2014 Year in Review

2014 Year in Review

It's been a while since I have read so consistently, but I leaped right back into literature this spring and haven't looked back since. It's been a big year for me personally: my wife and I are finally co-habitating for the first time since our wedding last year and we've moved a couple of states over, having each landed a job in our chosen field. All of this is very exciting, but I must say that I've desperately missed reading and am absolutely elated to have come back to read 42 books in just a few months, coming only 10 short of my usual goal for a full year of reading. This year was particularly genre-heavy for me, as I notice a lot of science fiction on my list of recent conquests, but I dabbled a bit and was quite pleased with the results. I've found that short story collections, particularly those with contributions from a number of different authors, can often recede into memory, but some of the stories in Agents of Treachery have stuck with me throughout the year, to the point where I don't think I'll be able to resist buying the book much longer. Other highlights included Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, which has also left a lasting impression on me, and (in quite a different vein) Terms & Conditions, which I see shades of in less successful comedies I've encountered since reading it. And I would be remiss not to mention the excellent What If?, which was absolutely delightful from cover to cover. Revisiting my all-time favorite book, The Giver, was also an absolute delight, and I was pleased to find that my initial impressions and images remain intact despite the intervening years. There's something comforting in the act of reading, in the kind of travel that literature makes possible, and I think that I have rediscovered that magic in part due to last year's lapses. 2014 was a banner year for me, personally, and I look forward to the real-life and book-bound adventures I will have in 2015. Cheers!