A few weeks late and a few dozen dollars short, but…here’s my favorite 10 books of 2015. These are my favorite books that I read for the first time in 2015, as I don’t think any of these were actually released in 2015 besides Trigger Warning. And a last caveat—really the first like 7 of these are all pretty equal, and it was really hard ranking them, so much so that I ultimately half ranked them based on which ones I wanted to read again the soonest, and half of how “good” they were…which made for some odd ranking choices, but oh well.
Top Ten of 2015 – Books
- Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. I really had a blast with this one. It’s not the best book I read, but immediately after finishing it I really wanted to read it again simply because it was so much fun. I cannot wait for the film by Spielberg, who is quite possible the best director alive (I mean, it’s hard to choose when you have people like Scorsese, Fincher, Nolan, etc., but he’s definitely up there). And, ultimately, I can’t wait to read this book again the most.
- Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. I wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I did, but it was really great. I loved how it was a “literary”, if you will, post-apocalyptic story, as really the writing was just beautiful.
- Voodoo Heart, by Scott Snyder. I went on a bit of a Scott Snyder craze, as you’ll see with my top Graphic Novels of 2015, but man can this guy write. I was really excited to read his only prose book, and it didn’t disappoint. Each story was incredibly fascinating, and I was really impressed by all of his main characters, none of whom I really particularly liked, but all of whom I just loved reading about.
- Trigger Warning, by Neil Gaiman. So I also went on a bit of a Gaiman craze this year, reading almost all of his prose books that I hadn’t read before (if not all of them…mostly his short story collections, which were all great but I enjoyed this one the most, so it gets a spot on this list). Gaiman really is in all probability the best writer working today, whether it be comics or prose. I loved every story here. I also loved the diversity here, with poems and other formats. I’d also just like to mention that I re-read American Gods and, if I counted books that I re-read, this would be #1 on this list, as that book is just amazing (though actually not my favorite Gaiman book, just solidifying how great of a writer he is).
- The Martian, by Andy Weir. Similar to Ready Player One, this book was just so much fun to read. And what I loved was how much hard science there was, but I didn’t mind it at all—if anything, it only enhanced the story, whereas often so many scientific details can just bog down a story and make it less enjoyable. I enjoyed the book so much it made the movie one of my most anticipated films.
- The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains, by Neil Gaiman. Another Gaiman book on the list, and not the last. I’m not sure whether to consider this a graphic novel or prose—I guess it’s closer to a graphic novel, but I decided to just put it on this list (and, to make up for it, I put a tie as #10, so there’s still 10 completely-prose books on this list). A very short book—and Goodreads tells me this is the shortest book I read in 2015—but really great. I really want to get the audio version, as I’ve heard that’s great as well, but the art was fantastic, and just enhanced the story so much—Gaiman’s great at that collaboration.
- The Enchanted, by Rene Denefeld. This should probably be higher on the list except I don’t need to read it again right away, and that’s how I ultimately decided to rank these (though even that’s not accurate, because I want to re-read the #9 book more, I want to re-read my #2 less than #3-6…yeah, I’m not really sure how I ultimately ranked these to be honest, as I loved them all, but I did my best). Anyway, similarly to Station Eleven, I love the way it was written, as well as all the subtle fantastical hints to it. I found out about this book through Erin Morgenstern’s blog (the author of one of my all-time favorite books, The Night Circus), and it didn’t disappoint.
- Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk. Really good book, though I just can’t help but think how much better it would have been if I had read it before watching the movie. Still, by far my favorite Palahniuk book so far.
- Vicious, by V.E. Schwab. Probably the lowest book on this list in just terms of how it’s written, but I was so invested in the story and characters that I really loved it.
- Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett; and Mort, by Terry Pratchett. Both of these were just really fun reads, and my first exposure to Pratchett. I’ve since read Reaper Man, and I look forward to reading more Discworld novels.
Next up: Top Ten Graphic Novels, after which I hope to start updating this blog more regularly…
A. Page in the Stacks 