Perhaps I’m a few days late for a 2010 wrap-up post, but better late than never, right? I read a total of 82 books last year, which I realized was more than a book a week! I attribute this to all my guilty pleasure reading and the handful of multi-book series I couldn’t stop reading.
Best Books of 2010:
Cloud Atlas
My co-worker suggested it for our office book-club and I’m glad he did because I don’t think I would have read David Mitchell otherwise. (review here)
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer
My favorite Stephenson book to date. I ended my Steampunk Month with it. It took me a while to warm up to it, but I thought it was great at the end. (review)
The Hunger Games
My favorite book of the series. It was heart-pounding, heart-warming, and a joy to read. I’m just sorry the series went so far downhill in the third book. (review)
Stories of Your Life and Others
This entry is kind of cheating because I haven’t read all of the stories in this anthology yet, but I’ve liked every short story I’ve read in it. My favorite so far is Story of Your Life because it’s brain-bending and heartfelt. I usually don’t read many short stories because I feel like as soon as I develop a relationship with the characters, the story ends in an unsatisfying end. No such problem with Chiang’s stories.
Worst Book I’ve Read in 2010
The Passage
This was probably at the top of everyone’s “best book” list of 2010, but I thought it was overhyped, overly long, and fell apart in the third act. If this book were shorter and I hadn’t spent so much time reading it, I might not feel so antagonistic towards it, but man, the guy really needed an editor to cut this book down. I’ve played video games with stories better than the one in this book.
