2016: The Year’s Reading in Review

Well, here is the list of books I’ve read this year:

  • The Sea Wolf by Jack London
  • Life Is Simple: First Cutting by Jerry Crownover
  • Art Treasures of Seoul by Edward B. Adams
  • The Hero by John Ringo and Michael Z. Williamson
  • Rogue Warrior: Green Team by Richard Marcinko and John Weisman
  • Dead Street by Mickey Spillane
  • Flawed Dogs by Berkeley Breathed
  • GI Joe: The Story Behind the Legend by Don Levine with John Michlig
  • Changdeog Palace
  • Toulouse-Lautrec: Painter of Paris by Horst Keller
  • Carolingian Chronicles by Translated by Bernard Walter Scholz with Barbara Walters
  • Doomsday Disciples by “Don Pendleton”
  • Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
  • How to Live Like A Lord Without Really Trying by Shepherd Mead
  • Vulture’s Vengeance by “Don Pendleton”
  • Down the Wire Road in the Missouri Ozarks and Beyond by Fern Agnus
  • Tuscany Terror by “Don Pendleton”
  • Ten Years in the Tub by Nick Hornby
  • Life in the Age of Charlemagne by Peter Munz
  • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
  • Bad Publicity by Jeffrey Frank
  • So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane
  • Reinhold Niebuhr by Bob E. Patterson
  • Invisible Assassins by “Don Pendleton”
  • Down with Love by “Barbara Novak”
  • Mountain Rampage by “Don Pendleton”
  • The Greek and Roman World by W.G. Hardy
  • The Joy of Hate by Greg Gutfeld
  • Paradine’s Gauntlet by “Don Pendleton”
  • Island Deathtrap by “Don Pendleton”
  • Take It Off, Take It All Off! by David Riitz
  • The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family by Edited by Ray Richmond
  • Ambush on Blood River by “Don Pendleton”
  • Kierkegaard by Elmer H. Duncan
  • Love’s Legacy by Stephanie Dalla Rosa
  • Yo, Millard Fillmore! by Will Cleveland & Mark Alvarez
  • John Donnelly’s Gold by Brian J. Noggle
  • Holes in It by Todd Tevlin
  • The Normlings by Todd Tevlin
  • Frik in Hell Vol 3 by Todd Tevlin
  • Crude Kill by “Don Pendleton”
  • Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
  • Starcraft Archive by various
  • Sold for Slaughter by “Don Pendleton”
  • The Most of George Burns by George Burns
  • Fishin’, Huntin’, Travelin’, and Ozark Memories by L.B. Cook
  • The Weapon from Beyond by Edmond Hamilton
  • Slam the Big Door by John D. MacDonald
  • Starman Jones by Robert Heinlein
  • The Roman Holiday of Mrs. Stone by Tennessee Williams
  • A Brief History of Sanibel Island by Marya Repko
  • The Sanibel Sunset Detective by Ron Base
  • The Last Paradise: The Building of Marco Island by Douglas Waitley
  • The Know It All by A.J. Jacobs
  • Insane City by Dave Barry
  • Wicked Springfield Missouri by Larry Wood
  • Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
  • All Madden by John Madden with Dave Anderson
  • Wolverine: Weapon X by Marc Cerasini
  • Kilroy Was Here by Charles Osgood
  • An Altogether New Book of Top Ten Lists by Dave Letterman
  • The Drawings of William Blake by Sir Geoffrey Keynes
  • Paper Lion by George Plimpton
  • K-PAX by Gene Brewer
  • The Forbidden City
  • 12 Monkeys by Elizabeth Hand
  • Wars of the Ancient Greeks by Victor Davis Hanson
  • New York City of Dreams by Bill Harris
  • Dead Man Running by “Don Pendleton”
  • The Ballad of Ethan Burns by James D. Balestreiri
  • Monet by Alberto Martini
  • Peter Paul Rubens Medaenas
  • Lightning Fall by Bill Quick
  • The Official Jewish Joke Book/The Official Irish Joke Book by Larry Wilde
  • Orbiting Omega by “Don Pendleton”
  • The Eight-Seven by Ed McBain
  • Camille Pissarro: A Medaenas Monograph by Anne Schirrmeister
  • Kierkegaard: A Biographical Introduction by Ronald Grimsley
  • The Experience of Nothingness by Michael Novak
  • The Courtship of Barbara Holt by Brian J. Noggle
  • Back Roads of the Ozarks by Wayne Sullins
  • Let Us Go Quietly Together For A Little Way. Let Me Talk To You by Charlotte Osborn
  • Women the Children Men by Roberta Metz
  • Rogue Warrior: Task Force Blue by Richard Marcinko and John Weisman
  • The Peter Principle by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull
  • Beirut Payback by “Don Pendleton”
  • The Lessons of History by Will Durant
  • Advanced French for Exceptional Cats by Henry Beard
  • Hiroshage by Sebastian Izzard
  • RoboTech Genesis/Battle Cry/Homecoming by Jack McKinney
  • Desperate Measures by Joe Clifford Faust
  • Cry Hard Cry Fast by John D. MacDonald
  • A Bullet for Cinderella by John D. MacDonald
  • Misspent Youth by Peter F. Hamilton
  • Nora Bonesteel’s Christmas Past by Sharyn McCrumb
  • Ginger Snaps by Compiled By Dian Ritter
  • Prairie Fire by “Don Pendleton”
  • Living a Mother’s World by Mary Jane Rerucha
  • Skysweeper by “Don Pendleton”
  • TV Superstars ’81 by Ronald W. Lackman

Okay, so a full fourteen percent of the books I read were Executioner novels. I read a couple of film books (12 Monkeys and Down with Love among them).

On the other hand, I read some theology and philosophy, including a primary text by Kierkegaard (Fear and Trembling), a couple books about Kierkegaard, a book about Niebuhr, and so on. I read six books by people I know (three comics by Todd Tevlin, a book by Stephanie Dalla Rosa, and my two books). I mixed nonfiction with fiction pretty well, and I mixed genres in the fiction along with a couple classics (The Sea Wolf and Gulliver’s Travels). I even read poetry for pleasure. So not bad.

Unstated in this list is books I started and didn’t get through. Two come to mind: The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich and Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. I started reading them as my carry book, got halfway through them, and then lost the train of thought in them. I expect I’ll revisit them in 2017.

Hopefully I can get near 100 again next year, which would mean I’m only acquiring a handful more books than I’m reading annually. Just in case I live to a time when books are not cheaply available on the second hand market (or new for that matter). It might happen.

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