Books I Read In 2023
This year, I read 40 books. You can find a list of them on my personal website.
Best books: Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson was a cynical, brutal, and entertaining crime thriller. The Night Walker by Thomas Tessier is one hell of a horror novel, though I also recommend Clemence Houseman’s The Were-Wolf for further lupine literature. Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski introduced me to the world of The Witcher with a fantastic audiobook. Best memoirs: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass from the eponymous abolitionist, and I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. Tarzan of the Apes is full-throttle adventure of the highest order. I finally read The Lillies of the Field and found it quite moving. Twenty years ago I attended middle-school in a former nun’s convent that inspired the novel. Finally, Harlan Ellison’s Strange Wine is the strongest book of his so far, there are no duds and the introductions are informative.
Weird Tales: Robert Bloch’s This Crowded Earth is an overpopulation sci-fi story that takes the express train to crazy-town. I was introduced to the bizarre world of Robert Silverburg with The World Inside, where overpopulation (again?) is accomodated by technology and social conditioning. To be honest both stories made me a tad queasy. There is a straight line from stories like these to the “Thanos did nothing wrong” mindset. I am as done with Malthusian mindsets as I am with stories about Superman turning evil (see Injustice, The Boys, Invincible, and Eternals).
This was the second year of my project to catalog the writings of Harlan Ellison. The Ellison books I read this year were: Web of the City and Spider Kiss (his two novels), Memos From Purgatory (memoir), The Glass Teat (essay collection), Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor, Vol. I (trade-paperback comic book), Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled, Paingod and Other Delusions, The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, and Strange Wine (reminder are short-story collections).
2024 will be a good year for Ellison fans, with the publication of a new Best-Of Ellison collection, and the long-awaited Last Dangerous Visions.
I finished Leigh Brackett’s Eric John Stark trilogy, reading Enchantress of Venus and Black Amazon of Mars. These are good rough-and-tumble space fantasies that I will want to revisit someday. I have a copy of Book of Skaith, a series of Stark adventures Brackett wrote many years later, perhaps that will be a goal for 2024.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a good read, albeit too sentimental for my taste. I am often surprised by what moves me, or doesn’t move me. The long sickness of little Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin left me drumming my fingers; meanwhile, hearing Frederick Douglass describe his newfound freedom, and how he could now work for himself and save a little money, had me choked up.
No year is complete without some of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels. Without Fail was a DC political thriller that ends in the windswept plains of Wyoming. Reacher’s confidant Frances Neagley (apparently pronounced “nee-lee”) is there to help, Reacher and Neagley are one of my favorite friendships in fiction. The Secret was a Christmas gift, and is a set in the 1990s. I like seeing Reacher back in his military days. A new seson of the Amazon TV show premiered. After watching a couple episodes, I was even more impressed by Alan Richtson’s acting and physical presence. I like Tom Cruise’s Reacher movies, but Richtson has shown me that you really can eat your cake, and have it, too.
My reading plan for 2024: more Ellison books! I’d like to go into 2025 with only the really big, thick Ellison treasuries. In 2024 I’ll tackle Stalking the Nightmare, Mind Fields, Procrustean Bed, and his unproduced screenplay for I, Robot. And that’s just for starters! Beyond Ellison, I’d like to clear out my backlog of books gifted to me. This is the year, THIS IS THE YEAR, FRIENDS, that I read all the books lent, sent, gifted, and loaned to me.
On a personal note, this year was a personal best for reading. Stephen King said that if you want to write, you have to read. It may not be a coincidence that I managed to edge out of my writer’s block this year, and write a fair bit.
Hey, 2024 is a leap year, so we have even more time to read. Let’s use it!
What were some of your favorite books in 2023? Leave a comment and let me know.
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