Category: Books

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Books I Read in 2013

I had meant to get this post up sooner, but the nature of a blog is to be ignored and ignored it was.

In 2013, I read a total of 20 books. It’s a little shabby, especially considering the large amounts of free time I had compared to previous years (though, I suspect the lack of free time is what pressed me to read more when I could). As well, I certainly spent more time writing for myself than I have in previous years, so at least I managed to strike some sort of rough literally truce between my pen and the books on my shelf.

Here’s what I plowed through last year:

  • Stephen King – The Green Mile
  • Frank Miller – Batman: Year One
  • Robert Jordan – The Eye of the World
  • John Wyndham – The Day of the Triffids
  • Harry Harrison – Make Room! Make Room!
  • Michael Pollan – The Botany of Desire
  • Sigmund Freud – Civilization and its discontents
  • Tristan Das – Documentary Screenwriting
  • Linda J. Cowgill – The art of Plotting
  • Kurt Vonnegut – Player Piano
  • Marilyn Webber – The Writer’s Road Map
  • Alan Weisman – The World Without Us
  • Edward Dolnick  – The Clockwork Universe
  • Maurice Druon – The Iron King
  • Stephen King – Insomnia
  • Robert Jordan – The Great Hunt
  • Bryan Lee O’Malley – Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life
  • Ethan A. Kincaid – Blood Of Midnight: The Broken Prophecy
  • Robert Jordan – The Dragon Reborn

I also read an ebook called A Crash Course in Visual Content Creation but I can’t seem to find the damn thing or remember who authored it.

I had a good year in the non-fiction category. Most were insightful, others life changing: after reading The Botany of Desire I can honestly say I will never buy non-organic potatoes again (in fact, the majority of all vegetables I buy are now organic).

I wasn’t expecting to read so much fantasy, but that’s just the way the cards hit the table this time around. As always, I squeezed in a few Stephen King novels in there, but that’s to be expected since everyone needs a little junk food now and then (and it’s so plentiful and wondrous!). What I did realize is that I need to branch out my reading patterns a little bit more and dive into new authors, which I have fortunately already started this year.

 

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Books

Blood of Midnight: Broken Prophecy now Available

Montreal fantasy novelist Ethan A. Kincaid’s debut novel Blood of Midnight: Broken Prophecy is now available in e-Book format. The first of three planned works, Kincaid brings his reader into a world where magic is real, souls have twins, and an ancient force known as the White Asp is carving a path of destruction across the known world. What role does a princeling with dark blood have to play in all this and who are the mysterious, bird-like Ducal people?Fans of Jordan will find a kindred spirit in Kincaid’s world.

The Amazon Kindle Edition and Kobo Edition are now available.

I had the honour and privilege of working with Ethan on this project over the past few months, finalizing the editing and getting his manuscript prepped for formatting and publication. If you are a fantasy afficionado, or simply looking to support a local author going the self-publishing route, give Kincaid a read; it’s only a fraction of the cost a  of paperback!

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Books

Books I Read in 2012 – The Best and Worst

In 2012 I read a total of 37 books, falling just shy of the 40 mark which I had set for myself sometime earlier in the year. Unfortunately my usual Xmas season burnout prevented me from polishing off that last stack of novels I had on my desk. After a steady two months-straight period of working 12-15 hours a day, including weekends, to finish my degree and freelance projects, crashing in front of the couch and watching movies became the a more appealing holiday leisure activity.

This year I’ve decided to include academic and non-academic texts in my list, considering that the old degree certainly dug into my reading schedule.

  • A Dance with Dragons by Martin
  • The Sacred Scimitar by Mabel Farnum
  • Magicien du Christ by Jules Emery
  • Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
  • Roadwork by King / Bachman
  • The Theology of the Gospel of John by D. Moody Smith
  • The Running Man by King / Bachman
  • Clement of Alexandria by Salvatore L. Lilla
  • Sabda: Study of Bhrtrhari’s Philosophy of Language by Tanda Patnik
  • Clement of Alexandria by John Ferguson
  • Philosophy of Clement of Alexandria by E. F. Osborn
  • Doctrine of Vibration by Dyczkowski
  • Manichaeism in China by Lieu
  • Manichaean Texts in the Roman Empire by Gardner and Lieu
  • The Andromeda Strain by Crichton
  • The Battle of Brazil by Jack Matthews
  • The Regulators by King / Bachman
  • Chapterhouse Dune by Herbert
  • Hark! A Vagrant! by Kate Beaton
  • Ender’s Game by Card
  • Secret Lives of the Roman Emperors by Anthony Blond
  • Misery by King
  • The Dark Half by King
  • Thinner by King
  • Dunkirk by Robert Jackson
  • Eaters of the Dead by Crichton
  • Everything Under the Sun by David Suzuki
  • Harperland by Laurence Martin
  • Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill
  • The Hunter by Stark
  • The Man with the Getaway Face by Stark
  • Reinventing Paul by Gager
  • Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Adams
  • 1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke
  • Acts of Thomas by Klijn
  • Cults and Beliefs of Edessa by Drijvers
  • Manichaeism in Mesopotamia and the Roman East by Lieu

One of the best books I read this past year would be “Everything Under the Sun” by David Suzuki, a thoughtful examination of, well, everything under the sun and the ways in which humans interact with them. The book reads as well as David Suzuki speaks, and encourages people to simply think rather than take any course of action.

As well, “The Hunter” by Stark deserves an honourable mention as well, even if it was an old book. After having read “The Dark Half” by King I wondered why the appeal would be in reading a series of crime novels about an anti-hero. Stark’s stories about Parker, whom King based his novel on, certainly cleared up any mystery.

Despite having found my way through a ton of entertaining, interesting and enlightening fiction and non-fiction works over the course of the year, not everything I read was worthy of such accolades. “Chatperhouse: Dune” is one such novel; after having taken 2 years and 3 tries to get through that novel, I finally managed to convince myself that finishing off the series was alone worth the pain that book caused me. It was honestly more of a parody of everything that made the original Dune great, and the poster child for how a series can slide down into meaninglessly masturbatory self-importance bordering on fan fiction.