2015 was easily my worst reading year in at least a decade. I read only 41 books all year, 14 of which were 2015 releases. It wasn't bad from a quality point, as I would recommend almost all of the new releases to at least some people, but it is difficult to come up with a Top Ten that would reflect those works I thought were superior efforts. So instead, here is a list of five works that stood out to me more than usual:
5. Jesse Ball, A Case for Suicide.
Ball is a talented writer and this novel was his strangest and most enjoyable one yet.
4. Umberto Eco, Numerous Zero (read it both Italian and Spanish translation).
Not Eco's best work, but it's still one of the best historical/conspiracy theory novels that I've read in recent years.
3. Kirstin Valdez Quade, Nights at the Fiestas.
One of the best short story collections I've read this year.
2. Berit Ellingsen, Not Dark Yet.
I'm going to attempt a review of this haunting tale after I re-read it, as I think there were elements crucial to this moving story that I missed on my initial read.
1. Kelly Link, Get in Trouble.
One of the finest short story collections I've read this year.
Hopefully 2016 will see the return of my reading mojo, or at least the return of my highly-trained Serbian Reading Squirrels doing the reading for me. At least I had a good excuse this year, as I did devote the year to improving my physical fitness. Now to get ready to run my first 5K in the springtime...
5. Jesse Ball, A Case for Suicide.
Ball is a talented writer and this novel was his strangest and most enjoyable one yet.
4. Umberto Eco, Numerous Zero (read it both Italian and Spanish translation).
Not Eco's best work, but it's still one of the best historical/conspiracy theory novels that I've read in recent years.
3. Kirstin Valdez Quade, Nights at the Fiestas.
One of the best short story collections I've read this year.
2. Berit Ellingsen, Not Dark Yet.
I'm going to attempt a review of this haunting tale after I re-read it, as I think there were elements crucial to this moving story that I missed on my initial read.
1. Kelly Link, Get in Trouble.
One of the finest short story collections I've read this year.
Hopefully 2016 will see the return of my reading mojo, or at least the return of my highly-trained Serbian Reading Squirrels doing the reading for me. At least I had a good excuse this year, as I did devote the year to improving my physical fitness. Now to get ready to run my first 5K in the springtime...
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2 comments:
Larry, not sure if you will see this comment on an older post. Good luck with the running. I did something similar last year and ran my first 5k. Was shooting for sub 30 and surprised myself with sub 28. My advice is to make sure you have good shoes though. I started running with older shoes and developed plantar fasciitis which plagued me for the latter half of the year.
-Winterfella
I have to approve all comments made on posts older than two weeks, so yes, I saw your comment ;) Thanks! Right now, I'm sub-32 with my first 5K race in three weeks, so I'm feeling optimistic that I can achieve sub-30 before July (I've dropped nearly four minutes the past month). I agree about the need for good shoes. I own two shoes I plan on using for race/fast run days and two others I use for training sessions, having bought three of them with Christmas money, so they're still in good shape for the spring racing season. Suffered a slight bout of plantar fasciitis last summer as I was walking 10Ks 4-5x/week, so I have made sure to have a rotation of appropriate shoes (neutral, with increased flexibility to accommodate my high arches) on hand these days.
Thanks again for replying!
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