Books 2016
- rebeccarlyons
- Dec 31, 2016
- 6 min read
As another year winds down, my favorite thing to do on the last day is to reflect on the books I read. My goal this year was to read more than 2015, which I managed to do. By two whole books. In total, I read 60 books. A lot were re-reads as I picked up several series again such as the Series of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings (my 19th time), and Redwall.
Favorite new book: The Magical Strings of Frankie Presto. "Everyone joins a band. Not every one plays music." Mitch Albom's newest book had a bunch of amazing quotes that made me stop and put the book down to mull over. The book is told from the perspective of music, a narrator I've never heard before, and is about the power and love of and in music.
Worst book: The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Maybe this should go under Biggest Disappointment, as well, as I did have high expectations for this book. Campbell, the author, is known for his theories on what makes a hero in a quest narrative. While I mainly use W. H. Auden's elements of a quest, I have read plenty of Campbell's work on the matter that has influenced my teaching. So I expected the book to really be about his theories. Unfortunately, it went too much into Campbell's own personal philosophy, which was borderline nihilistic--not something I was looking for in a book about heroes!
Most forgettable book: Olive Kitteridge. I literally don’t remember a thing about this book.
Biggest disappointment: Go Set a Watchman. Let's not get started on this. When one of your favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird and a sequel to it is finally released that seems to be about different characters published by a company who took advantage of an aging woman, you tend to not like the result. I didn't like this book.
Favorite school book: Slaughterhouse Five. This fall I took a class on Trauma. Not the most lighthearted of reading. In fact, the books were dang depressing. I read Slaughterhouse Five first, and it was my favorite for the semester. The book's themes of time, memory, and trauma really got me thinking about my own life and my own book.
Favorite Kid’s book: The Little Prince. Do you like crying as you reminisce about your childhood and ponder how the world is slowly stripping all joy away from you as you go through your days in a tedious and depressing manner? Me too! My mom insists I read this book when I was young--I believe her--but I didn't remember it. When the movie fell through and Netflix picked it up, I started watching it one night before going to bed. Within 30 minutes I was crying and had to stop. It took me four sittings to finish the movie. It was, first of all, gorgeous. The various art styles were beautiful and moving enough. Secondly, the story, which takes the book and adds another layer, was heartbreaking and, while fictional, held so much truth. I had to read the book, and was pleased with it, as well. In short, read this book. Watch the movie. Cry. Don't forget to use your imagination.
Best History book: Isaac’s Storm. Erik Larson continues to be my favorite history author. His tale of the 1900 hurricane in Galveston, TX, weaves stories of the scientists making attempts to understand forces of nature in a time with limited technology and the victims of the storm itself. It's the individual stories that make Larson's book so intriguing and a gripping page-turner. While the death toll of the storm is unknowable, the storm was, to this date, the most deadly in U.S. history.
Best Drama: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It’s actually the only drama I read this year. I’m eager to see how the play works on stage next summer, so then I can really observe how good the play is. The story itself isn't my favorite, as I'm not a huge fan of time travel in Rowling's world, but the two main characters, Albus and Scorpius, have great chemistry.
Best self-help: The Five Love Languages. It was a great reminder of how I and those I know operate. If you're interested, I show love by giving gifts and spending quality time with people (I can make this an act of service and give you words of encouragement). I feel love by acts of service (if you help me, I will probably just burst into tears), hearing words of encouragement, and spending quality time with people (it's the introvert in me--I feel like one of the surest signs that I trust/love you is if we can just sit in silence doing "nothing" and being comfortable around each other). If you don't have time to read this short book, you could at least take a test online to find out your love language.
Best book to movie: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This may be cheating, as this was an actual screenplay, but wow. I saw the movie first and then bought the screenplay. Talk about magical. I re-read the Harry Potter series this year and loved remembering how much I love Rowling's world. I'm a proud Hufflepuff and a proud nerd.
Honorable mention: House of Leaves. Another book I read for school. And I really haven't finished-finished. It's super long, over 600 pages. But it's also a story within a story within a story. And some of its pages look like the one above. I mean, how does one read that? It's a complicated series of footnotes and end-notes and appendixes and even pictures. The book is a puzzle. What is it really about? The guy who wrote the book that's about a documentary about a family staying in a house that holds a mysterious, haunted hallway, or the guy who found the book and was raised and abused in a foster home because his mother lived in a mental institution? A couple of years ago I read The Ship of Theseus, and this book definitely reminded me of that. But after I discovered this book is intended as a satire making fun of academia, I realized that this book's attempt to say so much about how nothing matters was not just fascinating, it was frustrating. I think that's why I've slowed down in reading it. It is interesting, to say the least, but ultimately I know there isn't going to be a solid solution. I like literature allowing many answers; I don't like literature that let's the reader just believe what they want to believe. There have to be truths in the world.
Below is complete list of books I read. How was your year of reading? What was your favorite?
Bold=Recommend
Underlined=Read for school/work/teaching
Italicized=Re-read
Octopussy and the Living Daylights
Go Set a Watchman
Unfortunate Events 1
Unfortunate events 2
Eamon de Velera
Unfortunate events 3
Unfortunate events 4
1914-18
The Great Divorce
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Hollow City
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Olive Kitteridge
Rewriting
Boundaries
The Five Love Languages
The Search of Significance
The Millionaire and the Bard
Grimm’s Last Fairy Tale
The Power of Habit
Humans of New York
On the Shoulders of Hobbits
Walking Dead Comics #4, 5, and 6
The Prince
Heaven and Hell
Echo
Eleanor and Park
How the Irish Saved Civilization
Fellowship of the Ring
Dante and Aristotle discover the secrets of the universe
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
How to be Your Own Selfish Pig
The Two Towers
Slaughterhouse Five
Amulet
Tattooed Soldier
Ceremony
The Little Prince
Cereus Blooms at Night
The Graveyard Book
Harry Potter and the Sorcery’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Maus I
Maus II
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Way of the Heart
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
A Long Long Way
Hidden Symptoms
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Magical Strings of Frankie Presto
Intellectual Virtues
Isaac’s Storm
All the Light we Cannot See
Lord Brocktree
The World of Tolkien
House of Leaves
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