2016 Reading List

I keep saying it, but it remains a truism; 2016 has been a supremely weird year. You might look at this list of books I read and think "That's it? That's your list? C'mon, son."

Much of my creative output didn't happen until the tail-end of the year, thanks to this back injury, of which I'm having surgery in a little over a week. During that time I've done some writing (which I'll talk about in another post) and very little reading. It's been a struggle to juggle the creative life with the normal social life, more so here in KC because I moved back with a pretty diverse bunch of friend groups from all walks of my life.

With the death of two friends this summer, it became paramount to me that spending time with them was infinitely more important than sitting at home reading or writing. It just felt like the right move...and it still does.

But now I'm settled in and I seem to have found a good groove. Plus the winters here are crazy cold, so plenty of people just go into hibernation most nights anyway, which makes it easy to divert my time to other endeavors. With the back surgery in a week or so, I'll have plenty of time to do some more reading before the year ends. Below you'll find my incredibly anemic list for the year.

Because I knew that my social life was going to be outshining my personal life, I mostly chose to dig into books that I'd already read before. Somehow that makes them easier to finish when life gets a little chaotic, I think. Plus they're just really enjoyable books, which is why I read them over and over again every so often. The last two by Bolano and Dick, however, I'm planning to read during my recovery time as they've been on my "to read" list for a cool minute now.

2016 Reading List

April

01.) Carlos Ruiz Zafon - "The Shadow of the Wind" (487pgs)

02.) Carlos Ruiz Zafon - "The Angel's Game" (531pgs)

(1,018pgs total)

May

03.) Carlos Ruiz Zafon - "The Prisoner of Heaven" (278pgs)

04.) Haruki Murakami - "Hear the Wind Sing / Pinball, 1973" (233pgs)

(511pgs total)

June

05.) Lev Grossman - "The Magicians" (402pgs)

(402pgs total)

July

06.) Lev Grossman - "The Magician King" (400pgs)

(400pgs total)

August

07.) Amber Sparks & Robert Kloss - "The Desert Places" (87pgs)

08.) Amber Sparks - "The Unfinished World and Other Stories" (223pgs)

09.) Stephen King - "The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)" (231pgs)

10.) Stephen King - "The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2)" (399pgs)

(940pgs total)

September

11.) Stephen King - "The Wastelands (The Dark Tower, #3)" (420pgs)

12.) Stephen King - "Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, #4)" (672pgs)

13.) Stephen King - "The Wind through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower, #4.5)" (322pgs)

(1,414pgs total)

October

14.) Stephen King - "The Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5)" (714pgs)

15.) Stephen King - "Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, #6)" (413pgs)

(1,127pgs total)

November

16.) Stephen King - "The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, #7)" (845pgs)

17.) Bo Fowler - "Scepticism, Inc." (256pgs)

(1,101pgs total)

December

18.) Philip K. Dick - "The Man in the High Castle" (274pgs)

19.) Roberto Bolano - "The Insufferable Gaucho" (164pgs)

(438pgs total)

Total Pages Read

(7,351)

(70,930)