2008: my year in reading

As this year draws to a close, I can happily look back and reflect on all the great books I’ve experienced during the last twelve months. In terms of both quantity and quality, this has been a very good year for me. As far as quantity, I can definitely say I’ve read more this year than in any past year, ever. I used to read at a pretty laid-back pace, getting through around 15-25 books a year. This year, for reasons I don’t even entirely understand, I felt a new sense of urgency in my reading, a feeling that there was too much out there I was missing. So I decided to pick up the pace, and this year I made it through 63 books (woohoo!) — 2 science books, 60 science fiction books, and one book about science fiction.

In terms of quality, well, the year was also bright in that respect. There was a small handful of books I started reading and gave up on, and there were a few books I finished reading only to end up being disappointed. But by far, most everything I read this year was well worth the time it took to read it; and many of the books were simply fantastic.

One big focus I had this year was to catch up on some of the famous classics that I had previously overlooked or ignored for various reasons. And I definitely feel my grounding in the genre is much better for it. I had a great time reading such gems as The Stars My Destination, Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Rogue Moon, Childhood’s End, Rendezvous with Rama, Mission of Gravity, A Canticle for Liebowitz, The Space Merchants, Contact, and Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang.

This year was also my first experience with Stapledon and Lem, two authors I am quickly coming to regard as some of the true masters of science fiction. And there were other authors who were “firsts” for me whom I am coming to regard very highly: Thomas Disch, Octavia Butler, James Gunn, Robert Sheckley, Dan Simmons, Kim Stanley Robinson, Vernor Vinge, and William Tenn.

Of course, I also read a bunch of stuff by authors who were already old favorites of mine: John Brunner, Ursula LeGuin, Nancy Kress, Robert Charles Wilson, Robert Silverberg, and Frank Herbert.

I also read several short story collections this year. And while I still feel this format is inferior to novels in general, I have begun to appreciate that there are interesting things that can be done with it, and that there are some great stories out there.

I had thought about listing my favorite 5 books out of all I’ve read this year, but it just turns out to be too difficult, there are too many contenders. I will say that I read two books in 2008 that impressed me enough to gain admittance to my top ten all-time favorites (at least as the list exists at this moment). Those are Gunn’s The Joy Makers and Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep.

And finally, just for the record, here is the complete list of my SFnal reading in 2008:

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Brian Aldiss

• Starship

Alfred Bester

• The Stars My Destination
• Virtual Unrealities

Ray Bradbury

• Fahrenheit 451
• The Martian Chronicles

John Brunner

• More Things in Heaven
• Players At the Game of People
• Stand on Zanzibar
• The Tides of Time
• Total Eclipse

Algis Budrys

• Rogue Moon

Octavia Butler

• Clay’s Ark
• Fledgling

Arthur C. Clarke

• Childhood’s End
• The Hammer of God
• Rendezvous with Rama

Hal Clement

• Mission of Gravity

Thomas Disch

• Camp Concentration

Harlan Ellison

• Approaching Oblivion

James Gunn

• The Joy Makers
• The Listeners

Robert Heinlein

• Friday

Frank Herbert

• The Green Brain
• The Santaroga Barrier

Nancy Kress

• An Alien Light
• Crossfire

Ursula K. LeGuin

• City of Illusion
• Planet of Exile
• Rocannon’s World
• The Telling

Stanislaw Lem

• His Master’s Voice
• Return from the Stars

Walter M. Miller, Jr.

• A Canticle for Liebowitz

Robert Morrow

• This Is the Way the World Ends

Charles Platt

• Dream Makers

Frederick Pohl

• Jem
• The Space Merchants (with C.M. Kornbluth)

Kim Stanley Robinson

• Icehenge

Carl Sagan

• Contact

Robert Sheckley

• The People Trap
• The Status Civilization

Robert Silverberg

• The Best of Robert Silverberg
• Dying Inside
• The World Inside

Clifford Simak

• Cemetery World

Dan Simmons

• The Fall of Hyperion
• Hyperion

Olaf Stapledon

• Odd John
• Sirius

Theodore Sturgeon

• The Golden Helix

William Tenn

• Of Men and Monsters
• The Square Root of Man
• The Wooden Star

Vernor Vinge

• A Fire Upon the Deep
• The Peace War
• Rainbows End

Kate Wilhelm

• Listen, Listen
• Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

Robert Charles Wilson

• Blind Lake
• The Chronoliths
• Mysterium

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