Reading List 2016

Got to read a favourite, a classic, a non-fiction, obviously some fiction, and a whole lot of "popcorn." These lists always remind me that there's so much more I want to read, and then dig back through my "library" at home to re-prioritize the next 20 books on my "to do list," before shipping them all up to the bedroom, to be stored hopelessly in the belief that: "Maybe this year I'll really get to reading them."

In any case, here's what I managed to get through in 2015.

For more references, here are the lists from 2010, 2011 , 2012 , 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Books I read

Robert Kirkman, the Walking Dead 1 – 26.

It was fun while there were scores of new episodes to go through, but the pacing has slowed way down, and ... it's hard to keep up the momentum.

The Lost World, by Michael Crichton

Gotta go back and read the classics, once in a while. I got my hardcopy version of this in New York City, on a roadtrip while my school was on strike. It wasn't available in Canada at the time!

I am Better Than Your Kids, by Maddox

Not everything is going to be as high-brow as Dickens, nor as mature as ... well, even Mad Magazine is more mature than this. 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey

A nice borrow from my sister. Really loved it. Obviously, can't wait to see the movie over again in light of having read it. 

The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester

Really, really cool. Can you imagine what it must have taken to write the first dictionary? To no one's surprise, there's a long, twisted and complicated history to it. And its' fascinating. 

Next, by Michael Crichton

Spotted this at the in-laws, and repatriated it. Another hard-copy first edition of a Crichton book back in my possession. I've entirely lost my copy of Timeline, which was pretty cool, too. If you prefer to only read Crichton's finest, you can skip this one.

Thirteen Moons, by Charles Frazier

Some books are just wonderful by how they are written - and this has a lot of that to it, though it's no Annie Proulx. A neat story, but, for a fictional autobiography, there seems to be important parts the narrator opts to skip, that didn't make a lot of sense. A good read, though.

Books I read, because kids 

A new category, because, I had to read a lot of stuff, and some of them were novels, ... for the kids. 

A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snickett

Fun, but let's be clear, anything you read out loud,  every night, for months, is gonna get a bit wearisome. 

The Bad Beginning; The Reptile Room; The Wide Window; The Miserable Mill; The Austere Academy; The Ersatz Elevator; The Vile Village; The Hostile Hospital; punching our way through the Carnivorous Carnival.

Ralph S. Mouse, by Beverly Cleary

Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater

Two authors, who wrote an entire book about having penguins, and neither looked to see that they don't come from, nor have they ever come from, the North Pole. Kind of a flaw in the story.

Audio Books

Shatner Rules, by William Shatner

I wasn't really a particular fan of Shatner, one way or the other, but this book has me all turned around about him. It was a great audio book - well worth it. There's a section on performing comedy that's scandalously similar to the verbatim comments that Steve Martin wrote about in his book, though. 

I Must Say, My life as a humble comedy legend, by Martin Short

He really went in depth and through everything, if you're into it, it's worth listening to.

Born Standing Up:A Comic's Life, by Steve Martin,

Good. Does a great job getting into his career, and has a lot of laughs in it. Lots of examples of his classic stand-up material. 

I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers, by Tim Madigan  

This Tim Madigan guy goes on about how great he is, and then reads these extraordinarily intimate, though mind-numbingly repetitive personal letters and emails between he and Mr. Rogers. I had to turn it off and get rid of it - frankly, Fred Rogers should have a writing credit on this, with notes from Tim Madigan. 

I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert

Not nearly as good as it should have been - and I skipped through lengthy stupid parts called "Stephen speaks for me," that was usually pretty awful.