Books I Read in 2014

Since 2011, I've been tracking the books I read. As in other years, I read heavily within my preferred genre, science fiction, and I read more Star Trek books than usual in an effort to catch up with a backlog - though given the uneven quality of media tie-in novels I sometimes wonder why I bother. (I did enjoy David Mack's Cold Equations TNG mini-series.) As ever I try to dabble in mainstream titles, and this year I finished reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels. Stephen King and Connie Willis were my most-read authors this year, both because I was playing catch-up; King released three novels this year, and I found some of his ephemera. Willis was the year's real joy; I've been familiar with her short stories for some time and she has a stellar reputation, but until devouring nearly all of her novels and collections this year I hadn't been aware of just how good she really is.

This year I finally explored Jack Chalker's Well World books, and the first of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series, filling in a couple of genre gaps.

Thanks to the help of friends, I finally tracked down all of the Martin Caidin Cyborg novels and the Logan's Run books; it was a great deal of fun diving back in time to enjoy these pulp adventures.

Books by men once again dominate my list this year; only 22 of the books I read were written by women, with Willis accounting for nearly half of these. Clearly I have to work harder to broaden my oeuvre.

Nearly half the books I read were published in 2000 or later; the bulk of the rest were published in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. The oldest books I read this year were two titles by Jane Austen.

Despite my best intentions, I did not finish the Harry Potter series this year, nor did I get to The Lord of the Rings. Maybe this year. In fact, I think I'll tackle the Potter in January.

Here are the 126 books I read in 2014:

January: 12

Glasshouse (Charles Stross, 2006)

Tarzan’s Quest (Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1936)

Tarzan and the Forbidden City (Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1938)

Halting State (Charles Stross, 2007)

Tarzan the Magnificent (Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1939)

Rule 34 (Charles Stross, 2011)

Burning Paradise (Robert Charles Wilson, 2013)

Iterations and Other Stories (Robert J. Sawyer, 2002)

Wireless (Charles Stross, 2009)

Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1947)

Tarzan and the Castaways (Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1965)

Saturn’s Children (Charles Stross, 2008)

February: 12

Midnight at the Well of Souls (Jack L. Chalker, 1977)

The Final Solution (Michael Chabon, 2004)

Star Trek Enterprise The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor’s Wing (Michael A. Martin, 2009)

The Human Division (John Scalzi, 2013)

Exiles at the Well of Souls (Jack L. Chalker, 1978)

Doctor Sleep (Stephen King, 2013)

Murder in the Dark (Margaret Atwood, 1983)

Spacecraft: 2000 to 2100 AD (Stewart Cowley, 1978)

Quest for the Well of Souls (Jack L. Chalker, 1978)

Spacewreck: Ghostships and Derelicts of Space (Stewart Cowley, 1979)

Great Space Battles (Stewart Cowley and Charles Herridge, 1979)

Starliners: Commercial Spacetravel in 2200 AD (Stewart Cowley, 1980)

March: 6

The Return of Nathan Brazil (Jack L. Chalker, 1980)

Star Trek Enterprise The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm (Michael A. Martin, 2011)

Red Planet Blues (Robert J. Sawyer, 2013)

Twilight at the Well of Souls (Jack L. Chalker, 1980)

Star Trek Enterprise Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures (Christopher L. Bennet, 2013)

Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History (Robert Greenberger, 2012)

April: 6

Throne of the Crescent Moon (Saladin Ahmed, 2012)

Faithful (Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King, 2004)

Green Eyes (Lucius Shepard, 1984)

Borders of Infinity (Lois McMaster Bujold, 1989)

You Went Away (Timothy Findley, 1996)

In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (Margaret Atwood, 2011)

May: 12

Northanger Abbey (Jane Austen, 1818)

Foundation and Chaos (Greg Bear, 1998)

The Man from Primrose Lane (James Renner, 2012)

Ur (Stephen King, 2009)

Darker Than You Think (Jack Williamson, 1948)

John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood (Michael D. Sellers, 2012)

What Might Have Been Volume 2: Alternate Heroes (Gregory Benford & Martin H. Greenberg, Editors, 1990)

Six Stories (Stephen King, 1997)

The Einstein Intersection (Samuel R. Delany, 1967)

Lincoln’s Dreams (Connie Willis, 1987)

Elleander Morning (Jerry Yulsman, 1984)

Scratch Monkey (Charles Stross, 1993)

June: 9

Fire Watch (Connie Willis, 1985)

Mr. Mercedes (Stephen King, 2014)

Doomsday Book (Connie Willis, 1992)

Solo (William Boyd, 2013)

Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It (David M. Ewalt, 2013)

Syn (Raymond F. Jones, 1969)

Impossible Things (Connie Willis, 1993)

Uncollected Stories (Stephen King, 2003)

The Leftovers (Tom Perrotta, 2011)

July: 12

The Compete Peanuts: 1991 to 1992 (Charles M. Schulz with an introduction by Tom Tomorrow, 2014)

Mile 81 (Stephen King, 2011)

A Face in the Crowd (Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan, 2012)

In the Tall Grass (Stephen King and Joe Hill, 2012)

Throttle (Stephen King and Joe Hill, 2012)

The Dark Between the Stars (Poul Anderson, 1981)

To Say Nothing of the Dog (Connie Willis, 1998)

The Clockwork Man (E.V. Odle, 1923)

Uncharted Territory (Connie Willis, 1994)

Bellwether (Connie Willis, 1996)

Star Trek Enterprise Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel (Christopher L. Bennett, 2014)

Passage (Connie Willis, 2001)

August: 11

Daemon (Daniel Suarez, 2006)

Freedom^TM (Daniel Suarez, 2010)

Kill Decision (Daniel Suarez, 2012)

Cyborg (Martin Caidin, 1972)

Operation Nuke (Martin Caidin, 1973)

High Crystal (Martin Caidin, 1974)

Logan’s Run (William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, 1967)

Logan’s World (William F. Nolan, 1977)

Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome (John Scalzi, 2014)

Logan’s Search (William F. Nolan, 1980)

Cyborg IV (Martin Caidin, 1975)

September: 10

Tau Zero (Poul Anderson, 1970)

Warped Factors: A Neurotic’s Guide to the Universe (Walter Koenig, 1997)

Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming (Christie Golden, 2003)

Star Trek Voyager: The Farther Shore (Christie Golden 2003)

Twin Peaks: Access Guide to the Town (David Lynch and Mark Frost and Richard Saul Wurman, 1991)

Bowl of Heaven (Gregory Benford and Larry Niven, 2012)

Rogue Moon (Algis Budrys, 1960)

A Case of Conscience (James Blish, 1958)

Star Trek Voyager Spirit Walk: Old Wounds (Christie Golden, 2004)

The Long War (Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, 2013)

October: 5

Universe 1 (Terry Carr, Editor, 1971)

The Broken Universe (Paul Melko, 2012)

Star Trek Voyager Spirit Walk: Enemy of my Enemy (Christie Golden, 2004)

Star Trek: The More Things Change (Scott Pearson, 2014)

Universe 2 (Terry Carr, Editor, 1972)

November: 14

Flatlander (Larry Niven, 1995)

Star Trek Voyager String Theory: Cohesion (Jeffrey Lang, 2005)

The Adam West Scrapbook (Adam West, 2014)

Star Trek Voyager String Theory: Fusion (Kirsten Beyer, 2005)

Universe 15 (Terry Carr, Editor, 1985)

Star Trek: The Art of the Film (Mark Cotta Vaz with a foreword by J.J. Abrams, 2009)

Star Trek Voyager String Theory: Evolution (Heather Jarman, 2006)

The Stainless Steel Rat (Harry Harrison, 1961)

As Big as the Ritz (Gregory Benford, 1986)

Fugue State (John M. Ford, 1987)

Chase (Nancy Springer, 1987)

The Martian (Andy Weir, 2014)

Remake (Connie Willis, 1995)

A Dance with Dragons (George R. R. Martin, 2011)

December: 16

Star Trek The Next Generation Cold Equations: The Persistence of Memory (David Mack, 2012)

Exo (Steven Gould, 2014)

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories (Connie Willis, 1999)

Star Trek The Next Generation Cold Equations: Silent Weapons (David Mack, 2012)

Starhawk (Jack McDevitt, 2013)

The Crying of Lot 49 (Thomas Pynchon, 1965)

Revival (Stephen King, 2014)

The Drawing of the Dark (Tim Powers, 1979)

Ships of the Line (Michael Okuda, 2014)          

The Complete Peanuts: 1993 to 1994 (Charles M. Schulz with an introduction by Jake Tapper, 2014)

361 (Donald E. Westlake, 1962)

Killing Castro (Lawrence Block, 1961)

Nightmare Alley (William Lindsay Gresham, 1946)

Escape From New York (Mike McQuay, 1981)

Star Trek The Next Generation Cold Equations: The Body Electric (David Mack, 2013)

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813)

Genre

Fiction: 118

Nonfiction: 8

Science Fiction: 61

Star Trek: 16

Mainstream: 15

Horror: 8

Fantasy: 8

Tarzan: 5

Peanuts collections: 2

Top Authors

Stephen King: 11

Connie Willis: 10

Charles Stross: 6

Edgar Rice Burroughs: 5

Jack L. Chalker: 5

Martin Caidin: 4

Stewart Cowley: 4

Christie Golden: 4

Gregory Benford: 3

Terry Carr: 3

David Mack: 3

William F. Nolan: 3

Daniel Suarez: 3

Poul Anderson: 2

Margaret Atwood: 2

Jane Austen: 2

Christopher L. Bennet: 2

Joe Hill: 2

Michael A. Martin: 2

Stewart O’Nan: 2

Robert J. Sawyer: 2

John Scalzi: 2

Charles M. Schulz: 2

J.J. Abrams: 1

Saladin Ahmed: 1

Stephen Baxter: 1

Greg Bear: 1

Kirsten Beyer: 1

James Blish: 1

Lawrence Block: 1

William Boyd: 1

Algis Budrys: 1

Lois McMaster Bujold: 1

Michael Chabon: 1

Samuel R. Delany: 1

David M. Ewalt: 1

Timothy Findley: 1

John M. Ford: 1

Mark Frost: 1

Steven Gould: 1

Martin H. Greenberg: 1

Robert Greenberger: 1

William Lindsay Gresham: 1

Harry Harrison: 1

Heather Jarman: 1

George Clayton Johnson: 1

Raymond F. Jones: 1

Walter Koenig: 1

Jeffrey Lang: 1

David Lynch: 1

George R. R. Martin: 1

Jack McDevitt: 1

Mike McQuay: 1

Paul Melko: 1

Larry Niven: 2

E.V. Odle: 1

Michael Okuda: 1

Scott Pearson: 1

Tom Perrotta: 1

Tim Powers: 1

Terry Pratchett: 1

Thomas Pynchon: 1

James Renner: 1

Michael D. Sellers: 1

Lucius Shepard: 1

Nancy Springer: 1

Tom Tomorrow: 1

Mark Cotta Vaz: 1

Andy Weir: 1

Adam West: 1

Donald E. Westlake: 1

Jack Williamson: 1

Robert Charles Wilson: 1

Richard Saul Wurman: 1

Jerry Yulsman: 1

Books by Decade

1810s: 2

1920s: 1

1930s: 3

1940s: 3

1950s: 1

1960s: 9

1970s: 15                              

1980s: 16

1990s: 15

2000s: 20

2010s: 40