As you might remember, gentle reader, I tend to run my goal year not so much from January 1 to January 1 but from sometime the week after Christmas to sometime the week after Christmas. Something about the holidays makes me reflective and, increasingly, melancholy about the passage of the year.
I didn’t have that many goals for the year, and I accomplished neither of them. I did, however, meet my annual hoped-for quota of 70 books. And exceed it by 20 or so.
Here’s what I read this year:
- More Good Old Stuff John D. MacDonald
- Killer Mine Mickey Spillane
- The Joy of Not Working Ernie J. Zelinski (did not finish)
- Naked Blade, Naked Gun “Axel Kilgore”
- The Library of Great Masters: Raphael
- The Cotswolds Robin Whiteman and Rob Talbot
- Voyage from Yesteryear James P. Hogan
- Of Reading Books John Livingston Lowes
- Virtue and Happiness Epictetus / Claude Mediavilla
- The Twilight Zone Encyclopedia Steven Jay Rubin
- Stories of an Outstanding Cat Fr. Michael Sequira
- Weird But True Leslie Gilbert Elman
- Job: A Comedy of Justice Robert Heinlein
- And Eternity Piers Anthony
- Well, Duh: Our Stupid World, and Welcome To It Bob Fenster
- Vendetta in Venice “Don Pendleton”
- The Best of Wheat and A Little Chaff Leah Lathrom
- Iroshi Cary Osborne
- The Beauty of Gesture Catherine David
- Pocket Quips Robert C. Savage
- Cat Fear No Evil Shirley Rosseau Murphy
- Little Orphant Annie and Other Poems James Whitcomb Riley
- I Hate Ann Coulter! “Unanimous”
- The Long Good Boy Carol Lea Benjamin
- The Sword of Genghis Khan James Dark
- A Question of Accuracy Arthur G. Razzell and K.G.O. Watts
- Crosshairs R.P Vogt
- The Song of Hiawatha Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Mackinac Island: Its History in Pictures Eugene T. Petersen
- The Dhammapada translated by Juan Mascaró
- Nightmare Town Dashiell Hammett
- The Promise Robert Crais
- What If? Randall Munroe
- Murder in the Cathedral T.S. Eliot
- Border Sweep
- A Nice Steady Job Gregory Dowling
- Einstein for Beginners Joseph Schwartz and Michael McGuinness
- The Devil Wins Reed Farrel Coleman
- Rogue Warrior: Echo Platoon Richard Marcinko and John Weisman
- Emotional Memoirs and Short Stories Lani Hall Albert
- Me and My Little Brain John D. Fitzgerald
- The Celebrated Jumping Frog and Other Stories Mark Twain
- Introvert Survival Tactics Patrick King
- The Case of the Daring Divorcee Erle Stanley Gardner
- Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar James Marcus Bach
- A Minyen Yidn Max B. Perison and Trina Robbins
- Countdown to Super Bowl Dave Anderson
- Theosophy: The Wisdom of the Ages Cherry Gilchrist
- Sally Forth: A Woman’s Work Is Never Done Greg Howard
- Little House in the Big Woods Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Soft Touch John D. MacDonald
- Sally Forth Greg Howard
- The Ozarks: A Picture Book to Remember Them By
- The Life Expectancy of Panyhose and the Poems of Middle Age Wilbur Topsail
- Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Travels in a Donkey Trap Daisy Baker
- The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig
- O Pioneers Willa Cather
- Ashes to Ashes Don Pendleton
- Enter the Sandmen William Schlichter
- The Life of a Lab Denver Bryan and E. Donnall Thomas Jr
- Twisted Path
- Mary Cassatt Sophia Craze
- The Etchings of Anders Zorn Greg G. Thielen
- Downton Tabby Chris Kelly
- Chichen Itza
- Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo
- John Singer Sargent Clare Gibson
- Early Del Rey Lester Del Rey
- Mythopoeikon Patrick Woodroffe
- Hallowe’en Party Agatha Christie
- Zen and the Art of Knitting Bernadette Murphy
- Rococo: A Style of Fantasy Terence Davis
- Lecherous Limericks Isaac Asimov
- Specialist from “Hardscrabble” Isaac Asimov
- Ozark Mountain Humor Edited by W.K. McNeil
- Under the Sunday Tree Paintings by Mr. Amos Ferguson/Poems by Eloise Greenfield
- Bitter Harvest Hazel Hirst
- The Branson Beauty Claire Booth
- Dammit Bre Samuel Rikard
- Matisse Volkmar Essers
- The Tao of Christ Will Keim
- Farmer Boy Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Desert Strike
- Cold Dark Night Mike Daniels
- The Murder of Lidice Edna St. Vincent Millay and Lois O. Meyer
- Hollywood Cats Edited by J.C. Suares
- Painted Treasures
- Tale of the Tigers Juliette Akinyi Ochieng
I didn’t finish one of them (as noted). I also didn’t count the Shakespearean plays I read at the start of the year when I thought I would power through the complete Shakespeare to finish something with heft this year (but only count as 1 book, strangely enough). I also finished the year about 40% of the way through another 1000 page book in which I’ve bogged down and have read other books between its chapters.
Once again, it’s a blend of poetry, drama, nonfiction, philosophy, and genre fiction with only a smattering of Literature this year (not counting the Shakespeare and The Count of Monte Cristo which I have yet to finish or the portion of the Complete works of Keats and Shelley that I’ve read).
Hopefully, next year I’ll come up with some achievable projects and will read enough books that I feel like I’m making progress on clearing out my to-read shelves (spoiler alert: I will buy enough books next year to fall further behind).
