Best Books Read in 2015

[Shadow]

2015 was another good year for reading, winding up with 166 books read of various genres. Choosing the best is tough so I settled for around the top 20% or so.


Fantasy
Legend by David Gemmell
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb
The Hammer by KJ Parker
The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley

Gemmell is more pulp fantasy but he's fun. I enjoy anything by Sanderson or Hobb, and KJ Parker is an author I discovered this year. He's hit or miss on a lot of his book but always solid prose. Staveley is a first-time author who had a very solid first book. Looking forward to more from him.


Humor
William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope by Ian Doescher
The Truth by Terry Pratchett
The Outsorcerer's Apprentice by Tom Holt
Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer

The Shakespeare/Star Wars books are a mashup of two favourites of mine. What's not to like? My first Pratchett book was good, not sure if it's my style though. The two last ones were similar and both hilarious and highly recommended.


Literature
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Trying to make it through some of the classics that everyone is supposed to have read. Of Mice and Men and Cuckoo's Nest both left a big impression on me, especially the latter. Mockingbird is definitely a must-read and I enjoyed the sparse prose of Old Man and the Sea.


Poetry
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

What can I say? I'm not a big fan of poetry but really enjoyed this. Listened to Vincent Price's rendition over and over.


History
The Ultimate History of Video Games
1776 by David McCullough
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
Longitude by Dava Sobel

The Video Games book was good, not as good as Sheff's "Game Over" but definitely more rounded. McCullough is an author I need to look into more. Stellar writing. Empire of the Air was good, the author really knew his technology, but the history devolved into legal battles, sadly. Longitude is a really good book worth reading, if only to get an appreciation for how nuts sailors were to go to sea without really knowing where they were. Well-written and researched.


Science
What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science by Sidhartha Mukherjee

Always enjoy Munroe (xkcd). Mukherjee's book is a followup to his previous must-read: Emperor of All Maladies, and it too is excellent.


Theology
Jerusalem's Glory Breaking Forth into the World by Jeremiah Burroughs
Counterfeit Miracles by BB Warfield
Lectures on Job by James Durham
The Puritans on Exclusive Psalmody by various

Did a lot of reading in Warfield this year. He was quite the amazing scholar, seemingly an expert in a myriad of topics. Durham's book was surprisingly succinct and helpful in understanding each chapter in Job, and the Exclusive Psalmody book was one of my favourites, seeing the debates that went on in the 1600s and how they were addressed.


Biography
You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day
Charles Hodge: The Pride of Princeton by Andrew Hoffecker

I still think Felicia Day is a bit young to be doing a biography but it was entertaining and enjoyed her thoughts on Gamergate. Hoffecker's book was a bit dry but excellently researched.


Mystery
N or M? by Agatha Christie
The Mother Hunt by Rex Stout

I really enjoy the Tommy and Tuppence books, and always enjoy Rex Stout.

Short Stories
Academic Exercises by KJ Parker
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson

Not much to say here, but all very enjoyable.


BONUS CATEGORY!
Biggest Disappointments
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Console Wars by Blake Harris
Tower Lord/Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan
Night by Elie Wiesel
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Vonnegut probably isn't for me, but I'm at a loss as to why this book is considered good by any standard.
Console Wars was interesting for the history, atrocious for the style of reporting, which threw great doubt on any of the history in the book. (i.e., made up conversations, dialogue, inner thoughts just to make it "interesting").
After starting out great with Blood Song, Anthony Ryan just screwed up big time with his next two books. And his response was not classy at all.
Wiesel suffered a lot, I get it. But he's very melodramatic, to the point of being silly.
I think Zusak touched a chord with a lot of people (and anything Holocaust gets instant five stars, because what are you? A Nazi?) but mostly I felt like he's a very immature writer who tried to be artistic.
Gatsby is "The Great American Novel"? Why?
Wuthering Heights had a raw power and originality, I'll give it that. But there's nothing redeeming about the book, just messed up people messing up their lives.

[OHMSS]

2016 was another good year for reading, winding up with 166 books read of various genres.

dafuq man! Do you read like 300 pages everyday?

Thanks for the list, could be inspiring.

[AZ]

Shadow, I recommend these two books:






If you're into literature, these books are a must in the shelf. I'm interested in how many titles you've read in both books.

[Shadow]

OHMSS: Maybe 100ish pages a day. I spend my lunch break reading which is the bulk of it, I wouldn't consider myself a speed reader, just dedicated. Not really into television shows, don't watch many movies. game time has been sporadic. The last four years I've read 100+ books per year.

Axel: Probably only a small fraction of the 1001, though I find that books that "everyone must read" does not always equal "books people actually enjoy". Or that opinions vary wildly (evidence your 1001 video game list).

Don Quixote for example. Had some interesting parts, landmark book, wouldn't recommend it.
Moby Dick. Historically significant, terribly boring.

I do have a goal of reading most of the books that appear on many top 100 lists, but even those are real hit or miss.

By the way, please feel free to share any books you liked (or disliked) from 2015.

[wheatrich]

I thought the exact same thing about slaughterhouse five in High school.   Dude was probably ridiculously high when writing it and thought he was writing normal stuff and people massively misunderstood and ended up thinking "this means this and this and this" and it is all just stupid nonsense.  A LOT of books lessons taught in schools have nothing to do with what the author intended though so that's sadly standard.

I did get into books this year but I either read sports stuff (football, historical baseball stories type books (btw baseball players would make great internet trolls)) or people that did or lived weird stuff (guy walking across america or someone's lifestyle in middle of nowhere alaska, or a guy who worked as a canoe type river guide all over the world).  (and game of thrones)

2016 I seem to be heading into mysteries (not as good as advertised so far) and business/investing type books.

[Shadow]

I came to the same conclusion: lots of "great" books are easy to discuss in high school, become over-analyzed, and people are wowed by their "depth". Example: Great Gatsby has recently had numerous people argue that there are subtle references in the book that hint at Gatsby actually being a black man and how amazing and forward-thinking Fitzgerald was for making references like that. It took nearly 100 years for people to discover it, but wow! (sarcasm).

The "weird stuff" books sound interesting. Which one was your favourite?

What kind of mysteries have you tried so far? I admit I've mostly only read Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Sayers. Of those three, Stout is my favourite. I love his humour, the characters, and the plots. Sayers focuses mainly on the characters and the mystery takes a backseat, while Christie has some really clever plots but isn't for everyone.

It makes me think that perhaps mysteries transitioned so well to TV shows that lots of the old novels seem dated since we've seen the "plots" so often on TV.

Oh, and "The Intelligent Investor" is on my list, maybe that's one of the ones you're reading. I just haven't gotten to it yet.

[youseinthehouse]

This year, I have pledged 25 pages a day.  Seems pretty manageable.  With acceptable lapses, etc. should lead to around 8k pages.  Not quite 100+ books but probably I can hit 50+.  I will use this list for reference, and check out those books, too, Ax

[ziggirawk]

I spent most of my year reading/listening to physics books. Obv most of these didn't come out this year, but my best of for 2015 is gonna be:
The Science Of Interstellar by Kip Thorne(I'm biased because he's my second favorite physicist)
The Martian by Andy Weir(I read or listened to it like, 5 times in the course of a month)
The Black Hole War by Leonard Susskind(an excellent book with lots of humor, Susskind does a good job of detailing one of the biggest arguments in scientific history - whether or not information is lost in black holes)
The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene(another book with some humor mixed in, Greene uses great analogies to describe uncertainty, scale, and multiverse theories, as well as touches on string theory without completely befuddling the reader)

Also, this isn't a book, but I spent most of the year reading the Mark Reads Harry Potter blog. Mark Oshiro is a blogger, who for many years now has read various books, watched various shows, and done other things for the first time, blogging his reactions one chapter/episode at a time. It's been very interesting to read his thoughts on the HP series(something very important in my life) and see his reactions and predictions. Almost like experiencing the series for the first time again. I recommend it if you're a fan of any of the series he's done and would also like to experience them for the first time again. http://markdoesstuff.com/