As I did last year, I here post a list of the books I read in 2018. I didn’t read as many books as I had hoped; I was hoping to read more than 2017, but for various reasons, mostly involving busyness, it didn’t happen. Hopefully 2019 is an even more prolific year.
The books are listed roughly in chronological order by finish date.
Deadhouse Landing — Ian C. Esslemont
The Lightning Tree [reread] — Patrick Rothfuss
Oathbringer — Brandon Sanderson
Song of Susannah — Stephen King
Gilgamesh — trans. Herbert Mason
The Ballad of the White Horse — G.K. Chesterton
The Dark Tower — Stephen King
The Lies of Locke Lamora [reread] — Scott Lynch
Sword of the Rightful King — Jane Yolen
The Ball and the Cross — G.K. Chesterton
Discourse on Method and the Meditations — René Descartes, trans. F.E. Sutcliffe
The Dark Foundations (series) [reread] — Chris Walley
Harry Potter (series) — J.K. Rowling
Manalive — G.K. Chesterton
The Flying Inn — G.K. Chesterton
El Liberalismo es Peccado (Liberalism is a Sin) — Fr. Felix Sardà y Salvany, trans. Conde B. Pallen
Weaveworld — Clive Barker
On Tour (series) [reread] — Barb Huff
White as Milk, Red as Blood —Franz Xavier von Schönwerth, trans Shelley Tanaka
The Dhammapada — trans. Juan Mascaró
Martin Buber’s Ten Rungs — Martin Buber
Magical Symbols — Frederick Goodman
The Sarantine Mosaic (series) — Guy Gavriel Kay
The Ballad of the White Horse [reread] — G.K. Chesterton
Critique of Pure Music — James O. Young
In Defense of Sanity — G.K. Chesterton
Animal Farm — George Orwell
Defiant Joy — Kevin Belmonte
Philosophy in a New Key — Susanne K. Langer
The Defendant — G.K. Chesterton
The Lord of the Rings — J.R.R. Tolkien
Children of the Nameless — Brandon Sanderson
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As before, just a few comments and reflections on the list. My reading this year was dominated by three main trends, which reflect my interests nicely—fantasy, philosophy, and Chesterton. I intend to keep up my reading in all three of these areas.
This year was the first time that I’d ever read J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. It was long overdue, I thought—I felt that I really needed to read works that had become such a cultural touchstone. And I very much enjoyed them! I was excited to read each book, more so than I’ve been for quite a while.
This year I also finished reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series (began in 2017). Weird as it was, I enjoyed it as well. Somehow, King’s massively referential collage style works.
I read Clive Barker’s Weaveworld, which has long been on my radar—ever since I read an advertisement for it in the back pages of my copy of The Lord of the Rings when I was probably eleven or twelve. I finally got to reading it after finding it at a booksale, and while it wasn’t quite what I expected, it was decent.
A bit of a sleeper hit this year was Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Sarantine Mosaic. Upon finishing it, I knew I enjoyed it (I think I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read from Kay so far), but it’s recently come back into my mind, and I’ve been thinking about it a bit more lately. I think I’m starting to appreciate it even more now, somehow. I don’t think I’ll reread it anytime soon, but I do want to read more from Kay. This year I hope to reread his Fionavar Tapestry, which I remember being very good.
One area in which I hope to read more is philosophy, especially given that I’m now officially in a university philosophy program. One difficulty I foresee is that most of the reading assigned in coursework is not books but articles, which I’m not including on my reading lists. Of course, this is a logical choice for assigned reading, but it does tend to reduce one’s free time that could be spent reading.
A second area in which I really should read more is just “old books.” C.S. Lewis once suggested that people should alternate reading old and new books, or at the least, one old book for every three new ones [from his Introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation]. I read a handful of old books this last year, but not even close to one in four (I’m sorry, Professor Lewis).
Anyway, on to a new year of more reading, fun, learning, and truth!
An Unending Suicide Note 