My reading habits generally include a wide range of things, but this year I was all over the place.
In the non-fiction realm, I intentionally did not read as much for work as I usually do. This year was about finishing projects for me, and so I didn’t want to generate more ideas of things I could do in research while neglecting the things I must do. So I read around my areas of research, with only a few things that were targeted at a project I was working on. I also read several history of science books, and they were very intriguing.
In the fiction realm, I continued my quest to read all of the Hugo Award Winners for Best Novel. I see the quest slowing down, though, as I am starting to figure out more closely what I like and don’t about sci-fi. I used to think I like ALL sci-fi. Now I know that I don’t, and that’s okay! I’m all about space operas, comedies, and thinkpiece (a la Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris). I’m less into character-driven sci-fi. I also continued a quest to read all of the Newbery Award winners, and that quest seems to be picking up speed. I expect to read more of those in the upcoming year. The general fiction follows a trend of “stuff I probably should have read earlier but didn’t.”
I read a few pieces of Christian work this year, and I’ve been working though Union with Christ by Rankin Wilbourne. I’m also reading Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson and Collected Stories by Gabriel García Márquez.
The books that stood out this year were Starwolf, The Galactic Gourmet, Heir of Sea and Fire, The Book Nobody Read, How I Killed Pluto and How It Had It Coming, and Gentle and Lowly.
Sci-fi / Fantasy
- Starwolf by Edmond Hamilton
- Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
- This Immortal by Roger Zelazny
- The Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia Mckillip
- Dreamsnake by Vonda D. McIntyre (did not complete)
- Heir of Sea and Fire by Patricia McKillip
- Leviathan Wakes by J. A. Corey
- Harpist in the Wind by Patricia McKillip
- The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
- The Galactic Gourmet by James White
- Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein
- The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
YA
- The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
- Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton
- The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting
Fiction
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John Le Carre
- My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
- How to Invent Everything : A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North
- Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Nonfiction
- The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus by Owen Gingerich
- The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr
- After Theory by Terry Eagleton
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
- “Civil Disobedience” and “Slavery in Massachusetts” by Thoreau
- The Philosophy and Literature of Existentialism by Wesley Barnes
- “The Present Age,” Kierkegaard
- @War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex by Shane Harris
- Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet by Julian Assange with Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Müller-Maguhn, and Jérémie Zimmermann
- Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor, Selected and Edited by Sally and Robert Fitzgerald
- How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown
- Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success in Business + Life by Chip Conley (did not finish)
Christian
- Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortlund
- Saint Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton
- The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy Keller
- A Defence of Theological Ethics by G.F. Woods