2013: The Year In Books

2013books

With another year coming to an end, it is time to take a look back at the 18 books I read over the past year, 6 overall less than last year but the same total if you exclude the graphic novels.  Of those 18, 5 were non-fiction and, of the 13 novels, 5 were TV show tie-ins.  Only 3 of the books came from the “to-read” drawer, and 7 were e-books, which was a new category for me last year.

 

A majority of the books I read this year were by authors I’ve never read before.  The 11 authors that I read for the first this year were:
Alan Sepinwall
Joe Hill
Rebecca Forster
Sarah Silverman
Kimberly McCreight
Andrew Gross
Ben Mezrich
Tina Fey
Ron Rapoport
David Mack
Dustin Diamond

The ghost writer for Richard Castle was the only author I read multiple times in 2013.

The five books that I read this year that were released this year were Richard Castle’s Deadly Heat, Kimberly McCreight’s Reconstructing Amelia, Brad Meltzer’s The Fifth Assassin, Warren Ellis’ Gun Machine, and From Black Sox to Threepeats, edited by Ron Rapoport.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  Being off again for most of December certainly helped pad the total a tad bit.

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Book 5 (of 52) – Gun Machine

Gun Machine - Warren Ellis

Gun Machine – Warren Ellis

Noted comic book writer Warren Ellis returns with his second prose novel, following 2007’s Crooked Little Vein.  Where the previous work was mostly an exercise in weirdness for weirdness sake, Gun Machine tells an entertaining story about a New York police detective who uncovers a serial killer’s lair moments after his partner is killed.

Ellis shows that he’s grown tremendously as a prose writer with Gun Machine.  The outlandish ideas are reined in somewhat and refined into a stronger, fast-paced story.  This was a fun read and I’m looking forward to what Ellis has in store for us next.