My 2017 Reading List

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!