A Year of Nothing but Reading

That is the best way I can describe 2012: It’s the year I read books. Don’t get me wrong I found a way to do other things but for the most part I read books, as many as possible, within a year. It was the first year I ever made a goal for myself when it came to reading. The goal evolved from 50 to 70 with me actually reading 81 books, keeping track of the books, the authors and the order they were read. I enjoyed it because I love books. It gave me a chance to just explore reading and find new authors and new styles of writing. I enjoy reading many different authors and genres, so whenever people ask me if I know of any good books, the first question I ask is what do you want to read. I don’t know about anybody else but when I pick up a book I have to be in the mood to read that kind of book. I try to break up the types of books that I’m reading at a time so I don’t get tired of that specific genre of books. You can only take so many emotional roller coasters of reading suspense novels and honestly, sometimes it’s just nice to throw a comedy in the mix or even a romance novel if you’re feeling mushy. So I’m including the entire list of books I read last year and here are just some of the gems I found during my reading adventure.

 Greg Iles

Greg Iles writes great suspense novels. I literally stumbled on to one of his books while babysitting my little cousins and going through their mother’s bookshelf. The first novel I read by him was Turning Angel and it was absolutely amazing. I managed to squeeze five of his novels into my books of last year and it was hard to put any of them down. If you are a fan of suspense novels I would definitely suggest giving him a try. More than likely you will become addicted like I can openly admit I am!

 Shayne Parkinson

I was lucky enough to get Shayne’s first novel, Sentence of Marriage, on my Nook for free online. Her stories takes place in New Zealand in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s and I found that even though New Zealand history wasn’t something I’m at all familiar with, I thoroughly enjoyed her novels. Shayne Parkinson has a way of immersing you into this culture of rural New Zealand and into the lives of her characters. I found myself wanting to research the history of New Zealand and its social life because I was drawn into the lives of these characters. Well worth the read and to make it better the most expensive book was $2.99. If you prefer paperback you can find them on Amazon.

 The Forever War by Joe Haldenman

Who doesn’t love a great science fiction novel? If you are in need of one, let me suggest The Forever War by Joe Haldenman. Imagine you go to war on a different planet for 2 years and return to Earth where time has passed much differently and decades have gone by.  The war, however, is still going on and you choose to continue to fight not knowing how much more time will pass before you are able to return again. That is essentially the plot of this novel that was written in 1974. It is well worth taking a look at.

And Lastly… The books I read YEARS after seeing the movie


                   

Starship Troopers and Jurassic Park are movies that I’ve enjoyed watching for years. (Yes, I enjoyed Starship Troopers! I consider it to be one of the best B movies ever.) I had never read either of the books until this year and I must say that I am glad I saw the movie before I ever thought of reading the book. I, more often than not, pick up a book, fall in love with said book and find out its getting turned into a movie. I am then filled with a sense of dread at how horrible the movie version will undoubtedly be. There are times when I have been surprised at how well the book was translated to screen but usually I go to the movies with low expectations and somehow the screen version is worst that I could have imagined. Starship Troopers and Jurassic Park suffer from the latter. If I had read either of those books before watching the movies I would have thrown something at the screen. Both of these books were stripped to their bare bones, left with just character names and 2 or 3 key points, and then thrown on the screen. Thankfully, I already had an affinity for the movies or I don’t think I could watch them again. If you enjoyed the movies at all, indulge in the books and allow yourself to be fully immersed in the stories. There were so many different angles in both of these books that weren’t even mentioned in either of the movies that you can only benefit from trying either of these books out.

Now with all that being said, stay tuned… There’s a lot more reading and reviews to come on this blog. Stop by often and see what the next book is on my list.

 2012 Book List

Books	Authors
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	JK Rowling	1
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	JK Rowling	2
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	JK Rowling	3
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	JK Rowling	4
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	JK Rowling	5
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	JK Rowling	6
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows	JK Rowling	7
The Waste Lands	Stephen King	8
Wizard and Glass	Stephen King	9
Wolves of the Calla	Stephen King	10
Songs of Susannah	Stephen King	11
The Dark Tower	Stephen King	12
The Hunger Games	Suzanne Collins	13
Cathcing Fire	Suzanne Collins	14
Mockingjay	Suzanne Collins	15
Nefertiti: The Book of the Dead	Nick Drake	16
Auschwitz: A Doctors Eyewitness Account	Mikos Nyiszli	17
While We're Far Apart	Lynn Austin	18
Lone Wolf	Jodi Picoult	19
Sentence of Marriage	Shayne Parkinson	20
Mud and Gold	Shayne Parkinson	21
Settling the Account	Shayne Parkinson	22
13 Reasons Why	Jay Asher	23
A Second Chance	Shayne Parkinson	24
My Lady Gisbourne	Charlotte Hawkins	25
Soul Identity	Dennis Batchelder	26
Soul Intent	Dennis Batchelder	27
L'America	Martha McPhee	28
Gods and Kings	Lynn Austin	29
Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art	Christopher Moore	30
Life Love and a Polar Bear Tattoo	Heather Wardell	31
Wind Through the Keyhole	Stephen King	32
Rain Song	Alice Wisler	33
When the Wind Blows	James Patterson	34
The good Guy	Dean Koontz	35
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the seas	Jules Verne	36
A Stolen Life: A memoir	Jayce Dugard	37
Clash of Kings	George R R Martin	38
Pillow Talk	Freya North	39
The Wedding	Nicholas Sparks	40
Veiled Eyes	CL Bevill	41
Daughter of the sea	Mira Zamin	42
Liars Market	Taylor Smith	43
Riverlilly	J Evans	44
Daisy's War	Shayne Parkinson	45
Mirror, Mirror	Gregory Maguire	46
Caribbee	Thomas Hoover	47
Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood	Rebecca Wells	48
Turning Angel	Greg Iles	49
True Evil	Greg Iles	50
Great Expectation	Charles Dickens	51
Sleep No More	Greg Iles	52
The Davinci Legacy	Lewis Perdue	53
The Jefferson Key	Steve Berry	54
Off Balance: A memoir	Dominique Moceanu	55
The Best of me	Nicholas Sparks	56
Starship Troopers	Robert A Heinlein	57
The Casual Vacancy	JK Rowling	58
Flying Changes	Sara Gruen	59
The Forever War	Joe Haldenman	60
The Woman who Wasn’t There	Angelo J Gugliemo Jr	61
The Time Keeper	Mitch Albom	62
The Twelve	Justin Cronin	63
24 hours	Greg Iles	64
Heroes Day	Jesse Gordon	65
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter	Seth Grahame Smith	66
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister	Gregory Maguire	67
The Stolen Crown	Susan Higginbotham	68
Trefoil	MC Moore	69
The Summerhouse	Jude Deveraux	70
A Family Affair	Mary Campisi	71
Aquanis	MC Moore	72
The Dante Club	Matthew Pearl	73
The Last Templar	Raymond Khoury	74
Timeline	Michael Crichton	75
The Book of Lies	Brad Meltzer	76
The Loom	Shella Gillus	77
Nearly Departed	Max Patrick Schlienger	78
Dead Sleep	Greg Iles	79
And When She Was Good	Laura Lippman	80
Jurassic Park	Michael Crichton	81