2015 Review

In 2015 I read 39 books, or 11,683 pages. Some of the reviews on this blog from this year are from books I read last year. By about August, I ran out of those and going forward all reviews will be contemporary to when I read them.

Longest Book: A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall. Apparently this is a pen name for a well known fantasy writer looking to start fresh with a new world and cast of characters. Despite a difficult first 100 pages, I eventually really grew to like this book and it ended up earning a four star rating. I haven't looked recently to see if the actual author name has leaked yet (Current popular theory is that the author is Mark Barrowcliffe, click here for the full theory). But in any case I'll be reading the eventual sequels to this one. You can read my full review here.












Shortest Book: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. This was a pleasant surprise since I wasn't sure what I'd missed having never read this in high school, but I really enjoyed this short novel and gave it a five star rating as well. You can read my full review here.

Best Book: The Martian by Andy Weir. This was my first book on audible after I discovered that Jock Jams was just not going to get me through two hour 1/2 Marathon training runs. So I strated listening to book on audible and absolutely loved the rendition as read by the narrator. Also saw the movie this year but the book was better. You can read my full review here.

Best Character: Mark Watney in The Martian. He's funny, he's smart, he's a great guy to be stuck on a planet with or get a beer with. I thoroughly enjoyed him being the only character in a book for a long portion of the novel. That's rare in real life let alone in a book. Loved him.

Worst Book: No book earned only a single star rating this year but looking back on the books, Senate Proof by Logan Snyder should have. It had bad writing, a bad plot and terrible characters. Triple bogey. Read more about that here.
















Biggest Disappointment: Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. This had potential and I heard so many good things but ultimately it was SOOOOO boring. You can read my full review here.

Worst Character: Julia from The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. I'm not saying 11 year olds can't be good narrators, but this time it didn't work out. Julia was boring and merely an observer in her world. The book would have been better told form someone else's perspective. Someone called it "haunting" but I just couldn't get over the melodrama wrapped in soccer cleats aspect of the book.

Goals for 2016: I've set my goal of 50 books for this year. I feel like this is a little daunting, but now that I spend more time listening to audio books than music, I think it is doable. I'll be training for another half marathon soon so I'll have the time to listen. 50 books roughs out to one a week with two weeks of vacation thrown in for good measure.

I'm confident I'll be reading Justin Cronin's City of Mirrors this year, despite this being a prediction for the two previous years (check out that May 24, 2016 expected date!). Will George RR Martin get around to publishing Winds of Winter (probably not - check out this update), I'm not counting on it or I would have set the goal at 45. But if it ruins my reading goal for the year, I'd be okay with that.