A Book A Month In 2014

My goal was to read a book a month this year.

This goal was a tad sad in some ways because I love reading and wish I could read a book a week, but 12 books in a year is better than previous years where I was lucky if I got through just a few. Reading time was definitely harder to find at the end of the year, but if you include one audio book, I succeeded in my goal. Having the goal definitely helped me to choose reading during my free time. 

There were also plenty of kid books read aloud to Max. Even though he's reading real books on his own (including Harry Potter) it's still nice to read together, and he still like easy books sometimes. We started reading Up the Down Staircase to Max. I loved this book as a kid, but Max wasn't really in to it. The last book we read out loud that held his attention was The Hobbit. 

Here's the year:

J - Homeland by Cory Doctorow
F - Jennifer Government by Max Barry
M - The Finno-Ugrian Vampire by Noemi Szecsi 
A - The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
M - Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore (and Ajax Penumbra 1969) by Robin Sloan
J - Destroyer Angel by Nevada Barr
J - The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
A - Spell or High Water by Scott Meyer
S - Tigerman by Nick Harkaway
O - Suspect by Robert Crais
N - Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon and Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (Audiobooks)
D - Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Best book of the year: Tigerman by a mile. It doesn't matter what this book is about. I loved reading it and I want you to read it. I found myself putting it down at times just to try and make it last longer. Other books this year had their moments, but Tigerman is the one I wish I could read again for the first time.

Highest achievement book: Crying of Lot 49. Never need to read Pynchon again, but glad I got through one. Actually, I'd probably read more Pynchon before I read more Dave Eggers.

I reviewed the earlier books over on LiveJournal, but haven't posted these:

Suspect - Fun. I like big strong dogs.

Telegraph Ave - The local flavor made this one enjoyable. I don't know anything about jazz. If you don't like jazz and don't like Berkeley or Oakland, this might not be the book for you. I want to like Chabon's books more than I actually do, and plan to read more of them.

Alif - We enjoyed this tale and it had many wonderful attributes but there were logistical inconsistencies that drove us nuts. It took me forever to realize that Alif is pronounced very much like Alice and that this book is bit like Alice in Wonderland, which I have never read, so not a surprise that this part didn't jump out at me.

Cinder - This was the hardest book to get through, and that includes Lot 49. It's sort of YA so I was trying to figure out why I found this book really easy to put down and didn't look forward to picking it up. I think it's because it's a retelling of the Cinderella story, therefore you know the major plot points (who knew retelling fairytales would be an end of year theme for me) and so what really matters is the stuff in-between and that part was not well paced. Even the extra plot points were very predictable and it was just a trudge to finish.

I haven't decided if I'll keep the same goal for 2015, but my goal books include:
Madam Ambassador by Eleni Kounalakis (non-fiction)
Bartleby, The Scrivener by Herman Melville (a missed classic)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (also a missed classic)

Seems a bit of a heavy list, so I'll try to round it out with fluff. Maybe some Lev Grossman