Books Ron read in 2014

Book titles link to the work's page on LibraryThing.

See also BooksRonRead.

I usually read a book a week, but this year I read 71 books. Part of this was procrastination on my own book, and part was my reading more graphic novels and shorter books than usual.

In keeping with the first book I read this year, I am providing six-word reviews of notable books. Unless noted otherwise, I enjoyed all of these books; I seldom finish books that annoy me...

1. Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, ed. Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith, 2008, 9 Jan
2. Neptune's Brood, Charles Stross, 2013, 11 Jan, surprisingly gripping interstellar banking space opera
3. Odd Type Writers: From Joyce and Dickens to Wharton and Welty, the Obsessive Habits and Quirky Techniques of Great Authors, Celia Blue Johnson, 2013, 12 Jan, anecdotes to comfort every weird writer
4. The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life, Dinty W. Moore, 2012, 24 Jan, Beautiful: Bartlett's but with Buddhist bits
5. Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, Max Tegmark, 2014, 14 Feb, Which are you? All of them!
6. How to Be Your Own Best Friend, Mildred Newman, Bernard Berkowitz, Jean Owen, 1986, 15 Feb
7. The coat route : craft, luxury, & obsession on the trail of a $50,000 coat, Meg Noonan, 2013, 2 Mar, Sherlock's coat has nothing on this
8. A Fountain: The Best of the Water Books, David K. Reynolds, Ph.D., 2007, 4 Mar
9. Playing Ball on Running Water: The Japanese Way to Building a Better Life, David K. Reynolds, Ph.D., 1984, 10 Mar (reread; Water Book #1)
10. The Martian: A Novel, Andy Weir, 2014, 11 Mar, MacGyver in Spaaace! Compellingly readable book.
11. Even in Summer the Ice Doesn't Melt: Constructive Living the Japanese Way Through Morita & Naikan Therapies, David K. Reynolds, Ph.D., 1986, 13 Mar (Water Book #2)
12. Jeeves and the wedding bells : a homage to P.G. Wodehouse, Sebastian Faulks, 2013, 20 Mar, Superb homage Wodehouse could never write
13. Water bears no scars : Japanese lifeways for personal growth, David K. Reynolds, Ph.D., 1987, 22 Mar (Water Book #3)
14. Pools of lodging for the moon : strategy for a positive life-style, David K. Reynolds, Ph.D., 1989, 28 Mar (Water Book #4)
15. Jurgen : A Comedy of Justice, James Branch Cabell, 1919, 29 Mar (reread for the dozenth time or so)
16. The Call of the Weird: Encounters with Survivalists, Porn Stars, Alien Killers, and Ike Turner, Louis Theroux, 2008, 3 Apr
17. A Thousand Waves: A Sensible Lifestyle for Sensitive People, David K. Reynolds, Ph.D., 1990, 9 Apr (Water Book #5)
18. True Porn Clerk Stories, Ali Davis, 2009, 22 Apr
19. The Wooden Sea, Jonathan Carroll, 2001, 24 Apr
20. Picoverse, Robert A. Metzger, 2010, 30 Apr, fun but solecism-laden rather hard sf
21. Warm Words & Otherwise: A Blizzard of Book Reviews, John Grant, 2011, 2 May
22. The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play, Thornton Wilder, 1942, 4 May, Watery broth made at Finnegans Wake.
23. Futility Closet: An Idler's Miscellany of Compendious Amusements, Greg Ross, 2013, 6 May
24. The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death, and Pretty Much Everything Else, Christopher Beha, 2009, 11 May, Unexpectedly thoughtful, inspiring Great Books memoir.
25. A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books, Alex Beam, 2008, 15 May: How the Great Sausages were made.
26. Schlock Mercenary Book 7: Emperor Pius Dei, Howard Tayler, 2006, 17 May (volume of webcomic read online)
27. Schlock Mercenary Book 8: The Sharp End of the Stick, Howard Tayler, 2007, 19 May (volume of webcomic read online)
28. Schlock Mercenary Book 9: The Body Politic, Howard Tayler, 2008, 21 May (volume of webcomic read online)
29. Schlock Mercenary Book 10: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse, Howard Tayler, 2009, 23 May (volume of webcomic read online)
30. Schlock Mercenary Book 11, Massively Parallel, Howard Tayler, 2010, 26 May (volume of webcomic read online)
31. Schlock Mercenary Book 12: Force Multiplication, Howard Tayler, 2011, 29 May (volume of webcomic read online)
32. The Arrows of Time: Orthogonal Book Three, Greg Egan, 2014, 1 Jun (ReadingPlan)
33. The Book of Tea, Kakuzō Okakura, 1906, 1 Jun, Could you drop any more names? (ReadingPlan)
34. How to Be Idle: A Loafer's Manifesto, Tom Hodgkinson, 2005, 3 Jun
35. Schlock Mercenary Book 13: Random Access Memorabilia, Howard Tayler, 2012, 3 Jun (volume of webcomic read online)
36. Schlock Mercenary Book 14: Broken Wind, Howard Tayler, 2014, 7 Jun (volume of webcomic read online)
37. Live Free or Die: Troy Rising I, John Ringo, 2010, 13 Jun, Guilty pleasure: thankfully noncanonical Schlock prequel.
38. The Book of Idle Pleasures, Dan Kieran & Tom Hodgkinson, 2010, 16 Jun
39. What Makes This Book So Great, Jo Walton, 2014, 25 Jun
40. World of Trouble: The Last Policeman Book III, Ben Winters, 2014, 15 Jul
41. The Magicians: A Novel, Lev Grossman, 2009, 17 Jul (reread)
42. Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft, Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez, 2009, 18 Jul (graphic novel)
43. Locke & Key, Vol. 2: Head Games, Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez, 2010, 18 Jul (graphic novel)
44. Locke & Key, Vol. 3: Crown of Shadows, Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez, 2011, 20 Jul (graphic novel)
45. The Magician King: A Novel, Lev Grossman, 2011, 22 July (reread)
46. Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto, Anneli Rufus, 2003, 27 Jul
47. Echopraxia, Peter Watts, 2014, 31 Jul
48. The Magician's Land: A Novel , Lev Grossman, 2014, 6 Aug
49. The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia, Laura Miller, 2009, 12 Aug
50. The Rhesus Chart (Laundry Files), Charles Stross, 2014, 20 Aug
51. Handbook for the Positive Revolution, Edward de Bono, 1993, 27 Aug (reread). Dated but still better on rereading.
52. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie, 2013, 28 Aug
53. Codex, Lev Grossman, 2004, 3 Sep
54. Locke & Key, Vol. 4: Keys to the Kingdom, Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez, 2012, 7 Sep
55. Locke & Key, Vol. 5: Clockworks, Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez, 2013, 7 Sep
56. Locke & Key, Vol. 6: Alpha & Omega, Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez, 2014, 7 Sep
57. How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer, Sarah Bakewell, 2011, 9 Oct
58. Antarctica, Kim Stanley Robinson, 1997, 14 Oct
59. Persepolis 1, Marjane Satrapi, 2004, 18 Oct
60. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, Marjane Satrapi, 2005, 21 Oct
61. Cat's Cradle: A Novel, Kurt Vonnegut, 1963, 5 Nov (reread). Hadn't read since high school; underrated.
62. My Work Is Not Yet Done: Three Tales of Corporate Horror, Thomas Ligotti, 2002, 8 Nov
63. The Importance of Living, Lin Yutang, 1937, 9 Nov. Took four Kobo generations to read.
64. The Peripheral, William Gibson, 2014, 13 Nov
65. The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, 2014, 21 Nov
66. Jennifer Government, Max Barry, 2004, 30 Nov
67. Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, Ed Finn & Kathryn Cramer, 2014, 2 Dec
68. Crisis in Urlia, Karl Schroeder, 2014, 11 Dec. Inspiring futurism commissioned by Canada's military.
69. How to Be Alone (The School of Life), Sara Maitland, 2014, 24 Dec. Solitude's supposed to work like meditation?
70. Žižek's Jokes: Did You Hear the One about Hegel and Negation?, Slavoj Žižek, 2014, 27 Dec
71. Faitheist: how an atheist found common ground with the religious, Chris Stedman, 2012, 29 Dec. Faithful and godless should be friends.