Home BlogReviews My 2017 Reading List

My 2017 Reading List

by Daniel J. Hogan
2017 reading list daniel j hogan

Ah, a new year! Time to reflect on the year gone by, and all of the cookies I ate and the cats I met. Or rather, in the column of More Interesting, the books I read in 2017.

Here’s a list of books I read in 2017, in chronological order. I added short commentary here and there, but not for every book. There are a couple of books I started but didn’t finish (because I’m still reading them), so I’ll mention those at the end.

Happy reading!

Books Read: The Final Count for 2017

My usual average for books read in a year is around 40. In 2017, I finished 60 books. Now, not every book was a 600 page tome. Some were long books (The Stand was twice that long!), while others were shorter and/or comics. A book is a book, and I do try to read a variety of genres, lengths, and formats.

My 2017 Reading List

  1. The Stand – Stephen King (A book I’ve wanted to read for years. I’m glad I finally did, because it makes 500-600 page books feel like nothing in comparison.)
  2. Dragons of Autumn Twilight – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
  3. Dragons of Winter Night – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
  4. Dragons of Spring Dawning – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (The original Dragonlance trilogy, and three of my favorite books as a teen. Also my introduction to fantasy books. I decided to reread them for the first time in several years, and they are still fun.)
  5. Star Wars: Aftermath – Empire’s End – Chuck Wendig (I love Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy. They’re fun, exciting books.)
  6. Adventures in Cartooning – James Sturm and others (Mentioned in my Last Minute Shopping Guide Post, this is a great introduction to comic making for artists of all ages.)
  7. Barrel Fever – David Sedaris
  8. Being There – Jerzy Kosinski (I always liked the film and decided to give this book a read. Very funny.)
  9. Lumberjanes vol. 1 – Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen ( I LOVED this comic series. Lots of fun.)
  10. Dune – Frank Herbert (My first time rereading this since I was in 7th or 8th grade. Enjoyed it a lot more as an adult.)
  11. Darth Vader vol. 1 – Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca
  12. Akira vol. 5 – Katsuhiro Otomo
  13. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists – Gideon Defoe (Very funny!)
  14. The Alchemy of Stone – Ekaterina Sedina
  15. Batman ’66 vol. 1 – Jeff Parker and Jonathan Case
  16. Nevada – Imogen Binnie (This was featured in a display at my local library, so I gave it a shot. Glad I did.)
  17. Akira vol. 6 – Katsuhiro Otomo (I’m glad I finally finished reading Akira. It’s an amazing piece of comic art.)
  18. A Kim Jong-il Production – Paul Fischer (Hilarious and heartbreaking, this is an excellent read.)
  19. Star Wars: Bloodline – Claudia Gray
  20. Star Wars: Lost Stars – Claudia Gray (I tore through this one and came to really enjoy Gray’s work. I plan on reading her other Star Wars novels.)
  21. A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn
  22. Sisters – Raina Telegemeier (Very good!)
  23. Metropolis – Osamu Tezuka (My local library has a great manga selection, so I often take a chance on random books. Tezuka is often called “the godfather of manga” so I figured I should read everything I can by him.)
  24. Road to Perdition – Max Allan Collins, Richard Piers Rayner (A visually striking comic. An excellent read.)
  25. Princess Decomposia and Count Spatula – Andi Watson (Another comic I randomly grabbed at my library. Very cute and funny!)
  26. This One Summer – Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (Highly recommended!)
  27. Hellboy in Hell vol. 2 The Death Card – Mike Mignola
  28. Mennonite Meets Mr. Right – Rhonda Janzen (This was in our neighborhood Little Free Library and my wife dared me to read it. I found it very funny.)
  29. Fun Home – Alison Bechdel (I bought this after seeing the production of the musical at the Wharton in East Lansing. An excellent comic.)
  30. Smile – Raina Telegemeier (Sisters and Smile were both recommended to me and I loved them.)
  31. Lost At Sea – Brian Lee O’Malley
  32. Saga vol. 1 – Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples (2017 was the year I finally got around to reading Saga, and it’s now one of my favorite comic series ever.)
  33. Saga vol. 2 – Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
  34. Saga vol. 3 – Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
  35. Saga vol. 4 – Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
  36. The Unseen Hand – Ralph A. Epperson
  37. Saga vol. 5 – Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
  38. Flowers in the Attic – V.C. Andrews – (Another book I was “dared” to read by my wife, and a friend. It was…interesting.)
  39. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt
  40. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
  41. Confederates in the Attic – Tony Horwitz (I picked this up at a garage sale and found it to be a very informative, and entertaining, read.)
  42. Sacred Heart – Liz Suburbia (Another great comic.)
  43. Ignition City – Warren Ellis
  44. Drama – Raina Telegemeier
  45. Ghosts – Raina Telegemeier (This might be my favorite comic of her’s.)
  46. Live By Night – Dennis Lehane (I haven’t watched the film version, but I did enjoy this book.)
  47. Something New – Lucy Knisley (Boy, I wish I read this when Stephanie and I were planning our wedding. An excellent comic.)
  48. In Cold Blood – Truman Capote (Another “found in a library display” read. This was featured in my library’s Banned Books Week display, so I picked it up.)
  49. The Ever After – Jodi Lynn Anderson
  50. Relish: My Life in the Kitchen – Lucy Knisley  (A comic “food memoir” and very good. Knisley will be the keynote speaker at the 2018 MSU Comics Forum next month!)
  51. I Moved to LA to Work in Animation – Natalie Nourigat (An ebook comic I bought via Gumroad and very much enjoyed. I’ve followed Nourigat on Instagram for a while now, and liked seeing her animation adventures–and art.)
  52. Going Postal – Terry Pratchett
  53. Valerian vol. 3 – Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres (Yes, I saw the film, which was …interesting. This volume contained the comic which movie heavily drew upon. The comics are great though!)
  54. Kirby: King of Comics – Mark Evanier (Highly, highly recommended!)
  55. From A Certain Point of View – Various – (40 different Star Wars short stories by 40 different writers. A lot of fun.)
  56. Johnny Got His Gun – Dalton Trumbo (I decided to read this after watching the film Trumbo.)
  57. Imperial Life in the Emerald City – Rajiv Chandrasekaran (I heard about this book on one of my favorite podcasts, The Dollop.)
  58. Saga vol. 6 – Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
  59. Saga vol. 7 – Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
  60. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie (I saw this mentioned on Instagram, and decided to give it a try. Hilarious and heartbreaking. A great read.)

The Rest

I started, but didn’t finish yet:

  1. Growing Gills – Jessica Abel (This isn’t a book you can just sit down and read through. It’s more like a class. I’ll finish it, I just haven’t done so yet. The chapters I did get through were extremely helpful though.)
  2. There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell – Laurie Notaro (Another Little Free Library find, it got put on hold when my request for True Diary of a Part-Time Indian arrived at my local library.)

Happy New Year! Read a bunch!

 

2 comments

Sincerely, Sheryl Hogan January 2, 2018 - 4:11 pm

I love that you love to read so much. You are amazing. As a kid I thought you would never be an avid reader. Figured you would only watch TV and play video games. Glad you enjoy books, movies and video games still.

Daniel J. Hogan January 22, 2018 - 11:19 am

Oh I still play a lot of video games!

Comments are closed.