Reading List 2014

Not as much reading as I would have liked in 2014, but that doesn't mean there weren't some good reads in there! Check 'em out! In some respects, I returned to the classics this year, catching up on stuff I haven't touched since high school (and I probably didn't even finish in high school, lol).

For more references, here are the lists from 2010, 2011 , 2012 and 2013.

Gun, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Socities, by Jared Diamond

Less about Guns and Steel and more about Germs and Agriculture, but, an interesting history, nonetheless!

The Walking Dead - books 1 - 22 by Robert Kirkman

A lot of interesting story arcs that just keep going, and going ...

The Good Soldier, by Ford Madox Ford

Funny, interesting, historical and sad all in a quick story. 

Empire of Illusion, the End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, by Chris Hedges

This one's a real thinker, it REALLY affects how you view the common acceptance of the world around you. Thought-provoking.

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

The monster isn't a boar, they never discover a monster and think it's a boar either - - this is probably a misconception derived from watching the Simpsons for 25 years. 

Saving the World, a Guide to Heroes, by Lynnette Porter, David Lavery and Hillary Robson

I thought this would be an exploration of the "Hero's Journey" through classical and modern literature. It was on super-discount at  bookstore where I renewed my passport. Turns out it's about the show, "Heroes", that everybody loved for two months, and then hated forever after that. 

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card

It's cool, and now I'd like to read the sequels and see the movie! Scott, you're up for this, right? 

Architects of Eternity, the New Science of Fossils, by Richard Corfield

I thought this would be more about fossils and dinosaurs, but really it's a history of how carbon dating and determining time periods and basically it's the history of how scientists conclude how old things are. Still kind of interesting, though there should have been more dinosaurs in it. 

Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris

An awesome book to re-read after watching the Hannibal series on television.. After reading this and a bit of another book on psychology, I've developed a theory that's never mentioned about sexual abuse in Will Graham's childhood. Plus, if you know the episodes well, there's a lot of dialogue in the book that's right in the show - - really awesome.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Still a great read, though I feel the imagery was WAY over analyzed in high school. The "Eyes of T.J. Eckleburg" stuff is an interesting lens to view the novel through, but hardly as prevalent as your stupid high school teacher's curriculum would have you believe. I think there's a lot more to be said about proto-Nazism and pre-WWII anxiety laying latent throughout the novel, but that's just me. 

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Collins

Until this year, I honestly thought Boo Radley was a black guy. "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

New to this year, I became fed up with repetitive radio and got myself some books on tape form the wonderful Scugog Memorial Library. I had the pleasure of taking in the following while having to commute places, which was usually a freaking bore.

True Detective, by Jonathan Kellerman

Meh. Still better than commercial breaks and NFL updates.  

Inferno, by Dan Brown

Keeps you guessing. It's not as predictable as The Lost Symbol, and the stakes remains as high as ever. The last line isn't "You've never been to bed with a yoga master, have you?" so that's a wild improvement from Angels and Demons already.