2015: The Year in Review

Hey, it's January again? So, how did I do in 2015?

Long form: 154 books!

Short form: 800!

The goal for books is always at least 60, as that seemed to be my average when I was crazily working 80 hours a week plus doing Army National Guard on one or more weekends. So, if I can't get at least that far—I'm doing something wrong. So, I am always happy to get at least a few past that.

Short form: The goal is at least one title per day. So, I made it! Or did I?

If you look at the titles read, most of them are "graphic novels" (comic books for people of a certain age). I may split this into another "The Year In..." category on the blog. The question then comes with the "trades" (collected editions). Do I continue to carry them in The Year in Books, or only restrict them to The Year in Graphics? Stay tuned.

The plan for 2015 was to concentrate on non-fiction. Did I stick to that goal? Nope. Oh, well.

Best of the year? Some non-fiction (especially Peter Ackroyd's Venice and Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods). I definitely want to continue with these sorts of books going forward, as well as mixing in "harder" non-fiction.

Umberto Eco was another good read during the year. I have some more of his non-fiction, so I will continue with those and I have a few novels that are lined up for a re-read or a first read.

Arthur Conan Doyle added a lot to the short works. I plan to start going through the two massive annotated editions I have of the Sherlock Holmes stories in 2016. It may take me more than a year to do so...

I went through Neil Gaiman's Sandman series again, after initially thinking of skipping a year. In doing so, I noticed a few more things that I hadn't previously. And, I got my daughter to start reading the series (she is on Volume 8 as of this morning), so winning!

Biggest discovery this year was Mike Mignola, mostly titles in and around his Hellboy series. I have to thank my podcast co-hosts Jeff Patterson and John Stevens for this (our ongoing discussions on graphic works has really added to my reading list!).

On into 2016!