In 2017 I had my fiftieth (and 51st) short story published; my novella Fatboy was released; An Eye For An Eye came out in paperback, having previously been available only as an e-book; and I compiled my six e-books The Motel Whore, The Vampire, The Boy, The Mess, The Pitbull, and Three into two paperback collections entitled The Motel Whore & Other Stories, and Guns, Drugs, And Dogs. So, I’ve tried to keep busy, and I’ll be looking to stay as busy as I can in 2018. We’ll see how it goes. Anyway, here’s the books I’ve read over the last twelve months in the order I read them:
The Secret History Of Twin Peaks – Mark Frost
We3 – Grant Morrison
Y: The Last Man Compendium Book 3 – Brian K Vaughan
Y: The Last Man Compendium Book 4 – Brian K Vaughan
Y: The Last Man Compendium Book 5 – Brian K Vaughan
American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story – Cynthia True
A Case Of Noir – Paul D Brazill
The Death Of WCW – RD Reynolds & Bryan Alvarez
The Butcher – Alina Reyes
Gang Wars Of The North – Stephen Richards
The Sayers – Stephen Sayers
Fight Club 2 – Chuck Palahniuk
You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] – Andrew Hankinson
Saga: Book 7 – Brian K Vaughan
The Art Of Asking – Amanda Palmer
Lovecraft Country – Matt Ruff
High Fidelity – Nick Hornby
The Real Cool Killers – Chester Himes
Skull Meat – Tom Leins
The Crazy Kill – Chester Himes
The Force – Don Winslow
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
A Lesson In Violence – Jordan Harper
All You Can Eat – Shane McKenzie
The Punisher: Born – Garth Ennis
Tribesmen – Adam Cesare
Hillbilly Elegy – JD Vance
Bigfoot Crank Stomp – Erik Williams
Excercise Bike – Carlton Mellick III
Race To The Bottom – Chris Rhatigan
Hex – Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier – Mark Frost
Zero Saints – Gabino Iglesias
Vern In The Heat – Rob Pierce
I Am The Wolf – Mark Lanegan
The Ice Harvest – Scott Phillips
364 Days Of Tedium – Dave Cornmell
Route 12 – Marietta Miles
There it is, a real mix of titles I feel. The prize for most-read author is the same as last year, and that honour goes to Brian K Vaughan. I did read a lot of comic books this year, but fuck, Y: The Last Man is an amazing, hilarious, heartbreaking series and should be read by everyone.
I won’t do a top five of titles or anything (I’m not a fast enough reader to get through enough books to warrant one), but I’m gonna pinpoint two in particular – A Lesson In Violence by Jordan Harper and Zero Saints by Gabino Iglesias. Read them, read them right now, you don’t need me to tell you how great they are, there’s plenty other people out there that have done that already, I’m just another voice in the chorus at this point.
Let’s hope I can get through some more titles in the coming year, and finish some of the books still in progress (mostly short story collections). It’s embarrassing being such a slow reader…
Onwards!
Paul–Any chance we could swap books/reviews? Here’s what Gabino had to say about my first Charlie Miner book: https://tinyurl.com/gabiglesias