Blogocentric Formulations

2015 Reading List

It's the end of 2015, which means it's time to review all the reading and listening I've done over the past calendar year. Last year, I hit my goal of reading 52 books (one a week) in 2014, so I set a goal of 53 books in 2015 in hopes of besting my best result. I ended up blowing past that goal and setting what I'm pretty sure will be a high score for many years to come. Here's how it breaks down:


= favorite
= also highly recommended


FICTION

         3:00 AM by Nick Pirog
         50 Shades of Alice in Wonderland by Melinda Duchamp
         50 Shades of Alice Through the Looking Glass by Melinda Duchamp
         50 Shades of Alice at the Hellfire Club by Melinda Duchamp
         Alchemist of Souls, The by Anne Lyle
         Alias Omnibus [Graphic Novel] by Brian Michael Bendis
         All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
          Angels Flight by Michael Connelly
         B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton
         Big Sleep, The by Raymond Chandler
         Blaze by Stephen King
         Bullets by Elijah Drive
         Calm Before the Storm by Ryan Mullaney
         Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
         Chop Suey by Ty Hutchinson
         Clockwork by Phillip Pullman
         Courage Matters by R. Scott Mackey
         Entertaining Stories by Bennett Cameron
         Fade to Black by Francis Knight
         Fat Vampire by Johnny B. Truant
         Filthy Fairy Tales by Lexi Maxxwell
          Firefight by Brandon Sanderson
         Glass Castle, The by Jeannette Walls
         Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
         Halloween Tree, The by Ray Bradbury
         Honeymoon by James Patterson
         Incrementalists, The by Skyler White & Steven Brust
         Infected (Click Your Poison) by James Schannep
         Lions of Lucerne by Brad Thor
         Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
         Malice and Mistletoe [Graphic Novel] by Nathan Graham Davis
          Martian, The by Andy Weir
         Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
         MILF: Episode One by Lexi Maxxwell
         Occult Assassin: Damnation Code by William Massa
         Paper Towns by John Green
         Partials by Dan Wells
         Plagiarist, The by Hugh Howey
         Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
         Private by James Patterson
         Reapers: Stave 1 by Jason & Chris Thornton
          Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
         Shadows Beneath by Brandon Sanderson, et al
         Smash Cut by Sandra Brown
         Snake Skin by C.J. Lyons
         Snow Queen, The by Hans Christian Andersen
         Snowblind by Christopher Golden
         Stand, The by Stephen King
         Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
         Stone of Fire by Joanna Penn
         Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths by Harry Bingham
         Superpowered (Click Your Poison) by James Schannep
         Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
         Twelfth Night by Williams Shakespeare
         Unicorn Western by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant
         Ur by Stephen King
         Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath
         White Noise: Season 1 Episode 1 by Sean Platt and David Wright
         Wool by Hugh Howey
         Yesterday's Gone: Season 1 Episode 1 by Sean Platt and David Wright


NONFICTION

         2K to 10K by Rachel Aaron
         A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley
         Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist
          Circle Maker, The by Mark Batterson
         Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist
         Crazy Love by Francis Chan
         Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison
         Forgotten God by Francis Chan
          Love Does by Bob Goff
         Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath
          Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
          On Writing by Stephen King
         Power of Giving, The by Azim Jamal and Harvey McKinnon
          Quiet by Susan Cain
         Quitter by Jon Acuff
         Start Here by Don Williams
         Successful Novelist, The by David Morrell
         Think Like A Freak by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
         Why Jesus? by Ravi Zacharias
         You and Me Forever by Francis & Lisa Chan


PODCASTS

         Business of Film - 23 episodes
         Chicks Who Script - 30 episodes
         Creative Penn, The - 30 episodes
         Freakonomics - 14 episodes
         How Stuff Works - 7 episodes
         Intelligence Squared - 2 episodes
         Moment with Brian Koppelman, The - 9 episodes
         Nerdist - 14 episodes
         Nerdist Writer's Panel - 29 episodes
         Q&A, The - 6 episodes
         Rocking Self Publishing Podcast, The - 16 episodes
         Scriptnotes - 56 episodes
         Self Publishing Questions - 39 episodes
         Self Publishing Podcast, The - 100 episodes
         Serial - 2 episodes
         Slate Political Gabfest - 35 episodes
         Stuff You Missed in History Class - 7 episodes
         TED Radio Hour - 12 episodes
         Writing Excuses - 53 episodes
         WTF with Marc Maron - 3 episodes
         You Must Remember This - 14 episodes


COMICS

         Arabian Nights - 14 issues
         Code Red - 5 issues
         Red Ten - 1 issues
         Robyn Hood - 5 issues
         Oz - 6 issues


SCREENPLAYS

         20 Unproduced


TOTALS

         80 books, 501 podcasts, 31 comics, 20 screenplays


Thanks to recording my reading on Goodreads, I also have some general reading statistics from my year:

         Total Pages Read: 21,999
         Average Pages Per Book: 286
         Shortest Book: 39 pages
         Longest Book: 1,153 pages

As part of my reading year, thanks to Elle - on hiatus 's prompting, I also participated in the PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge ▼

          A book with more than 500 pages
          A classic romance
          A book that became a movie
          A book published this year
          A book with a number in the title
          A book written by someone under 30
          A book with nonhuman characters
          A funny book
          A book by a female author
          A mystery or thriller
          A book with a one-word title
          A book of short stories
          A book set in a different country
          A nonfiction book
          A popular author's first book
          A book from an author you love that you haven't read yet
          A book a friend recommended
          A Pulitzer Prize-winning book
          A book based on a true story
          A book at the bottom of your to-read list
          A book your mum loves
          A book that scares you
          A book more than 100 years old
          A book based entirely on its cover
          A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't
          A memoir
          A book you can finish in a day
          A book with antonyms in the title
          A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit
          A book that came out the year you were born
          A book with bad reviews
          A trilogy
          A book from your childhood
          A book with a love triangle
          A book set in the future
          A book set in high school
          A book with a colour in the title
          A book that made you cry
          A book with magic
          A graphic novel
          A book by an author you've never read before
          A book you own but have never read
          A book that takes place in your hometown
          A book that was originally written in a different language
          A book set during Christmas
          A book written by an author with your same initials
          A play
          A banned book
          A book based on or turned into a TV show
          A book you started but never finished

Overall, I'm really happy with my reading year. I accomplished way more than I set out to, and I read some really great stuff. I appreciated the additional challenge of trying to find books to fit the criteria of the PopSugar Reading Challenge, but I don't think I'm going to take on another challenge like that for a while, because it became a real struggle toward the end to read stuff that simply ticked off a box. I got through about 80% of the challenge with either books I wanted to read or books that piqued my interest and fit a category. But the other 20% was a real slog to get through.

I'm thinking that, for 2016, my reading goals will center around the types of things I read rather than the quantity. Most notably, I'd like to read more books by friends, independent authors, and writers here on WdC. I hope to self-publish something myself soon, and I think I'll get more value out of reading the types of things similar to what I hope to publish than I will participating in challenges where I'm trying to round out items on a list by choosing genres and subject matters that aren't even close to what I'm interested in for myself as an author.

Time to say farewell to 2015, and hello to a brand new year of reading opportunities!