I read quite a lot of books this year. Here's probably what I thought about them, if we're going to pretend I'm capable of mentally juggling hundreds of books read over the course of a year in various moods and states of distraction and to put those into some kind of definitive ranking to find the most alright read of the year.
I've tried, anyway.
The most unexceptional, indifferent, middle-of-the-road, phoned-in, bill-paying, bland, watery, alright read of 2015 was:
183/365. Clive Barker, Galilee
1998 / Audiobook / 642 pages / UK
Clive Barker's weird books are understandably off-putting to many readers, but for me, an avid fan of his vile and/or mystical excesses, this was the greatest challenge of all: an American family saga. Alright, there are still some gods and demi-gods knocking about in these family trees, and smatterings of perversion here and there, but it's all extremely toned down and borderline normal. And long, and bloated. And just not really up my dark alley. Although, if it had been written 20 years earlier, I could see it making a decent early '80s US TV miniseries. We might have to cut the necrophilia.
Congratulations, you must be very proud.
Faves!
1. James Joyce, Ulysses
1920 / Audiobook / 783 pages / Ireland
*****
It's been called the book that people read to look intelligent rather than to actually enjoy, but it's so damn impressive, I don't even mind that a lot of it is (intentionally — how could it not be?) tedious and impenetrable. It certainly didn't have the effect of making me feel clever or worthy as I resorted to SparkNotes summaries to ground me before every chapter, like when I played through most of Monkey Island 2 with the walkthrough (for shame). So I didn't have the authentic bewildered experience, but since I'm a sucker for pompous literary parallels just for the sake of it (it helped that I read The Odyssey recently), I feel I got the maximum kick out of it. Anyway, sod off, those stream-of-consciousness sequences are probably the most realistic and intimate characterisation there's ever been. It's not my favourite novel ever, but it might be the best.
2. Robert A. Heinlein, The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein
1940-1958 (collected 1999) / Audiobook / 352 pages / USA
*****
This is two vintage collections of novellas and short stories taped together rather than a deliberate attempt at a greatest hits, but when you're dealing with the SF master, any random assortment is going to be steeped in classics. I still haven't read all that much Heinlein (update: I've read a few more now) – even less of his contemporaries – but despite this poor research, I'm still confident that he's the number one. And if he isn't, I've got even more to look forward to.
Faves: '"—And He Built a Crooked House,"' 'Waldo,' 'The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag,' '"—All You Zombies—"'
Worsties: That's not fair. I guess 'Magic, Inc.'
3. Robert Shearman, Remember Why You Fear Me: The Best Dark Fiction of Robert Shearman
2006-12 (collected 2012) / E-book / 400 pages / UK
*****
I knew Shearman could write smart, suspenseful and hilarious because of the handful of Doctor Who audio dramas he wrote in the early 2000s, which rank among the best of that entire canon. But until now, I didn't know he could be so brilliantly twisted too. In most of these terror tales he can't help himself from softening the blow with black humour, but a few of them go without. Those are the ones that are going to lurk in the memory. All the leading phobias are accounted for – theoretically, some of these stories could kill.
Faves: 'Damned If You Don’t,' 'Featherweight,' 'Granny’s Grinning.'
Worsties: 'So Proud,' 'One More Bloody Miracle After Another,' 'The Bathtub.'
1979 / E-book / 260 pages / Italy
*****
The primary reason behind funny foreigners month, I'd really wanted to read this one for a while, but at the same time, really couldn't be bothered. It was every bit as brilliantly wanky and annoying as I'd hoped. I'm a strange man, but I'm well catered for.
5. Phaidon Press, The Art Book
1994 / E-art-book / 518 pages / UK
*****
If I knew much about art beyond works bastardised by Monty Python animations and compulsory trips to the Tate Modern every time I'm in London to be entertainingly annoyed by cheeky masterpieces, I'd probably denounce this book as over-simplistic. But it isn't patronising, and the decision made to present 500 artists in strict alphabetical order, each summed up by a single work, makes for an eclectic experience that blends centuries and styles and avoids the tedious problem of categorisation. Being almost entirely Western-centric, all those Madonnas, Jesuses and bearded saints do get repetitive though.
Faves: Bosch, other imaginative and detailed paintings.
Worsties: Slashed canvases and those ones that are just a colour. Yeah, well done. Clap, clap. Look how much effort the others have put in, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Worsties!
365. Various Artists, Buster Book 1992
1991 / E-book / 96 pages / UK
*
- "Instant coffee?"
Somewhere between my loyal following of Turtles and Sonic comics (and probably parallel with Dinosaurs! magazine – who's the spoiled brat now?), Buster was my inexplicable comic of choice. Yeah, not your successful, mainstream Beano – a second-rate rip-off with less memorable characters, many of them based entirely on weak pun names that I didn't even get because I didn't grow up in the 60s. I don't remember any of these stories from the comics I had around this time, but they surely can't be the best of the year. And where the hell's Odd Ball? He was the only good one.
Faves: I always appreciated Chalky because he draws.
Worsties: Most of 'em.
1889 / Audiobook / 144 pages / UK
*
It's not about Egypt all that much, but it was either this or The Stargate Conspiracy, and this pompous esoteric guide to astrology, alchemy, talismans and magic wands seemed the less crazy of the two. I'm not sure what I based that on.
363. Ricardo Barreiro and Francisco Solano López, Young Witches, Vol. 1
1993 / E-comics / 100 pages / Argentina*
Alan Moore's Lost Girls introduced me to the no-holds-barred world of smutty graphic novels, and this is even more desperately perverse. I wouldn't like to know the sort of person who finds these enthusiastic renderings of myriad degrading taboos arousing. The plot is only slightly less weak than in real porn (I imagine).
362. Todd Downing, Mark Bruno, John Sullivan, Andrew Kenrick, Lee Hammock, Gavin Downing, Allan McComas and Samantha Downing, Red Dwarf: The Roleplaying Game
2002 / E-book / 179 pages / USA/UK
I never joined in with the roleplaying or table-top wargaming at high school. It all seemed much too social. But I've always enjoyed taking a look at the reference materials, with their fine-tuned worlds, exquisite artwork and incomprehensible charts. This one has the charts, but it's otherwise not the sort of thing you'd read for pleasure unless you're a recovering Red Dwarf obsessive who hasn't done so yet and who has the emotional resilience to withstand the worst type of fan fiction. You wouldn't actually want to play it, though it's not bad as a creative project. Apart from some bizarre racism.
361. Alexandra Horowitz, On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes
2013 / Audiobook / 308 pages / USA
*
As someone who used to fill his leisure time with aimless walking back when this blog's title was actually relevant, I admire the intent behind this book, encouraging people to walk and pay attention to their surroundings. But this really is just someone describing their walks around the block, being rapturously amazed by the ordinary (that cover has been misleadingly Photoshopped; there's not one mention of a giant squirrel) and spinning off on tangents to briefly outline various matters of psychology, horticulture and other fields, because this has to stretch to 300 pages. This is a useful exercise to do for yourself as a writer, but not to bore other people with. You'll be telling us about your dreams next, or blogging about every single time you step outside... the... oh.
Resties!
*****
7. Junji Ito, Uzumaki
8. Arthur Machen, The Hill of Dreams
9. Harlan Ellison, The Voice from the Edge, Vol 1: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
10. Homer, The Odyssey
11. Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans, Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth
12. Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey
13. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
14. Robert Sheckley, Dimension of Miracles
15. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
17. Carl Sagan, Cosmos
18. Christopher Manson, Maze: Solve the World's Most Challenging Puzzle
19. Jon Ronson, The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
20. Carl Sagan, Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
21. Iain Banks, Walking on Glass
22. Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium
23. Robert Gendler ed, Capturing the Stars: Astrophotography by the Masters
24. Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog: or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last
25. Ryan North (and George Gipe), B^F: The Novelization of the Feature Film
****
27. Robert A. Heinlein, The Menace from Earth
28. Steve Aylett, Lint
29. Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves
30. Dan Simmons, The Terror
31. Pitchfork Media, The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present
32. Alan Moore, Garry Leach and Alan Davis, Miracleman, Vol. 1: A Dream of Flying
33. Clive Barker, Imajica
34. China Miéville, Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories
35. René Daumal, Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing
37. Luigi Serafini, Codex Seraphinianus
38. J. G. Ballard, Vermilion Sands
39. Woody Allen, Side Effects
40. Dylan Tuccillo, Jared Zeizel and Thomas Peisel, A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming: Mastering the Art of Oneironautics
41. Jules Verne, Master of the World
42. Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica
43. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer ed, The Time Traveller's Almanac
44. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, In a Glass Darkly
45. Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer
47. Philip K. Dick, VALIS
48. Iain Banks, Espedair Street
49. Clark Ashton Smith, The Return of the Sorcerer: The Best of Clark Ashton Smith
50. William Blake, The Illuminated Books, Volume 3: The Early Illuminated Books
51. Richard Wiseman, Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things
52. Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century
53. Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games
54. Caseen Gaines, We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy
55. Christopher Hitchens, Arguably: Essays
57. Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
58. Algernon Blackwood, The Listener and Other Stories
59. Gene Wolfe, The Claw of the Conciliator
60. Peter Ackroyd, London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets
61. Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson, The Crystal Maze Adventure Gamebook
62. Charles Burns, Black Hole
63. Albert Camus, The Stranger
64. Al Feldstein ed, The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt, Vol. 2
65. Guy Delisle, Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
67. Rob Hume, RSPB Complete Birds of Britain and Europe
68. J. G. Ballard, High Rise
69. Hieronymus Bosch and Carl Linfert, Bosch
70. Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
71. Bryan Talbot, Grandville
72. Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, Steve Bissette and Jimmy Valentino, 1963: Non-Existent Collected Edition
73. C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
74. Life Magazine editors, Life: 100 Photographs That Changed the World
75. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas
77. Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island
78. Clive Barker, The Scarlet Gospels
79. Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology
80. Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time
81. Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan and The Inmost Light
82. Thomas Seltzer ed, Best Russian Short Stories
83. Jeffrey D. Stilwell and John A. Long, Frozen in Time: Prehistoric Life in Antarctica
84. Robert A. Heinlein, The Number of the Beast
85. Various, DC Science Fiction Graphic Novels (#1-7)
87. Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
88. Junji Ito, Gyo
89. Bernie Wrightson, Bruce Jones and a couple of others, Creepy Presents: Bernie Wrightson
90. Caleb Scharf, The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities
91. Edmund Crispin, The Moving Toyshop
92. Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped
93. Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook, Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale
94. Tim Smolko, Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play: Inside Two Long Songs
95. Janice G. Redish, Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works, Second Edition
97. Amir D. Aczel, The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity
98. Richard Wiseman, Night School: Wake Up to the Power of Sleep
99. Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
100. David Icke, The Perception Deception: Or... It's ALL Bollocks - Yes, ALL of It
101. Alan Moore, Zander Cannon and Andrew Currie, Smax
102. Woody Allen, Without Feathers
103. Woody Allen, Getting Even
104. Guy Delisle, Shenzhen
105. Robert J. Sawyer, Flashforward
107. Mel Gordon, Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin (Expanded Edition)
108. Robert E. Howard, The Hour of the Dragon
109. Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
110. Bryan Talbot, The Tale of One Bad Rat
111. William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland
112. Kevin J. Anderson, The X-Files: Ruins
113. Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
114. Harlan Ellison, Scott & David Tipton and J. K. Woodward, Star Trek: Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever – The Original Teleplay
115. Algernon Blackwood, The Complete John Silence Stories
117. Edward Packard, Choose Your Own Adventure #45: You Are a Shark
118. Stewart Holden ed, The Scrabble Players' Handbook
119. Viz, The Council Gritter
120. Alejandro Jodorowsky and Mœbius, The Incal
121. Gustave Doré, The Doré Gallery: His 120 Greatest Illustrations
122. Matthew Capala, SEO Like I'm 5: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization (Second Edition)
***
123. Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast
124. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
125. Dan Simmons, Worlds Enough & Time: Five Tales of Speculative Fiction
127. Franz Kafka, The Trial
128. China Miéville, Perdido Street Station
129. Alan Garner, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
130. Roger Dean, Dominy Hamilton and Carla Capalbo, Roger Dean: Views
131. Harlan Ellison and Robert Bloch, Voice from the Edge, Vol. 3: Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes
132. William Hope Hodgson, The Ghost Pirates
133. Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
134. Martin Popoff, Rush: The Illustrated History
135. Daniel Clowes, David Boring
137. China Miéville, King Rat
138. Daniel Ekeroth, Swedish Death Metal
139. Neil Gaiman and J. H. Williams III, The Sandman: Overture
140. Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
141. Arthur Conan Doyle, Tales of Terror and Mystery
142. Arthur Machen, The Green Round
143. Jon Ronson, So You've Been Publicly Shamed
144. Will Self, Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys
145. J. G. Ballard, The Crystal World
147. Alan Moore, Kevin Nowlan, Rick Veitch, Jim Baikie, Melinda Gebbie and Hilary Barta, Tomorrow Stories, Vol. 1
148. Philip K. Dick, The Divine Invasion
149. Umberto Eco, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
150. John Clift and Amanda Cuthbert, How to Grow Your Food: A Guide for Complete Beginners
151. Wan-go Weng ed, Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: A Pictorial Survey – 69 Fine Examples from the John M. Crawford, Jr. Collection
152. Junji Ito, New Voices in the Dark
153. Gene Wolfe, The Sword of the Lictor
154. John H. Baker ed, The Art of Nick Cave: New Critical Essays
155. Roberto Bolaño, By Night in Chile
157. Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas
158. Iain M. Banks, Use of Weapons
159. Shubhra Ramineni, Entice With Spice: Easy Indian Recipes for Busy People
160. Robert Sheckley, Mindswap
161. Lucy Lidell, The Book of Massage: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Eastern and Western Techniques
162. Haruki Murakami, Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
163. Jimmy Maher, The Future Was Here: The Commodore Amiga
164. Robert Dimery, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
165. Marianne Tatom Letts, Radiohead and the Resistant Concept Album: How to Disappear Completely
167. Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch
168. Brad Dukes, Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks
169. Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire
170. Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction
171. Agatha Christie, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
172. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic
173. Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
174. Philip K. Dick, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
175. Steve Aylett, Shamanspace
177. Jon E. Lewis, The Mammoth Book of Cover-Ups: The 100 Most Terrifying Conspiracies of All Time
178. Jorge Luis Borges, The Aleph and Other Stories
179. Caleb Scharf, Gravity's Engines: How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life in the Cosmos
180. René Daumal, A Night of Serious Drinking
181. Robert E. Howard, The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
182. Clive Barker, Erik Saltzgaber, Mike Manley and Ricardo Villagrán, Weaveworld
183. Clive Barker, Galilee
184. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Part One
185. Dean Clarrain, Ryan Brown and a whole bunch of illustrators, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Volumes 2-7
187. Knut Hamsun, Hunger
188. F. Sionil José, Dusk
189. Lucian Randall, Disgusting Bliss: The Brass Eye of Chris Morris
190. Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
191. John Keats, The Complete Poems
192. Stephen Hawking, The Universe in a Nutshell
193. Declan May ed, Seasons of War: Tales from a Time War
194. Tharg ed, 2000 A.D. Annual 1978
195. Erik Davis, Led Zeppelin IV
197. Tony Thorne, Countess Dracula: The Life and Times of Elisabeth Báthory, the Blood Countess
198. Junji Ito, Black Paradox
199. Al Feldstein ed, Piracy, Vol. 1
200. Colin Woodard, The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down
201. Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
202. Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile
203. Robert A. Heinlein, Job: A Comedy of Justice
204. Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and a whole bunch of artists, Son of Origins of Marvel Comics
205. Robert J. Sawyer, Starplex
207. Desirina Boskovich ed, It Came from the North: An Anthology of Finnish Speculative Fiction
208. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, Migrants for Export: How the Philippine State Brokers Labor to the World
209. Various, Doctor Who: 12 Doctors, 12 Stories
210. Yei Theodora Ozaki ed, Japanese Fairy Tales
211. William Blake, The Illuminated Books of William Blake, Volume 6: The Urizen Books
212. Edward Lucie-Smith ed, Latin American Art of the 20th Century
213. Michael Lane, The Definitive Guide to Building an Energy Efficient House
214. José Rizal, Noli me tangere
215. Terry Jones and Alan Ereira, Terry Jones' Barbarians: An Alternative Roman History
217. Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
218. Marc Weidenbaum, Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II
219. H. G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau
220. Malaclypse the Younger with Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, Principia Discordia or How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her (Combined Fourth and Fifth Edition)
221. Mike Mignola, The Amazing Screw-on Head and Other Curious Objects
222. Edgar Allan Poe and Richard Corben, Edgar Allan Poe's Spirits of the Dead
223. Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin, Vol. 1: Tintin in the Land of the Soviets / Tintin in the Congo
224. Neil Degrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith, Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
225. Dave Gorman, Too Much Information... or Can Everyone Just Shut Up for a Moment, Some of Us Are Trying to Think
227. Rob Grant, Fat
228. Scott Adams, God's Debris: A Thought Experiment
229. Lauren Beukes, Zoo City
230. Leonard Nimoy, I Am Not Spock
231. Oscar de Muriel, The Strings of Murder
232. Michio Kaku, The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind
233. Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow
234. Richard Brown, Richard Elwes, Robert Fathauer, John Haigh, David Perry and Jamie Pommersheim, 30-Second Maths: The 50 Most Mind-Expanding Theories in Mathematics, Each Explained in Half a Minute
235. Christopher Hitchens, The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
236. David Scroggy, Syd Mead, Mentor Huebner, Ridley Scott, Charles Knode and Michael Kaplan, Blade Runner Sketchbook237. Guy Adams, Sherlock: The Casebook
238. Uwe Scheid and Michael Koetzle, 1000 Nudes: Uwe Scheid Collection
239. H. G. Wells, The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth
240. Howard Fast, The Hunter and the Trap
241. W. Somerset Maugham, The Magician
242. Ambrose Bierce, Can Such Things Be?
243. Michael Tennesen, The Next Species: The Future of Evolution in the Aftermath of Man
244. C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
245. Dan Simmons, Ilium
247. Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Being Fragments of a Secret Tradition under the Veil of Divination
248. Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies
249. J. P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate, Introducing Quantum Theory: A Graphic Guide to Science's Most Puzzling Discovery
250. Nick Davies, Flat Earth News: An Award-Winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media
251. Mark Gatiss, The Devil in Amber
252. Mimi Sheraton, 1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List
253. Confucius, The Analects
254. Jennifer Lynch, The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer
255. Stanisław Lem, Mortal Engines
257. John A. Keel, Strange Creatures from Time and Space
258. Piggyback, Final Fantasy VIII: The Official Strategy Guide
259. Alexey Sokolsky, Your First Move: Chess for Beginners
260. Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian
261. Nintendo Power, Pokémon Crystal Version: The Official Nintendo Player's Guide
262. Lord Dunsany, A Dreamer's Tales
263. Andrew J. Robinson, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - A Stitch in Time
264. Clark Ashton Smith, The Star-Treader and Other Poems
265. Gerry Conway, Gene Colan, Archie Goodwin, Gardner F. Fox and Marv Wolfman, The Tomb of Dracula, Vol. 1
267. David Prescott Barrows, A History of the Philippines
268. Diana Cage, Lesbian Sex Bible: The New Guide to Sexual Love for Same-Sex Couples
269. Andy Maslen, 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World
270. Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter, Time's Eye
271. José Rizal, Sobre la indolencia de los filipinos (On the Indolence of the Filipinos)
272. Kristen Fischer, When Talent Isn't Enough: Business Basics for the Creatively Inclined
**
273. Fritz Leiber, The Big Time
274. Andrew Lang ed, The Arabian Nights Entertainments
275. Jorge Luis Borges, The Maker
277. Ellis Peters, The Leper of Saint Giles
278. José Saramago, Death with Interruptions
279. Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly
280. Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned
281. E. Veronica Bliss and Genevieve Edmonds, A Self-Determined Future with Asperger Syndrome: Solution Focused Approaches
282. Hector Lima ed, Inkshot 01
283. Anthony Horowitz ed, The Puffin Book of Horror Stories
284. Barry Loewer, Julian Baggini, Kati Balog, James Garvey, Stephen Law, Jeremy Stangroom and Ivan Hissey, 30-Second Philosophies: The 50 Most Thought-Provoking Philosophies, Each Explained in Half a Minute
285. William Hope Hodgson, The Night Land
287. Archie Goodwin and Steve Ditko, Creepy Presents: Steve Ditko
288. Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters
289. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Coming of the Fairies
290. Kevin J. Anderson, The X-Files: Ground Zero
291. William Blake, The Illuminated Books of William Blake, Volume 5: Milton, a Poem
292. Georges Bataille, Story of the Eye
293. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Part Two
294. Alan Dean Foster, Splinter of the Mind's Eye
295. Alfredo and Grace Roces, Culture Shock! Philippines: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Eighth Edition)
297. Bart Farkas, Diablo II: Official Strategy Guide
298. Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson, The Flatey Enigma
299. Unknown, The Book of Job
300. E. Nesbit, The Phoenix and the Carpet
301. J. R. R. Tolkien (and Christopher Tolkien), The Silmarillion
302. Michael Alan Nelson, Greg Scott, Patrick McEvoy and Pablo Quiligotti, Fall of Cthulhu Omnibus
303. Jacques Boyreau ed, Trash: The Graphic Genius of Xploitation Movie Posters
304. Zitkala-Ša, Old Indian Legends
305. Amanda H. Podany, The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction
307. Robert Sheckley, Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?
308. Haruki Murakami, Hear the Wind Sing
309. Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author
310. Clara Kern Bayliss ed, Philippine Folk-Tales
311. Martin Bookspan, 101 Masterpieces of Music and Their Composers
312. Mervyn Peake, Titus Alone
313. Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
314. Ambrose Bierce, Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories
315. Tina Konstant, Ten Rules of Copywriting: Bullet Guide
317. Karen Lord, The Best of All Possible Worlds
318. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto
319. Mark Verheiden, Mark A. Nelson, Den Beauvais, Sam Kieth, John Arcudi and Tony Akins, Aliens Omnibus, Vol. 1
320. Mike Mignola and Pat McEown, ZombieWorld: Champion of the Worms
321. Mark Shaw, Copywriting: Successful Writing for Design, Advertising, and Marketing (Second Edition)
322. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby et al, Bring Back the Bad Guys
323. Dick Wood, Nevio Zaccara and Alberto Giolitti, Star Trek: Gold Key Archives Volume 1
324. Jules Verne, Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen
325. Richard Corben, Den 1: Neverwhere
327. Leslie Shapiro, Understanding OCD: Skills to Control the Conscience and Outsmart Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
328. The Gang, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The 7 Secrets of Awakening the Highly Effective Four-Hour Giant, Today – The Gang Writes a Self-Help Book
329. Menton J. Matthews III, Kasra Ghanbari and collaborators, Monocyte: In the Land of the Blind the One Eyed Is King
330. Bram Stoker, The Jewel of Seven Stars
331. Robert Sheckley, The Game of X
332. Lord Dunsany, Fifty-One Tales
333. Russell Brand, Revolution
334. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Poison Belt and The Land of Mist
335. Cameron Pierce, Lost in Cat Brain Land
337. Alan Dean Foster, The Tar-Aiym Krang
338. Alex Sanchez ed, 150 Best Minimalist House Ideas
339. Howard Fast, The General Zapped an Angel
340. Merlin Coverley, Psychogeography
341. Christine Rice, Freelance Writing Guide: What to Expect in Your First Year as a Freelance Writer
342. Francesc Zamora ed, 150 Best Sustainable House Ideas
343. Sean Singer, Discography
344. Art Smith, Building Today's Green Home: Practical, Cost-Effective and Eco-Responsible Homebuilding
345. Robert Ashton, Successful Copywriting in a Week: Second Edition
347. Various Artists, Criterion Designs
348. Lady Charlotte Guest trans, The Mabinogion, Volume 1
349. Madonna, Sex
350. Pete Olafson, The Morrowind Prophecies: Official Guide to the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
351. Stephen Fry, More Fool Me: A Memoir
352. David Smay, Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones
*
353. Zecharia Sitchin, The 12th Planet
354. Tom Gill and George Wilson, The Time Tunnel: The Complete Series
355. Naoki Urasawa, Naoki Urasawa's Monster, Volume 1: Herr Doktor Tenma
357. Mickey Spillane, I, the Jury
358. Terry Jones, Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic
359. Rob Grant, Colony
360. The Rik Mayall, Bigger Than Hitler – Better Than Christ
Worthless stats!
Mean rating: 3.11 out of 5. I don't think that's so mean.
Most popular year: 2014 (18 books)
Median date of publication: July, 657AD
Most popular number of pages to put in a book: 160 pages (17 books), 288 & 352 pages (11 books each), 400 pages (10 books).
See how I mentioned all those slightly larger runners-up to make me look a bit less pathetic?
I felt guilty towards the end of the year and put positive discrimination into effect by seeking out new climes. If anything, that just makes it look worse.
Some of the non-fiction books are actually fictional, but their insane authors didn't think so.
I'm not going anywhere near 'genre.'
Oh, well done.
