The Books I Read in 2013

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So it seemed like a mental and unfulfillable task at the beginning of last year but I set myself the mountain to climb of reading 52 books by the end of the year. I read 53.

The question I’ve most been asked online is “HOW??” and, honestly, it’s just reading a bit before bedtime, sitting in on Sundays reading for the day if the schedule allows, taking nights here and there and not turning on the TV ’til late and reading instead…

People were interested in seeing the list, I hope it gives you some ideas.

I’ve categorised them loosely…

The Best Books I Read In 2013

Truman Capote – Breakfast At Tiffany’s

Iain M. Banks – The Player Of Games

Haruki Murakami – 1Q84 Books 1, 2 and 3

Paul Lynch – Red Sky In Morning

Kevin Barry – The City Of Bohane

Ciaran Carty – Intimacy With Strangers

Colum McCann – Transatlantic

Cormac McCarthy – The Road

Horace McCoy – They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

Albert Camus – The Outsider

Barbara Demick – Nothing To Envy

Stephen King – Dr. Sleep

Julie Otsuka – The Buddha In The Attic

Neil Gaiman – The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

Art Spiegelman – Maus

Nate Silver – The Signal And The Noise

Laurent Binet – HhHH

Daniel Keyes – Flowers For Algernon

Alan Moore – From Hell

Books I Would Highly Recommend

Lee Child – Killing Floor

Will Storr – The Heretics

Arthur C. Clarke – The Sentinel

E.H. Gombrich – A Little History Of The World

Christopher Hitchens – Arguably

Janet Cameron – Cinnamon Toast And The End Of The World

Daniel Kahneman – Thinking Fast And Slow

Hugh Howey – Shift

Hugh Howey – Dust

Jean-Dominique Beauby – The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

Robert Levine – Free Ride

Brendan Behan – Brendan Behan’s New York

David Sedaris – When You Are Engulfed In Flames

Mikhail Bulgakov – A Country Doctor’s Notebook

Neil Gaiman – Don’t Panic – The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Companion

Decent

Alain DeBotton – How Proust Can Change Your Life

Andrew Kaufman – The Tiny Wife

Gore Vidal – The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire

Harlan Ellison – From The Land Of Fear

Tao Lin – Taipei

Various (ed. Harlan Ellison) – Dangerous Visions

Books That Disappointed Me

Roddy Doyle – The Guts

Mitch Albom – The Time Keeper

David B. – Epileptic

David Wong – John Dies At The End

Karrie Franshman – The House That Groaned

Books I Was Reading Again That I’d Read Before

Noam Chomsky – Media Control

George Orwell – 1984

F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby

Terry Southern – The Magic Christian

Didn’t Finish

Ernest Hemingway – The Short Stories Of…

Karen Russell – Swamplandia

4 thoughts on “The Books I Read in 2013

  1. Wow – that’s a big list alright.

    Player of Games is one of my favourite books. Think I might have mentioned that to you on Twitter before.

    I loved 1Q84. There was a strange logic to the whole story. It took me a few books to really get into Murakami. This was definitely his best.

    I found it very hard to get into City of Bohane even though I can appreciate what’s good about it.

    Hhhh didn’t really do it for me even though it was book of the year from one of my favourite book reviewers.

    I’ll check out some of your recommendations.

    Here’s my top 10 of the year:
    http://www.johnbraine.com/2014/01/my-10-favourite-books-of-2013.html

  2. I’m surprised you didn’t enjoy ‘The Guts’, I got it as a Christmas present and really enjoyed it. I’ve never been a fan of the way Doyle writes but I found it actually worked quite well with the story.

    Still – doesn’t make me any less suspicious to try out some of your other recommendations!

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