Book List 2024

1. Almanac of the Dead, by Leslie Marmon Silko

2. Beloved, by Toni Morrison

3. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters Volume 1, by Gordon Dahlquist

4. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters Volume 2, by Gordon Dahlquist

5. A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James

6. Termination Shock, by Neal Stephenson

7. The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michael Faber

8. Lady Joker, Volume 1, by Kaoru Takamura

9. The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy

10. Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy

11. Lady Joker, Volume 2, by Kaoru Takamura

12. Life Among the Savages, by Shirley Jackson

13. Raising Demons, by Shirley Jackson

14. The Everlasting Man, by GK Chesterton, w/commentary by Dale Ahlquist

15. The World Cannot Give, by Tara Isabella Burton

16. Strange Rites, by Tara Isabella Burton

17. The Undertow, by Jeff Sharlet

18. Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid

19. Ohio, by Stephen Markley

20. Oroonoko, by Aphra Behn

21. The Fair Jilt, Letters to a Gentleman, Poems, by Aphra Behn

22. The Rover, by Aphra Behn

23. The Widow Ranter, by Aphra Behn

24. The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick DeWitt

25. French Exit, by Patrick DeWitt

26. Lost Girls, by Linda Simon

27. Twilight Sleep, by Edith Wharton

28. The Road Through the Wall, by Shirley Jackson

29. Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn

30. Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn

31. Rivermouth, by Alejandra Oliva

32. Persuasion, by Jane Austen

33. Ablutions, by Patrick DeWitt

34. Babel, RF Kuang

35. Earthlings, by Sayaka Murata

36. Out, by Matsuo Kirino

37. Billionaire Island, by Mark Russell etc

38. Black Science vol 1, by Rick Remender etc

39. Locke & Key vol 1, by Joe Hill etc

40. The Homeland Directive by Robert Venditti etc

41. Deadly Class by Rick Remender etc

42. The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton

43. Safety Through Solidarity, by Shane Burley and Ben Lorber

44. Summer, by Edith Wharton

45. Everyday Drinking, by Kingsley Amis

46. The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton

47. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

48. Old New York, by Edith Wharton

49. Undermajordomo Minor, by Patrick DeWitt

50. The Librarianist, by Patrick DeWitt

51. Inland, by Tea Obreht

52. The Bird's Nest, by Shirley Jackson

Book List 2023

1. The Book of Strange New Things, by Michael Faber

2. The Unnameable, by Samuel Beckett

3. How it is, by Samuel Beckett

4. Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett

5. Endgame, by Samuel Beckett

6. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr

7. The Knight, by Gene Wolfe

8. Reckless, by Ed Brubaker et al

9. Friend of the Devil, by Ed Brubaker et al

10. Destroy All Monsters, by Ed Brubaker et al

11. The Ghost in You, by Ed Brubaker et al

12. Follow me Down, by Ed Brubaker et al

13. Nobody's Angel, by Thomas McGuane

14. The Wizard, by Gene Wolfe

15. The Bright Ages, by Matthew Gabriel and David M Perry

16. Spyfail, by James Bamford

17. 1493, by Charles C Mann

18. All Systems Red, by Martha Wells

19. Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells

20. Rogue Protocol, by Martha Wells

21. The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy

22. Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy

23. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin

24. The Falling Woman, by Pat Murphy

25. Slow Learner, by Thomas Pynchon

26. Sign of the Unicorn, by Roger Zelazny

27. Travel Light, by Naomi Mitchison

28. The Revenge of the Real, by Benjamin Bratton

29. Pirate Enlightenment, or, The Real Libertalia, by David Graeber

30. Red Rising, by Pierce Brown

31. Golden Son, by Pierce Brown

32. Morning Star, by Pierce Brown

33. The Power Worshippers, by Katherine Stewart

34. The Violent Century, by Lavie Tidhar

35. We Are Too Many, by Hannah Pittard

36. The Escapement, by Lavie Tidhar

37. Osama, by Lavie Tidhar

38. Jesus and John Wayne, by Kristin Kobes du Mez

39. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, Tr. Louise and Aylmer Maude and Amy Mandelker

40. The Irish Soldiers of Mexico, by Michael Hogan

41. The Fifth Season, by NK Jemisin

42. Flashman in the Great Game, by George MacDonald Frazer

43. The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov, tr. Paul Schmidt

44. Much Ado About Nothing, by Bill Shakespeare

45. Much Ado About Nothing, by Bill Shakespeare

46. The Obelisk Gate, by NK Jemisin

47. Flashman's Lady, by George MacDonald Frazer

48. No Pasaran: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis

49. The Stone Sky, by NK Jemisin

50. Complete Short Plays, by Anton Chekhov, tr Paul Schmidt

50. Rogues, by Patrick Radden Keefe

51. Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe

52. The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov, tr Paul Schmidt

53. Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo

54. Crooked Kingdom, by Leigh Bardugo

55. Friday: Book One, by Ed Brubaker etc

56. Friday: Book Two, by Ed Brubaker etc

57. The Late Americans, by Brandon Taylor

58. If We Were Villains, by ML Rio

59. The Fade Out, by Ed Brubaker etc

60. Botchan, by Natsume Soseki

61. Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett

62. Nobber, by Oisin Fagan

63. The Children's Crusade, by Marcel Schwob

64. The King in the Golden Mask, by Marcel Schwob

65. The Street of Crocodiles, by Bruno Schulz

66. The Sanatarium under the Sign of the Hourglass, by Bruno Schulz

67. Hangsaman, by Shirley Jackson

68. Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata

69. 'Salem's Lot, by Stephen King

70. 1177 BC, by Eric H Cline

71. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

72. Assertiveness, Stephen Ministries

73. An Evening's Entertainment, by Richard Koszarski

74. The Crying of Lot 49, bby Thomas Pynchon

75. Hiero's Journey, by Sterling Lanier

76. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich

77. The Future Home of the Living God, by Louise Erdrich

78. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

79. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich

80. Happy Days, by Samuel Beckett

81. Complete Short Plays, by Samuel Beckett

82. Charade, by Philip Barry

83. The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich

Book List 2022

1. The Arabian Nights, Vol. 1, tr. Malcolm C. Lyons

2. The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter

3. Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy

4. Filthy Animals, by Brandon Taylor

5. The Tale of Genji, tr. by Edward Seidensticker

6. Hillfolk, by Robin Laws

7. The Flying Circus, by Erika Chappell

8. Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, by Max Hastings

9. The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton

10. The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma

11. Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais, tr. MA Screech

12. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

13. Flint and Mirror, by John Crowley

14. Very Bad People, by Patrick Alley

15. Vanity Fair, by William Makepiece Thackeray

16. The Flying Circus, by Erika Chappell

17. David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens

18. All-American Nativism, by Daniel Denvir

19. Border and Rule, by Harsha Walia

20. The Age of Decadence, by Simon Hefer

21. The British in India, by David Gilmour

22. Light in August, by William Faulkner

23. Freddy's Cousin Weedly, by Walter R Brooks

24. The House on Vesper Sands, by Paraic O'Donnell

25. Buddenbrooks, by Thomas Mann

26. Wittenberg, by David Davalos
27. Some Do Not..., by Ford Madox Ford

28. No More Parades, by Ford Madox Ford

29. A Man Could Stand Up--, by Ford Madox Ford

30. The Last Post, by Ford Madox Ford

31. The Sherrif of Babylon, by Tom King

32. The Anatomy of Fascism, by Robert O Paxton

33. How Civil Wars Start, by Barbara F Walter

34. Bring the War Home, by Kathleen Belew

35. A is for Asylum Seeker, by Rachel Ida Buff

36. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig

37. The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

38. The Kind Worth Killing, by Peter Swanson

39. Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan

40. Real Life, by Brandon Taylor

41. This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

42. Where the Light Fell, by Philip Yancey

43. Last Night in Montreal, by Emily St. John Mandel

44. The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel

45. The Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel

46. Murphy, by Samuel Beckett

47. Watt, by Samuel Beckett

48. Mercier and Cambrier, by Samuel Beckett

49. Molloy, by Samuel Beckett

50. Malone Dies, by Samuel Beckett

Book List 2021

1. The Playboy of the Western World, by JM Synge

2. Ball Lightning, by Cixin Liu

3. The Pyrates, by GM Fraser

4. By Force Alone, by Lavie Tidhar

5. Babbit, by Sinclair Lewis

6. The Clockwork Twin, by Walter R Brooks

7. Hoping Against Hope, by Philip Caputo

8. Cairo, by James Aldridge [p]

9. Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, by Donald Bogle [p]

10. Black Athena, by Martin Bernal

11. The Omega Men, by Tom King

12. Heroes in Crisis, by Tom King

13. The Widow's Son, by Robert Anton Wilson

14. Nature's God, by Robert Anton Wilson

15. Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees

16. Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

17. Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser

18. The Clockwork Twin, by Walter R Brooks

19. Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys

20. Despair, by Vladimir Nabokov

21. Royal Flash, by George MacDonald Fraser

22. Flash for Freedom, by George MacDonald Fraser

23. Flashman at the Charge, by George MacDonald Fraser

24. Lost in the Cosmos, by Walker Percy

25. I am a Cat, by Soseki Natsume

26. All Over Ireland, ed. Deirdre Madden

27. Kids on Bikes, by Doug Levandowski and Jonathan Gilmour

28. Honor + Intrigue

29. Vision: The Complete Collection, by Tom King

30. The Sherrif of Baghdad, by Tom King

31. The Immortal Soul Salvage Yard, by Beth May

32. Landscape with Invisible Hand, by MT Anderson

33. How Fiction Works, by James Wood

34. The Urth of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe

35. Freddy the Politician, by Walter R Brooks

36. Seven Wonders (many authors)

37. The Magnificent Defeat, by Frederick Beuchner

38. Compassion & Conviction, by Justin Giboney etc

39. The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom, by Clint McElroy et al

40. 1688: A Global History, by John E Wills

41. Social Creature, by Tara Isabella Burton

42. The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen

43. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey

44. It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis

45. Elmer Gantry, by Sinclair Lewis

46. The Man Who Was Thursday, by GK

47. Preston Sturges, by Preston Sturges

48. Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke

49. Headlong Hall, by Thomas Love Peacock

50. Nightmare Abbey, by Thomas Love Peacock

51. Hitler's American Friends, by Bradley W. Hart

52. Interlibrary Loan, by Gene Wolfe

53. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See

54. The End of the Affair, by Graham Green

55. Histories, by Herodotus, tr. Aubrey de Selincourt

56. The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, tr. Peter Ackroyd

Book List 2020

1. Volpone, by Ben Jonson
2. The Citadel of the Autarch, by Gene Wolfe
3. The Third Policeman, by Flann O'Brien
4. Medusa's Web, by Tim Powers
5. The Light Between Oceans, by ML Stedman
6. The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians, by Tobias Churton
7. Epicene, by Ben Jonson
8. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
9. The Thin Man, by Dashiell Hammett
10. Bartholomew Fair, by Ben Jonson
11. The Dream of Perpetual Motion, by Dexter Palmer
12. Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett
13. Steal the Sky, by Megan O'Keefe
14. The Dain Curse, by Dashiell Hammett
15. The Quantum Magician, by Derek Kunsken
16. The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov
17. Three Sisters, by Anton Chekhov
18. Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov
19. The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov
20. The Glass Key, by Dashiell Hammet
21. The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories, by Gene Wolfe
22. The Parade's Gone By, by Kevin Brownlow
23. Wonderbook, by Jeff VanderMeer et al
24. The Age of Anxiety, by WH Auden
25. The Duino Elegies, by RM Rilke
26. Sonnets to Orpheus, by RM Rilke
27. Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko
28. Salaambo, by Gustave Flaubert
29. Joseph Andrews, by Henry Fielding
30. Foolish Hearts, by Emma Mills
31. Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, by Emma Straub
32. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Part 1, by MT Anderson
33. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Part 2, by MT Anderson
34. A Conspiracy of Tall Men, by Noah Hawley
35. Other People's Weddings, by Noah Hawley
36. A Drink With Shane McGowan, by Shane McGowan and Victoria Mary Clarke
37. The Midwestern Novel, by Nancy Bunge
38. The Orchardist, by Amanda Coplin
39. Shotgun Lovesongs, by Nickolas Butler

40. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser

41. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart

42. Freddy Goes to Florida, by Walter R Brooks

43. Franny and Zooey, by JD Salinger

44. Waking the Moon, by Elizabeth Hand

45. The Book of the Dun Cow, by Walter Wangerin Jr

46. 1491, by Charles Mann

47. The Warlord of the Air, by Michael Moorcock

48. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne

49. Freddy Goes to the North Pole, by Walter R Brooks

49. The Year of Lear, by James Shapiro

50. The Land Leviathan, by Michael Moorcock

51. The Steel Tsar, by Michael Moorcock

52. The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal, by Clint McElroy et al

53. Fast Ships, Black Sails, ed. by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

54. Fitzpatrick's War, by Theodore Judson

55. Freddy the Detective, by Walter R Brooks

56. The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison

57. Quichotte, by Salman Rushdie

58. Kim, by Rudyard Kipling

59. Byzantium, by Stephen R Lawhead

60. Lectures on Isaiah, Vol 1., by Martin Luther

61. A History Maker, by Alasdair Gray

62. The Fall of Kelvin Walker, by Alasdair Gray

63. The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene

64. The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene

65. The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene

66. Jacked, by David Kushner

67. The Comedians, by Graham Greene

68. The Courage to Be, by Paul Tillich

69. The Earth Will Shake, by Robert Anton Wilson

70. The Story of Freginald, by Walter R Brooks

Book List 2019

1. Soulless, by Gail Carriger

2. The Plains, by Gerald Murnane
3. In Sunlight and in Shadow, by Mark Helprin
4. Stream System, by Gerald Murnane
5. The Sword of the Lictor, by Gene Wolfe
6. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne
7. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James
8. Magicians of the Gods, by Graham Hancock
9. The Last Mogul, by Dennis McDougal
10. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton
11. Jacques the Fatalist and his Master, by Denis Diderot
12. Giant Days, Vol. 7, by John Allison
13. Giant Days, Vol. 8, by John Allison
14. Giant Days, Vol. 9, by John Allison
15. The Black Hand, by Stephen Talty
16. Chrysanthe, Vol 1, by Yves Menard
17. Chrysanthe, Vol 2, by Yves Menard
18. Chrysanthe, Vol 3, by Yves Menard
19. The Devil is Dead, by RA Lafferty
20. The Mastermind, by Evan Ratliff
21. Space Chantey, by RA Lafferty
22. Fourth Mansions, by RA Lafferty
23. Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding
24. Past Master, by RA Lafferty
25. Making Oscar Wilde, by Michele Mendelssohn
26. Troilus and Cressida, by Bill Shakespeare
27. Okla Hannali, by RA Lafferty
28. Pericles, by Bill Shakespeare
29. Timon of Athens, by Bill Shakespeare
30. Of Human Bondage, by Somerset Maugham
31. At Swim-Two-Birds, by Flann O'Brien
32. Bouvard and Pecuchet, by Gustave Flaubert
33. The Philosopher's Stone, by Colin Wilson
34. Them, by Joyce Carol Oates
35. The Music of Failure, by Bill Holm
36. The Best of RA Lafferty, by RA Lafferty
37. The Acharnians, by Aristophanes tr. Jack Flavin
38. Peace, by Aristophanes tr. Fred Beake
39. Celebrating Ladies, by Aristophanes tr. David Slavitt
40. Wealth, by Aristophanes tr. Palmer Bovie
41. The Cold Six Thousand, by James Ellroy
42. Hitler's Monsters, by Eric Kurlander
43. Reamde, by Neal Stephenson
44. The Tempest, by Bill Shakespeare
45. The Sea and the Mirror, by WH Auden
46. This is not a Game, by WJ Williams
47. Zofloya, or the Moor, by Charlotte Dacre
48. The Necromancer, by Peter Teuthold
49. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
50. Okla Hannali, by RA Lafferty
51. Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny
52. Giant Days, vol. 10, by Jonathan Allison etc
53. Black Monday Murders vol 1., by Jonathan Hickman etc
54. Black Monday Murders vol 2., by Jonathan Hickman etc
55. Paper Girls, vol  4, by Brian Vaughan etc.
56. The Adventure Zone vol 1, by Clint McElroy etc
57. Ulysses, by James Joyce
58. Dungeon World, by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel
59. Giant Days, Vol. 11, by Jonathan Allison et al
60. The Guns of Avalon, by Roger Zelazny
61. Paper Girls, vol. 5, by Brian Vaughun etc.
62. Paper Girls, vol. 6, by Brian Vaughun etc.
63. The Steampunk Trilogy, by Brian Di Fillipo
64. Life is Elsewhere, by Milan Kundera
65. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, by Milan Kundera
66. Cooking with Fernet-Branca, by James Hamilton-Patterson
67. Ceremony, by Leslia Marmon Silko
68. The Adventure Zone vol. 2, by Clint McElroy etc.
69. The Alchemist, by Ben Jonson

Book List 2018

1. A Borrowed Man, by Gene Wolfe
2. Black Monday Murders, by Jonathan Hickman
3. The Rise and Fall of DODO, by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland
4. A Borrowed Man, by Gene Wolfe
5. Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
6. Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens
7. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madelaine L'Engle
8. Giant Days Vol 6, by John Allison
9. The Old Curiosity Shop, by Charles Dickens
10. Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens
11. The Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe
12. Death & Co., by Kaplan, Fauchald, and Day
13. The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book, by Frank Caiafa
14. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
15. Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons
16. Don Quixote, Book I, by Cervantes
17. Don Quixote, Book II, by Cervantes
18. Martin Chuzzlewit, by Charles Dickens
19. Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfeg
20. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
21. Last Call, by Tim Powers
22. The Hamlet Doctrine, by Jamieson Webster and Simon Crichtley
23. The Golden House, by Salman Rushdie
24. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
25. Disruptive Witness, by Alan Noble
26. Immortality, by Milan Kundera
27. The Joke, by Milan Kundera
28. The Art of the Novel, by Milan Kundera
29. A Different Gospel, by D. R. McConnell
30. Silence, by Shusaku Endo
31. Jacques the Fatalist, by Denis Diderot
32. The Curtain, by Milan Kundera
33. Lives of the Novel, by Thomas Pavel
34. Ambiguity Machines, by Vandana Singh
35. The Claw of the Conciliator, by Gene Wolfe
36. The Hum and the Shiver, by Alex Bledsoe
37. Snobs, by Julian Fellowes
38. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
39. Things Not Seen, by Andrew Clements
40. Watergate, by Thomas Mallon
41. The Rise of Silas Lapham, by William Dean Howells
42. The Castle of the Otter, by Gene Wolfe
43. Gene Wolfe's Book of Days, by Gene Wolfe
44. Castle of Days, by Gene Wolfe
45. Haunted Castles, by Ray Russell
46. It Devours!, by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
47. Poems, Translations, and Short Plays, by JM Synge
48. The Well of the Saints, by JM Synge
49. The Playboy of the Western World, by JM Synge
50. The Tinker's Wedding, by JM Synge
51. Deirdre of the Sorrows, by JM Synge
52. In Wicklow, West Kerry, and Connemara, by JM Synge
53. The Aran Islands, by JM Synge
54. Dombey and Son, by Charles Dickens

Book List 2017

1. Monstress, Volume 1, by Marjorie Liu
2. The Flash, Volume Six: Out of Time, by Robert Venditti, et al.
3. Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris
4. Wuthering Heights, by Charlotte Bronte
5. The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica, by John Calvin Batchelor
6. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton
7. Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini
8. The Temptation of Saint Antony, by Gustave Flaubert
9. Jerusalem, Book 1: The Boroughs, by Alan Moore
10. Till We Have Faces, by CS Lewis
11. Jerusalem, Book 2: Mansoul, by Alan Moore
12. Pines, by Blake Crouch
13. The Bookman, by Lavie Tidhar
14. Wayward, by Blake Crouch
15. Kick-Ass, by Mark Millar
16. Camera Obscura, by Lavie Tidhar
17. The Last Town, by Blake Crouch
18. The Great Game, by Lavie Tidhar
19. Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters, and Seymour, An Introduction, by JD Salinger
20. Jerusalem, Book 3: Vernall's Inquest, by Alan Moore [p]
21. Ireland in the Twentieth Century, by Tim Pat Coogan [p]
22. The Alchemist, by Hans Holzer
23. Ravelstein, by Saul Bellow
24. The January Dancer, by Michael Flynn
25. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
26. The General in his Labyrinth, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
27. The Autumn of the Patriarch, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
28. Radiance, by Catherine Valente
29. Magic for Beginners, by Kelly Link
30. Just One Damned Thing After Another, by Jodi Taylor
31. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
32. Lost in the Cosmos, by Walker Percy
33. Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of his Final Years, by Michael Shelden
34. Mark Twain and Me, by Dorothy Quick
35. DIY Cocktails, by Marcia Simmons
36. The Old-Fashioned, by Robert Simonson
37. The Bar, by Olivier Said and James Mellgren
38. And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini
39. Plainsong, by Kent Haruf
40. The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
41. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
42. Foucalt's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco
43. The PDT Cocktail Book, by Jim Meehan
44. Imbibe!, by David Wondrich
45. Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer
46. Authority, by Jeff Vandermeer
47. Acceptance, by Jeff Vandermeer
48. As You Like It, by Bill Shakespeare
49. Knight's Shadow, by Sebastian de Castell
50. Shakespeare and the Actors, by Arthur Colby Sprague
51. The House of Special Purpose, by John Boyne
52. Eventide, by Kent Haruf
53. Anatomy of Criticism, by Northrop Frye
54. Benediction, by Kent Haruf
55. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, by Joshua Ferris [p]
56. The Vesuvius Club, by Mark Gatiss [p]
57. Room, by Emma Donoghue
58. Giant Days, Vol 4, by John Allison
59. Giant Days, Vol 5, by John Allison
60. The Flash, Vol 7, by Robert Venditti
61. The Flash, Vol 8, by Robert Venditti
62. The Flash, Vol 9, by Robert Venditti
63. Saga, Vol 7, by Fiona Staples and Brian K Vaughan
64. Paper Girls, Vol 3, by Brian K Vaughan
65. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, by James Shapiro
66. Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt
67. The Augustan World, by AR Humphreys
68. Days of Rage, by Bryan Burrough
69. Revolutions: A Comparative Study, ed. by Lawrence Kaplan
70. The Great Ordeal, by R Scott Bakker
71. Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard
72. The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard [p]
73. Night and Day, by Tom Stoppard
74. Indian Ink, by Tom Stoppard
75. Hapgood, by Tom Stoppard
76. Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal, ed. Robert Baker and Roland Ehlke
77. Vanishing Grace, by Philip Yancey
78. The Sea and the Mirror, by WH Auden
79. The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzweil
80. Lectures on Don Quixote, by Vladimir Nabakov
81. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton
82. The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
83. The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton
84. Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson

Book List 2016

1. Some Remarks, by Neal Stephenson
2. Giant Days: Volume 1, by John Allison et. al.
3. Saga, Vol 1, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples
4. Saga, Vol 2, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples
5. Northlanders, Vol 3: Blood in the Snow, by Brian Wood et al
6. Northlanders, Vol 4: The Plague Widow, by Brian Wood et al
7. Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon, by Matt Fraction et al
8. Hawkeye: Little Hits, by Matt Fraction et al
9. Slade House, by David Mitchell
10. In a Glass Darkly, by Sheridan Le Fanu
11. The Confidence Man, by Herman Melville
12. The Short Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz
13. Miracleman, Volume Four: The Golden Age, by Neil Gaiman et al
14. Paper Girls, Volume 1, by Brian K. Vaughan et al
15. Star Wars: Lando, Volume 1, by Charles Soule et al
16. American Tabloid, by James Ellroy
17. Innocents Aboard, by Gene Wolfe
Anthology: Early American Drama, ed. by Jeffrey Richards:
18. The Contrast, by Royall Tyler
19. Andre, by William Dunlap
20. The Indian Princess, by James Nelson Barker
21. The Drunkard, by William Henry Smith
22. Fashion, by Anna Cora Mowatt
23. Bad Machinery, Volume 2: The Case of the Good Boy, by John Allison
24. Saga, Volume 3, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples
25. Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin
26. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
27. Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe
28. Traitor's Blade, by Sebastian De Castell
29. Hawkeye, Volume 3: LA Woman, by Matt Fraction et al
30. Death Comes to Pemberly, by PD James
31. Medieval Cities, by Henri Pirenne
32. The Half-Made World, by Felix Gilman
33. Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel, by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink
34. Sin in the Second City, by Karen Abbott
35. The Mark Inside, by Amy Reading
36. The Big Con, by David Maurer
37. The Modern Con Man, by Todd Robbins etc.
38. Batman: Europa, by Brian Azzarello et. al.
39. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, by JRR Tolkien
40. The Transformation of Cinema, by Eileen Bowser
41. The Sandman: Book of Dreams (anthology), ed. by Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer
42. Dramarama, by E. Lockhart
43. Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard
44. Selected Psalms: I, by Martin Luther
45. Fables, Volume 13: The Great Fables Crossover, by Bill Willingham etc.
46. Fables, Volume 14: Witches, by Bill Willingham etc.
47. Fairest, Volume 1: Wide Awake, by Bill Willingham etc.
48. Fairest, Volume 2: The Hidden Kingdom, by Bill Willingham etc.
49. The Bloody Crown of Conan, by Robert E. Howard
50. Swords Against Death, by Fritz Leiber
51. Lyonesse, by Jack Vance
52. Look at the Harlequins!, by Vladimir Nabakov
53. Invitation to a Beheading, by Vladimir Nabakov
54. Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabakov
55. The Western Lit Survival Kit, by Sandra Newman
56. The Fifty Year Sword, by Mark Z. Danielewski
57. The Novel: A Biography, by Michael Schmidt
58. Hamilton: The Revolution, by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
59. In the Heart of the Country, by JM Coetzee
60. The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse, by Brian Buccelleto et al.
61. The Flash, Volume 5: History Lessons, by Brian Buccelleto et al.
62. The Everlasting Man, by GK Chesterton
63. Francois Rabelais: A Study, by Donald Frame
64. The Steam Man, by Joe Lansdale et al
65. Rabelais and His World, by Mikhail Bakhtin
66. The Judge of Ages, by John C. Wright
67. Batman: Earth One, by Gary Frank etc
68. Declare, by Tim Powers
69. Batman: Earth One Volume Two, by Geoff Johns etc
70. Cymbeline, by Bill Shakespeare
71. Measure for Measure, by Bill Shakespeare
72. Shakespeare's Last Plays, by EMW Tillyard
73. After Everyone Died, by Sean Patrick Little
74. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, and JK Rowling
75. Shakespeare, by Anthony Burgess
76. Shakespeare's Pub, by Pete Brown
77. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
78. The Glittering World, by Robert Levy
79. Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill
80. The Virgin of the Seven Daggers, by Vernon Lee
81. Vathek, by William Beckford
82. Saga: Volume 4, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples
83. Saga: Volume 5, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples
84. Giant Days: Prequel, by John Allison
85. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, by JRR Tolkien
86. The Rise of Ransom City, by Felix Gilman
87. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
88. A Betrayal in Winter, by Daniel Abraham
89. An Autumn War, by Daniel Abraham
90. The Atlantis Blueprint, by Rand Flem-Ath and Colin Wilson
91. Saga: Volume Six, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples

92. Paper Girls: Volume Two, by Brian K Vaughn

93. Expecting to Fly, by John Allison

94. Giant Days: Volume 2, by John Allison

95. Hawkeye: Volume 4, by Matt Fraction

96. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
97. South of the Border, West of the Sun, by Haruki Murakami

All the Things I've Learned After a Year of Marriage

So I've been married for, like, a year. Impressed? You should be.

But there are things you learn about marriage after you get married. You can't learn everything beforehand. Not even with Marriage Counseling. So here are some of the things I've learned.

You Have to Make Sacrifices

I did know this beforehand, and I even knew that the squirrel I ritually slaughtered on the stone table was not going to be ENOUGH of a sacrifice. What I didn't realize was that I would have to give up my quest for immortality and immeasurable wealth. Maybe I should have. What wife wants to live in an apartment filled with beakers, boiling test tubes, the smell of sulphurous fumes, inhuman wailing, and occasional tesseracts and portals to other dimensions? Not my wife, it turns out.

It's okay, though. Watching Netflix of an evening is nearly as fulfilling as discovering the mysteries of the universe.

I DON'T mean "Netflix and chill," though, because...

When You Get Married You Stop Having Sex

If you're an old-fashioned, out-of-date, religious fuddy-duddy, you don't have sex BEFORE marriage, either. Basically nobody religious ever has sex.

You need that purification though, because...

The Beings of Light are Jerks

Everyone knows that a large part of Marriage Counseling involves preparation to meet the non-physical entities that only married people are able to meet. But did you know that they are gigantic jerks? They don't clean, the drink all your beer, they leave giant clots of pulsing hair in the drain of your shower. They ate our dog. We don't really talk to them at all, anymore.

It's okay though, because of the last thing I've learned about being married...

Married People are Better Than All Other People

When you're married, your DNA actually changes at a substructural level, and it becomes BETTER DNA. So, like, I'm not even bragging when I say, married people are just inherently better than the rest of you. Sorry. But it's true.

Book List 2015

1. The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies, by Monte Cook
2. Revival, by Stephen King
3. Arkham Asylum, by Grant Morrison
4. The Fingerprints of the Gods, by Graham Hancock
5. The Dark Side of Camelot, by Seymour Hersh
6. A Short History of Scotland, by Andrew Lang
7. Twelfth Night, by Bill Shakespeare
8. The Shaving of Shagpat, by George Meredith
9. Fugitives of Chaos, by John C. Wright
10. Trigger Warning, by Neil Gaiman
11. Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett
12. Inherent Vice, by Thomas Pynchon
13. The Wonderful Edison Time Machine, by Malcolm Willits
14. The Screenwriter's Workbook, by Syd Field
15. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by JK Rowling
16. Bleeding Edge, by Thomas Pynchon
17. Titans of Chaos, by John C. Wright
18. Home Fires, by Gene Wolfe
19. Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, by Martin Luther
20. Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
21. Old Peninsula Days, by HR Holand
22. The Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver Goldsmith
23. The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens
24. The War Lovers, by Evan Thomas
25. Only Yesterday, by Frederick Allen
26. The Hacker Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling
27. A Celtic Miscellany, ed./translated by Kenneth Jackson
28. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
29. Isis and Osiris, by Jonathan Cott
30. Griftopia, by Matt Taibi
31. The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
32. The Truth, by Terry Pratchett
33. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by JK Rowling
34. The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson
35. Roderick Random, by Tobias Smollet
36. Housekeeping, by Marilynn Robinson
37. The Flash, Vol. 1 by Brian Buccelleto et al.
38. Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid and Alex Ross
39. The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler
40. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner
41. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, by Edward Albee
42. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by JK Rowling
43. The Beauty Queen of Leenane, by Martin McDonagh
44. A Skull in Connemara, by Martin McDonagh
45. The Lonesome West, by Martin McDonagh
46. The Playboy of the Western World, by John Synge
47. The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell
48. The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers
49. Soldier of Sidon, by Gene Wolfe
50. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
51. The Death of Socrates (Euthyphro/Apology/Crito/Phaedo), by Plato
52. Gargantua and Pantagruel (vol.s 1-5), by Francois Rabelais
53. Sandman: Overture, by Neil Gaiman et al.
54. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling
55. A Betrayal in Summer, by Daniel Abraham
56. Shadow Puppets, by Orson Scott Card
57. A City in Winter, by Mark Helprin
58. The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick
59. Religion on Trial, by Craig Parton
60. All Men of Genius, by Lev AC Rosen [partial]
61. Antony and Cleopatra, by Bill Shakespeare
62. Ha'penny, by Jo Walton
63. The Merry Wives of Windsor, by Bill Shakespeare
64. Shakespeare's Imagery, by Caroline Spurgeon
65. Rabelais: A Study in Comic Courage, by Thomas Greene
66. Domnei, by James Branch Cabell
67. Northlanders, Volume 1: Sven the Returned, by Brian Wood et. al.
68. Northlanders, Volume 2: The Cross and the Hammer, by Brian Wood et. al.
69. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
70. The Land Across, by Gene Wolfe
71. I Am A Cat, by Natsume Soseki
72. The Flash: Vol. 2,  by Brian Buccelleto et al.
73. At the Back of the North Wind, by George MacDonald
74. The Art of Asking, by Amanda Palmer
75. The Cream of the Jest, by James Branch Cabell
76. The Golem's Eye, by Jonathan Stroud
77. A Hat Full of Sky, by Terry Pratchett
78. The Hermetic Millenia, by John C. Wright
79. Multireal, by David Louis Edelman
80. Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin
81. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
82. Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville
83. Finch, by Jeff VanderMeer
84. Bad Machinery, Volume 1: The Case of the Team Spirit

How To Succeed at NaNo Without Really Trying

I've decided to resurrect my mostly-dead blog to celebrate the very imminent beginning of my tenth foray into National Novel Writing Month. Let's think about how old I am for a moment: I have been doing this for a decade. Man I feel old.

In celebration, and to promote the illusion that with age automatically comes wisdom, I would like to offer my NaNo secret, because I HAVE managed to write at least 50,000 words every time so far. I did a post on this last year, but this year I think I have managed to boil down my top seven points into just 20 words, or two principles.

PRINCIPLE ONE: If it helps you produce words, DO IT.

PRINCIPLE TWO: If it DOES NOT HELP you produce words, DO NOT DO IT.

All of last year's seven tips are basically sub-iterations of these two principles. These might seem laughably self-evident. Maybe they are. But I am consistently surprised at how many people don't seem to think this way. And, whether they know it consciously or not, it is the only way people succeed at NaNo.

If it helps you to be in competition with someone, to brag about how many words you've written in a day, or to tell people what your story is about, THEN DO SO. If telling people these things makes you feel like you're setting yourself up for failure--well, preferably think more positively about yourself because YOU CAN SO DO IT, but look at the outcome: if sharing your word count or comparing yourself with others is stopping you from writing, STOP SHARING IMMEDIATELY.

If going to public NaNo events, posting on the forums, or otherwise getting together with groups of people helps you produce words, DO THESE THINGS. If (like me) scrolling through the forums makes you feel overwhelmed with the amount of things you could say, if public NaNo events make you feel shy and block your inspiration, CEASE THESE THINGS IMMEDIATELY. Writers are shy people and muses can be skittish. The NaNo community is, by and large, awesome, but if you're like me and mostly can't stand people looking at you when you're writing, then events designed to help you are actually hindering you and no one planning them wants that.

I could come up with more examples, but I think the gentle reader probably has the idea. This can also be a litmus test for whether you should do NaNo at all: does a deadline just bottle up your muse? Well, IF you want to work professionally in a creative field you'll have to get over that eventually, but maybe at this point it's more helpful to just set a daily or a weekly writing goal--500 words a day or 5 hours every week--and let others keep their insane month-long deadlines.

Okay. Now to go buy bulk coffee.