Top Books I Read in 2019

Last year, I had at least a few hiccups in my personal reading. I actually gave up on some books after getting a little ways into the story and realizing I just wasn't feeling it. That has very rarely happened to me over the years, but for whatever reason, 2019 was a banner year for bailing out. Often, there was a highly-anticipated book on deck, and that made the idea of setting aside my current read even more do-able.

Another thing that threw a monkey wrench into my normally smooth book-to-book flow was a lack of good things to read... and often a lack of interest in what I did have on hand. Then I might let a week or two go by without a book on the go (pretty much unheard of with me), while I either looked for my next read or awaited something in the mail.

As a result of these mis-starts, bails, and lapses, my total number of books read for the year was down considerably from 2018. I logged only 19 books read last year, as opposed to my commendable 31 the previous year.

I kicked off 2019 with Christmas gifts, two music biographies, which have become a bit of a tradition in recent years. I'm a music fan and yet I only seem to treat myself to bios of my favourite artists with Christmas gift cards. So I began the year with Heavy Duty, by guitarist K.K. Downing of heavy metal legends Judas Priest... and that was fun and informative, just what I expected. Next up was Thanks A Lot, Mr. Kibblewhite, by none other than The Who's main man at the microphone, Roger Daltrey... also an entertaining and enlightening read.

After that, things became a little more challenging. I had spent a fair bit of cash on books the previous year, and wanting to cut back on that expenditure in '19, I decided to revisit books that have been collecting dust on my shelves, plus there was the odd loaner, and of course, whenever I found a deal online, I went for it.

I re-read the first two books of The Three Body Problem trilogy by Chinese sci-fi author Cixin Liu. Those were every bit as good as the first time around (a few years back). I highly recommend this trilogy to any fans of modern - or not so modern - sci-fi; I rank these books among the best of all time. Smart and imaginative and written in an engaging style.

I also tackled some sci-fi classics, the quintessential 1984 by Mr. Orwell, and the novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell. The first one... well, we've ALL heard of it, even if we've never actually read it. 1984 is referenced in real-life and in pop culture all the time. Our modern world has come to resemble, in both big and small ways, what Orwell dreamed up in his dystopian future fiction. I didn't think I'd read 1984 before, but as I progressed through the book, bits and pieces seemed familiar to me... so maybe I had.

Who Goes There? may be a bit lesser known, though I'd heard of it for many years. It is the story upon which the vintage film gem The Thing From Another World was based, and years later was re-made as the freaky thriller The Thing (by director John Carpenter). While both cinematic treatments were great in their own separate ways, the original source has a flavour all its own. I guess you could say the movie re-make came a bit closer to what was first put to paper.

I should mention that after reading that story online, I hunted it down again in a neat hardbound collection of tales that were later adapted to the silver screen, They Came From Outer Space. I found a gently used copy online and enjoyed its sometimes quaint, sometimes eerie, versions of what would later become film classics of the genre.

Oh, and I mustn't forget to mention my acquisition of the original Dune trilogy in print. I had read these back in the 80's, and then promptly forgot about them. Not that I didn't like them... I just got really busy with life. Anyway, with these new editions, since I had read the first - and massive in size - novel not many years ago, I skipped that one and went straight to the sequels Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. All are impressive and epic in scope, world- and universe-building at its best, not to mention the unforgettable characters and author Frank Herbert's thought-provoking themes. A science-fiction masterpiece that deserves its place at the top of many Best All-Time Sci-Fi Books lists.

Then I went back to my bookshelf and dusted off my very old hardcovers of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was a book I'd bought as a young teen (or tween?) and have cherished ever since. I have read those famous stories at least a few times in my life, and since decades have passed since my last go-round, I thought it was a good time to relive those Baker Street exploits. And they are still so captivating! So much so that I went straight to the next volume on the shelf, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Also a great bunch of stories, if not quite of the calibre of the Adventures collection.

I sprinkled a few more biographies into the mix as the year wore on: Tarzan - My Father, written by Johnny Weismuller Jr, son of the famed Olympic swimmer and Hollywood Tarzan actor; Grumpy Old Rock Star by Rick Wakeman of progressive rock band Yes; and Van Halen Rising, by Greg Renoff, a very fun account of the early years of the rock superstars. The Tarzan book was okay but lacked colour in its rather truncated and factual form. The Wakeman bio was terrific, both for its author's hilarious real-life stories and storytelling manner, and for the unexpected autograph inside the front cover! And it goes without saying that the Van Halen bio was excellent, totally living up its hype... it is considered the authoritative volume on the early history of the notorious and influential rock group.

Here and there, there was a some great fiction, like Warlight by Michael Ondaatje... an atmospheric and cryptic mystery of sorts set in the latter years of WWII. A very cool story that I'm certain I will re-read one day. I also made a point of checking out About A Boy by Nick Hornby. I had seen the funny and heartwarming film adaptation a couple of times, and based on my enjoyable reading of Hornby's other successful novel High Fidelity, I thought it only fitting that I give the book a whirl. Loved it. Hornby has a way with words and ideas, spinning them into something very real with fine character development and a witty and sometimes twisted sense of humour.

The Huntress by Kate Quinn was a pleasant surprise, a period piece mystery about Nazi war criminal hunters... but with a pair of story threads, each in its own time-line. Fascinating and thrilling, this book led me to another great Quinn book this year (2020) called the Alice Network. A writer to watch for.

Late in 2019, I wanted some quick reads to bump up my relatively abysmal book total, so I grabbed some stuff on sale at my neighbourhood Chapters/Indigo. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka was bizarre and... well, it's hard to say what I thought of it. Interesting, okay... but maybe not quite my sort of thing. But I can now say I've read Kafka. 

Years ago, I saw the movie version of The Old Man And The Sea and thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, I'd been planning to read some Hemingway one day, and so I snapped up the book for a quick zip through its at-sea fishing adventure. Pretty good, but I understand old Ernest has even better stories out there for me to try out. Eventually. 

So... that was my year in books. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention I'd gotten a start on The Texas Rangers, by Walter Prescott Webb, a massive non-fiction tome on the history of the armed forces of the Old West and beyond. I figure I'll wade through this somewhat dry account bit by bit, either in between other books, or in tandem with them. Good stuff, just not quite as satisfying as... well, anything that doesn't read so much like a text book.

And here's hoping I can improve upon my book count in this year of 2020. Read on!