Fiction You Read Over the Past Year

[Cadfan]

Your poll stops way too early. I'd estimate that I have read more than a hundred books in the past year.

Some of the better stuff:

Everything by Carol Berg (mostly amazing, heavy on the angst though)
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie (unbelievably amazing, should appeal to you old school fuddy duddies who only read Conan novels and who accuse my Carol Berg influences of being "anime")
Jeri Smith-Ready (quality, but influenced by a previous career writing romance novels, should traumatize the other old fuddy duddies who don't realize that girls read fantasy as well as us guys)
Everything by Kage Baker (amazing, but philosophical differences between the author and I sometimes make the authors decisions odd for me)
Everything by Alan Campbell (new weird)
Everything by Lois McMaster Bujold (in my opinion, the upcoming queen of romantic fantasy, taking over from Mercedes Lackey)
Emma Bull, Territory
Wayne Barlowe, God's Demon
Felix Gilman, Thunderer

There was also a darn good penny dreadful style novel about a washed up detective turned stage magician and his mute giant assistant, set in a gaslight era fantasy London, but for the life of me I cannot remember the author or title.

 

[Gilladian]

I said 20 or more, but you threw me for a loop when you said "not for work". I'm a librarian. Everything I read is fodder for reader's advisory, but at the same time, I have to LIKE something to really read it.

I'm a Young Adult librarian, which means I read a tremendous amount of YA lit, but I love it. Recently I read "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins, and "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow. Both were fabulous. Science Fiction for YA's is starting to make a comeback, I think. Today at lunch I read a big chunk of a YA historical called "Ivy" by Julie Hearn. Anyone wanting to run a pseudo-victorian story or who wants insight into a theives' gang's inner workings could not go wrong reading it.

I've probably also read a dozen or more non-fiction books, mostly science and history. But podcasts have begun cutting into my reading, to some degree. I can't read and listen at the same time!

 

[Cadfan]

My wife says she's read over 20 as well. One of the things she did was systematically read every Valdemar book, ever.

I also read basically everything by J. V. Jones. The Sword of Shadows series is another one that should appeal to D&D players. My sledgehammer-wielding Fighter is inspired by it.

 

[MerricB]

Over 100 books here; and it's been a light year for reading by my standards.

Cheers!

 

[the Jester]

Umm, lemme think.

I have recently, which I believe to mean in the last year, but would not swear to it, read or re-read:

Galactic North
Redemption Ark
Pushing Ice
Wicked*
Snow Crash
Candide**
Settling Accounts: The Grapple
Settling Accounts: In At the Death
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I am currently reading:

The Life of Pi
One Hundred Years of Solitude

I think that's it- I did also read one book o' gaming based fiction (the Ultramarines Omnibus), but (as is typical of gaming fiction) it wasn't very good anyway.

*You could disqualify this because it's based on the Wizard of Oz, but I won't; it's a completely different kind of telling.

**Though a work of philosophy, it is nevertheless told as a story.

EDIT: D'oh, I forgot a couple!

World War Z
Kindling

Will add more if they come to me.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I read a lot of nonfiction, and since that doesn't count...

I've spent my year getting back to the classics. Vonnegut (so it goes...) and Bukowski mostly (though the latter probably barely qualifies as fiction).

Other stuff has mostly been reality (stuff on Mormons, stuff on death cults, pop science stuff on physics and psychology and evolution...)

 

[small pumpkin man]

Hrrm, lets see what I can remember reading "recently". The first 6 Black Company books (including The Silver Spike), the three Bas Lag novels, King Lear, King Solomon's Mines, the First Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novel/short story collection, Matter (Ian M Banks), the first four Thursday next novels, and I'm sure I'm missing some, so I'm going to put down "over twenty" .

 

[Knightwind1972]

Too much to remember every title. Before years end the total will be 250 novels (yes, this is all fiction). I'm a voracious reader.

 

[Wik]

Hm. Definitely over 20. Lesse here...

A few books by Glen Cook - the Garret P.I. series. I think I've read the new one, an old one I'm just finishing now (Deadly Brass Shadows?), and the one about aliens. Great series.

The entire Jack Whyte Arthurian series. What is that? Seven books?

John Wyndham Books - Day of the Triffids (not the first time I've read it), The Outward Urge, Web, The Kraken Wakes, Consider Her Ways and Others, and a re-read of Chocky.

The Mist (and other short stories by Steven King) - how Cthuluesque can you get?

The First three Douglas Adams Hitchhikers books.

Marlboro Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh - spooky book, dude.

The Beach, by Neville Shute. Most. Depressing. Book. Ever.

Catch 22.

And, oh god, probably about fifteen to twenty more. I'm a book a week sorta guy.

 

[Shemeska]

What I remember off the top of my head:

King Rat - China Mieville
By The Sword - F. Paul Wilson
Secret Histories - F. Paul Wilson
Deeper - Jeff Long
Cauldron - Jack McDevitt
The Wheel of Darkness - Preston & Child
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - Steven King
Midnight Sun - Ramsey Campbell
Blasphemy - Douglass Preston

I've also been re-reading some of Wilson's Adversary Cycle books

And a number of non-fiction books

And a bunch of one sitting low-brow sci-fi and fantasy novels. Though I went cold turkey on FR novels except for finishing out a trilogy by Paul Kemp