perception
Aegypt
This Census-Taker
Binti
Till We Have Faces
The Divinity Student
The Book of Lost Things
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Fold
Signal to Noise
Anansi Boys (again)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Kindred
Bourne
Crandolin
The House on the Borderland
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (again)
Ubik
No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories
All the Pretty Horses
WE
Vicious
The Refugees
Viriconium
Night's Master
City of Stairs
Ansible, Season 1
The Bear and the Nightingale
Railsea
City of Blades
On Stranger Tides (again)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (yet again)
The Last Days of New Paris (again)
This year I set a goal of reading 50 books, not a huge goal, but more than I've read in a year in a long time. Goodreads says I hit 48. I actually exceeded 50 by a bit if you count friend's manuscripts and a couple of things that didn't get recorded, like my non-fiction research, but hey, I'm happy with 48. I had some favorites, but there were so many books I enjoyed for different reasons that it's not always easy to rank them. If pressed, I'd say some standouts were The Night Circus, American Gods (a perennial favorite), Slaughterhouse-Five (perennial favorite I hadn't read in decades), One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (obviously a perennial favorite as I read it for the 2nd time for pleasure AND a 3rd time to try and figure out how Neil Gaiman writes so damn well), Viriconium, On Stranger Tides (again, because Tim Powers is a master of magical realism), and The Last Days of New Paris (again, because China Mieville is a master of weird).
I keep a running list during the year in the sidebar of my blog and will post that here (in the order I read them) as I wipe the slate clean today to begin my 2018 reading goals.
Happy new book year, and I hope you find many gems that brighten your life in the coming year.
The Night Circus
The Obelisk Gate
American Gods (again)
Deryni Rising (again)
The Road
Norse Mythology
Ravenwood
All the Birds in the Sky
Runtime
Steal the Sky
Three Wells of the Sea
Slaughterhouse-Five (again)
Finch
The Magicians
Greener Pastures
The Doors of Perception
Aegypt
This Census-Taker
Binti
Till We Have Faces
The Divinity Student
The Book of Lost Things
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Fold
Signal to Noise
Anansi Boys (again)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Kindred
Bourne
Crandolin
The House on the Borderland
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (again)
Ubik
No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories
All the Pretty Horses
WE
Vicious
The Refugees
Viriconium
Night's Master
City of Stairs
Ansible, Season 1
The Bear and the Nightingale
Railsea
City of Blades
On Stranger Tides (again)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (yet again)
The Last Days of New Paris (again)
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