Well, 2017 has drawn to a close, and with it, I’ve closed my annual log of books that I read. In 2017, I read 87 books, ish. As you might know, some of them have been omnibus editions, where three novels or five novels are in a single binding, and I count that as a single book for these accounting purposes.
If you’re interested, here’s what I read this year, presented in a nice list with links to the individual book reports.
- Beyond The Cross and the Switchblade Dave Wilerson
- Wisconsin Place Names: A Pronouncing Gazetter Harold A. Engel
- Baby, Would I Lie? Donald E. Westlake
- Training African Grey Parrots Risa Teitler
- The Sheep’s in the Meadow, the Raccoon’s in the Corn Marguerite Hurrey Wolf
- Start Here Now Susan Piver
- No One Noticed The Cat Anne McCaffrey
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
- Madam Bovary, C’est Moi Andre Bernard
- Buddhism Through Christian Eyes Alex G. Smith
- Five Themes of Today Chengde Chen
- Hellbinder “Don Pendleton”
- On The Road Jack Kerouac
- The Doorbell Rang Rex Stout
- Mastodonia Clifford D. Simak
- Blood Dues “Don Pendleton”
- Horation Hornblower: Beat to Quarters C.S. Forester
- Three Novels Damon Knight
- A Confession and Other Religious Writings Leo Tolstoy
- The Bookmakers Zev Chafets
- Zen Mind, Beginner Mind Shunryu Suzuki
- The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
- Rated R Mike Leon
- The Beach Girls John D. MacDonald
- A Knight and His Weapons Ewart Oakeshott
- Catch a Poem by the Tale Michelle Monet
- Appointment in Kabul “Don Pendleton”
- When You Come To A Fork In The Road, Take It! Yogi Berra with Dave Kaplan
- After America Mark Steyn
- Spiderman: The Octopus Agenda Diane Duane
- Love Danielle Steel
- Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu
- Perfect Dark: Initial Vector Greg Rucka
- Savannah Swingsaw “Don Pendleton”
- The Bone Yard “Don Pendleton”
- From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History Course Guidebook Kenneth J. Hammond
- The Reagan Wit Bill Adler with Bill Adler, Jr.
- Silent Flowers: A New Collection of Japanese Haiku Poems
- The Upanishads
- The Tao of Elvis David Rosen
- Shopping Smart John Stossel
- Friendly Fireside Poems Lloyd Carleton Shank
- Discourse on Method Rene Descartes
- Peace of Mind Thich Nhat Hanh
- Shock Waves “Don Pendleton”
- Travels with Epicurus Daniel Klein
- Four from Planet 5 Murray Leinster
- Kung Fu 3: Superstition Howard Lee
- Thundering Silence Thich Nhat Hanh
- Selected Tales and Poems Edgar Allan Poe
- Supervillainous! Mike Leon
- The Art of Thank You Connie Leas
- The Bible’s Cutting Room Floor Joel M. Hoffman
- This Old Dump Laura Jensen Walker
- Death Has A Name “Don Pendleton”
- Every Time I Find The Meaning Of Life, They Change It Daniel Klein
- We Should Hang Out Sometime Josh Sandquist
- On the Pleasure of Hating William Hazlitt
- How to Get into Debt
- John Carter of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs
- Cotswold Mistress Michael Spicer
- The Catswold Portal Shirley Rosseau Murphy
- The Presidents Trivia and Tidbits Sid Frank and Arden Davis Melick
- The Living Thoughts of Confucius Alfred Doeblin
- San Francisco Photos by Morton Beebe
- San Francisco Edmund Swinglehurst
- Plain and Simple Sue Bender
- I Could Pee On This and Other Poems By Cats Francesco Marciuliano
- Slave of the Warmonger “Axel Kilgore”
- Beijing China
- Obsidian Son Shayne Silvers
- The Marriage of Bette and Boo by Christopher Durang
- The Man Who Knew Too Much G.K. Chesterton
- Pets’Letters to God Mark Bricklin
- Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Karl Jaspers
- Awkward Family Pet Photos Mike Bender and Doub Chernack
- Rogue Warrior: Seal Force Alpha Richard Marcinko and John Weisman
- Teachers Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes Edited by Patrick Regan
- Wisconsin: A Picture Memory Bill Harris
- The Best of Jules Verne Jules Verne
- Wards of Iasos Book 1: The Leftovers J. Christopher Wilson
- Vietnam Fallout
- The Wisdom of Insecurity Alan W. Watts
- A Christmas Promise Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer
- The Master Mind of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs
- Derelict L.J. Cohen
- The Tao of Meow “Waldo Japussy” and Carl Japikse
The year’s book reports include a “Book” that didn’t get a proper book report–From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History. It’s a lecture series on CDs that I listened to, but I later went through the course books as well and counted those as a book I read. I did have a “musing” on the lecture series, so I linked that above.
I also did a book report on a book I didn’t read–Zobmondo!, a “Would You Rather?” quiz book that I found in poor taste.
Over all, though, I’m pleased with my annual list, especially compared to older lists that I’ve been encountering as I comb my blog archives to modernize them and to remove links to the old Blogspot blog I had until 2010. For example, contrast the above list with the one rolling up what I read in 2005. That list is pretty much popular and genre fiction with some nonfiction through it.
This year, I read some classics (The Grapes of Wrath, On The Road, a bunch of Poe, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn). I’ve read some popular philosophy in Daniel Klein and Alan Watts. Some real philosophy in Descartes. I’ve read some seminal texts in Eastern thought (the Upanisads and the Tao Te Ching along with some popular Eastern philosophy and whatnot. It’s a good selection that I’m proud of.