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:
—————————————————————————
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