Discussion: What’s the Book You Enjoyed the Most in 2015? · 4:59pm Dec 18th, 2015
Cross-post excerpt from Unusual Things. Check there for the full post.
Thought I’d try something new as we come to the end of the year, something special to replace the usual repost of an older Being a Better Writer.Today I want to see if I can get a discussion going in the comments. A discussion circling around one simple question: what is the book you’ve enjoyed the most in 2015?
Now, I don’t mean by this that you need to confine yourself to just books. Short stories count too, as does fanfiction, and well, anything really, as long as it’s a written text, long-form that you received some enjoyment of that you read in the year of 2015 (preferably one that was written with the express purpose of being read by a number of other people, rather than a personal letter).
It’s all subjective here, I just want to see what everyone comes up with. What were we reading this year, and looking back, what did we think of it? Let us know what you loved about it, why it mattered so much, and what you took away from it! Let’s see what we were reading!
For myself, the best book I’ve read this year is easily Terry Pratchett’s Raising Steam.
I read the rest of the post on your other blog, but I'm going to post my comment here.
I have a lot of candidates for best thing I've read this year. This was the year I introduced myself to (read: fangoriously devoured with reckless abandon) The Dresden Files. Those books were amazing, one and all, bit they still don't top the charts. I've read more horse words than I can reasonably expect to count without doing a full-on research project with an annotated works cited page, including some favorites like Beyond the Borderlands, This Platinum Crown (my favorite fic ever), and Stardust, but those don't quite lead the pack, either. I've even read Libriomancer, a love letter to books and the worlds they create and the magical experience that is reading. It may not have been the greatest book in the world, but it was one heck of a tribute.
The greatest book that I read all year, though, was Monster Hunter: International. That story, combined with the MLP episode "Slice of Life," was what placed a burning desire in my heart to write again. So I started writing Monster Hunter: Equestria, and I think it's the start of something beautiful.
MHI is special to me for a number of reasons. For one thing, it handles monsters in a consistent, fairly reasonable fashion. If it lives, there's a way to kill it. There are more and less efficient ways of doing so. You may not always have the tools you need at the time, but the tools do exist to solve all your paranormal problems. Usually these tools take the form of some form of lovingly described weaponry or some skill the characters can learn, but sometimes it comes down to having the right person in the right place at the right time. Sometimes, though, the answer is to fulfill the American Dream and chuck your lycanthropic boss out a highrise window and let gravity do what conventional bullets to the face couldn't.
And then there's the rest of the world this is set in. There is so much worldbuilding going on here, complete with hinted-at or piecemeal backstories. Worldbuilding is just about my favorite thing about reading or writing, and this book has it in spades. This book has a trailer trash elf queen, people. Let that idea roll around in your heads a little.
I could go on for a long while on the virtues of this book, but the main reason it tops my chart is that it was so awesome, it inspired me to be awesome too. If anyone hasn't read it, they should pick it up. It's free on Amazon Kindle, and it's easily the best $0.00 I've ever spent.
Definitely The Dark Forest (Book 2 of The Three Body Problem trilogy). It was orders of magnitude better than The Three Body Problem. It had some fantastic sci-fi concepts I've never encountered before and was a fascinating Chinese perspective on the future. I couldn't stop listening to it.
I've been enthralled with The Night is Passing. It's extremely well written, the perfect shade of darkness, and spans a number of unique viewpoints. By far the best story I've started this year.
...I just realized I haven't read any actual published books this year. I've read about 15 million words of fanfiction, but nothing bound on actual paper.
Out of all the books I've read this year, two stood out to me.
Metro 2033, by Dmitry Glukhovsky -
This one will give you nightmares. It's the chilling story of life in a hellish post-apocalyptic Moscow, where if the radiation doesn't kill you , the hostile factions, mutated animals-turned monsters, and paranormal entities will. It's the kind of book that makes you want to sleep with a loaded shotgun under your pillow.
Jam- by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw-
this one's a weird one. Basically, an ordinary man wakes up one day to find that most of Australia has been covered by flesh-eating strawberry jam. It's...something you have to read for yourself.
You know ever since I saw this I've been racking my brains trying to remember everything I read this last year. Don't get me wrong the overwhelming majority has all been memorable, but I find myself wondering did I really read that this last year or was that the year before?
I really need to read some of Pratchett. Keep meaning to but haven't gotten to it yet. Yeah excuse me while I go duck into my bunker now.
3626635 You too huh. The Dresden Files had been on my radar for years, but finally knuckled down and once I got started I ended up marathoning the whole series in audio book form this year.
I started last year but have also been working my way through the Wheel of Time series this year. About 1/4 of the way through book 5 now. Oh course also read more horse words than I ever thought possible. I was also caught off guard by The Martian. Hadn't heard of it till I heard about the movie coming out so decided to give the book a shoot first and loved it.
Book I enjoyed most though out of the whole year. That is a tall order. Thankfully though it is easier than picking a single favorite book of the year. That would be impossible unless I was allowed to change my mind every couple days. But most enjoyable, that I think would have to go to Beyond the Borderlands. I think being an alpha reader on that really made it hands down the most enjoyable read because it moved beyond simply reading and was a fun time too. Another would tie with it, but that's not published yet.
Looking back on it now, I realize that I haven't actually read any books this year. But I have listened to several audiobooks. (I've also been reading ponyfics, of course, but I haven't actually read a ton of them either. Last year, I read tons and tons of ponyfics, but I'm not sure if I read any actual books.) In interest of completeness, here is my list of books I've
readlistened to this year:* Seven Discworld books (And I just started an eighth yesterday. I've been working through the series over the past few years, and I'm about halfway done with it now.)
* The Martian
* The two currently-available books of The Three-Body Problem trilogy (This is at least partially 3626684's fault.)
And I think that's it.
It's hard for me to pick a favorite. The Dark Forest definitely made me think the most, and I while I would call it the most interesting book I've read this year, I don't think it's the one I enjoyed the most.
The Discworld books were all pretty great, and I definitely enjoyed them. Unfortunately, it's hard for me to pick a favorite out of them. It doesn't help that I think the Discworld books I read this year aren't as good as some of the ones I've read in previous years (specifically, the books about Death, which were the first ones I read).
And then there's The Martian. It was a good book, but it's not without flaws. And while it's definitely a book that I recommend reading, it's not one that I feel particularly eager to read again. And I still haven't gotten around to watching the movie, though I do want to do so at some point.
All of the books I read were good and kept me interested and engaged, but I really don't know which to say I enjoyed the most. If you forced me to choose at gunpoint, maybe I'd say Guards! Guards!, but I'm not certain.