2022 reading list

Once again, I return to this blog to share my reads for 2022—all the books I finished last year. Without further ado, the list, roughly in order:

• Senlin Ascends, Josiah Bancroft
• Circe, Madeleine Miller
• Sidewinders, Robert V.S. Redick
• Father of Dragons, L.B. Graham
• Utopia of Usurers, G.K. Chesterton
• All My Holy Mountain, L.B. Graham
• Muse of Nightmares, Laini Taylor
• On the Sharp Edge of North, Walfried Jansen
• Children of Earth and Sky, Guy Gavriel Kay
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor
• Sherwood, Jane Yolen (editor)
• Poetic Diction, Owen Barfield
• Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
• The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Patrick Rothfuss (reread)
• The Court of the Air, Stephen Hunt
• The Story of Kullervo, J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Verlyn Flieger)
• Hrolf Kraki’s Saga, Poul Anderson
• The Ruling Sea, Robert V.S. Redick
• The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated, John Henry Newman
• The Bone Ships, R.J. Barker
• Bones of Faerie, Janni Lee Simner
• Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire
• The Last Light of the Sun, Guy Gavriel Kay
• The New Jerusalem, G.K. Chesterton
• The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss (reread)
• The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss (reread)
• Thoughts, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
• The Kingless Crown, Sarah M. Cradit
• The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn, Tyler Whitesides
• The River of Shadows, Robert V.S. Redick
• The Waste Land and other poems, T.S. Eliot
• Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein
• A Short History of England, G.K. Chesterton
• The Club of Queer Trades, G.K. Chesterton (reread)
• All the Seas of the World, Guy Gavriel Kay
• The Napoleon of Notting Hill, G.K. Chesterton (reread)
• The Man Who was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton (reread)
• On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, Andrew Peterson (reread)
• The Language of Creation, Mathieu Pageau
• Keys to the Kingdom, Garth Nix (reread)
• Alarms and Discursions, G.K. Chesterton (reread)
• Li Po and Tu Fu, Arthur Cooper (translator)
• Soul of the World, David Mealing
• Tae Te Ching, Lao Tzu, translated by Victor H. Mair
• Meditations, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, translated by J. Boulton and David Widger
• Spiritual Sayings, Kahlil Gibran
• What I Saw in America, G.K. Chesterton
• The Night of the Swarm, Robert V.S. Redick
• All Things Considered, G.K. Chesterton (reread)

As per usual, I append a few observations. Upon review, I noticed that there are quite a few rereads in last year’s list. I feel vaguely disappointed by this; while I feel the force of C.S. Lewis’ comment that no one enjoys a book and only reads it once, nevertheless I am sometimes plagued by the feeling that there are just so many more good reads out there, and that I can’t waste any time on rereading. I suppose a balance is needed, as it is in most things. We shall see what 2023 brings.

I won’t belabour this post with mini-reviews; it’s already late enough. Here, then, is a list of standout reads, for one reason or another:

• I started the year with a bang; the first three books of the year were all new books, and all fantastic.
• Robert V.S. Redick became a staple during 2022; everything I’ve read by him, I recommend. Well written, complex, dramatic high fantasy.
• Likewise, I will always recommend Patrick Rothfuss. Much needed rereads.
• Once again, a lot of G.K. Chesterton. Don’t expect this to change.
• In fact, probably my favourite book of the year was Chesterton’s The Napoleon of Notting Hill. I’d read it before, loved it, and wondered if it would hold up. It did. Wow. Possibly my favourite novel, bar none.
• That seems a crazy thing to say when I read Les Miserables this year. Also a phenomenal read. I understand how it can be called the best novel ever. Just unbelievable, powerful, emotional, dramatic, human, a pleasure to read.
• Poul Anderson’s Hrolf Kraki’s Saga was excellent. This seems to be a thing of Anderson’s—a retelling of a Nordic saga. So, a great starting point—and well executed. The prose fits the subject matter—I often found myself underlining novel words and great turns of phrase.
• Guy Gavriel Kay never disappoints. He is another of the few authors I will read without hesitation or concern for quality.
• Finally, a quick list of other memorable reads (some of whom may eventually show up in reviews on this site): Laini Taylor, R.J. Barker, Tyler Whitesides, Mathieu Pageau, Garth Nix, David Mealing.

Thank you all for reading; here’s to a bookfull 2023!

2020 reading list

As I have before, I once again present my reading list for 2020. I first list the books I read (in roughly chronological order), and then make a few observations and comments.

• The Ruin of Kings — Jenn Lyons
• The Sharded Boy — L. Darby Gibbs
• The Man Who was Orthodox — G.K. Chesterton
• Cards of Grief — Jane Yolen
• Frey — Melissa Wright
• Liberal Fascism — Jonah Goldberg
• Faerie Fruit — Charlotte E. English
• New Spring — Robert Jordan
• Tenured Radicals — Roger Kimball
• A God in Chains — Matthew Hughes
• Song of Blood and Stone — L. Penelope
• Sister Emily’s Lightship — Jane Yolen
• The Road — Cormac McCarthy
• Avowals and Denials — G.K. Chesterton
• The Laughing Prophet — Emile Cammaerts
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight — J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Palace of Lost Memories — C.J. Archer
• Bringer of Storms — L.B. Graham [reread]
• Fire and Sword — Dylan Doose
• The Sounds of Poetry — Robert Pinsky [reread?]
• A Wind in the Door — Madeleine L’Engle
• The Saint’s Rise — Michael Grist
• The Four Gospels from a Lawyer’s Standpoint — Edmund Hatch Bennett
• Collected Works Vol. X: Collected Poetry Part 2 — G.K. Chesterton
• The Strongman and the Mermaid — Kathleen Shoop
• The Jews — Hilaire Belloc
• The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun — J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Verlyn Flieger
• Good Day! — Paul J. Batura
• Beyond This Dark House — Guy Gavriel Kay
• St. Thomas Aquinas — G.K. Chesterton [reread]
• The Black Earth trilogy — M.S. Verish
• The Club of Queer Trades — G.K. Chesterton
• Tales from the Perilous Realm — J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Man Who Knew Too Much — G.K. Chesterton
• A Swiftly Tilting Planet — Madeleine L’Engle
• Collected Works Vol. X: Collected Poetry Part 3 — G.K. Chesterton
• To Kill a Fae — Jamie A. Waters
• Shadow in the Deep — L.B. Graham [reread]
• The Guns of Ivrea — Clifford Beal
• The Father Brown Stories — G.K. Chesterton
• Many Waters — Madeleine L’Engle
• An Acceptable Time — Madeleine L’Engle
• The Darker Road — L.B. Graham
• The Spice of Life — G.K. Chesterton
• Haiku Harvest — Peter Beilenson, editor/translator
• Poetry as Liturgy — Margo Swiss, editor

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Now for some comments. I came just short of my low-key goal of 50 books. To be perfectly honest, this is due in large part to my increased amount of video-game consumption. I hope to get more good reading in this year, though.

Once again, and to no surprise, G.K. Chesterton tops my most-read authors list. This, I warn the reader, will likely continue for years to come. I intend to read all of GKC’s works by the time I die, and it might take that long. But more than that, he and his writing are always refreshing and encouraging to me; I sometimes find myself feeling down or disturbed, and realize I haven’t read any Chesterton in a while. And there’s always more GKC to read.

I was about to link to my post on Chesterton, when I realized I don’t have one yet. Shameful. I’ll get one up this year—call it a resolution.

As in the past few years, fantasy has been the most-read genre on my list. I do not mind this either. A number of these fantasy works have been rather obscure, one might say; this is due partly to my use of BookBub, which provides me with lists of discounted ebooks, and my possession of a Kobo e-reader. As an aside, I have thoughts on e-readers; I’ll have to make a post about that at some point as well.

Anyways, another significant part of my reading this year has been poetry. The larger part of this has been G.K. Chesterton again; the two volumes of collected poetry are hefty tomes. But some of the Tolkien, the Kay, and of course the last two entries on the list are also poetry. Plus there was Pinsky’s The Sounds of Poetry, which I may have previously read and forgotten, but which this time round was immensely helpful.

Another minor trend in my reading has been some non-fiction. In terms of books, particularly at the start of the year, but all throughout the year I have of course been reading academic articles for school and thesis research. I used to read almost exclusively non-fiction as a boy; last year I enjoyed the books I read, and hope to read more non-fiction this year.

Perhaps because of my increased rate of poetry consumption, I have suddenly started writing poetry this year. I’ve dabbled for years, but this year it suddenly became more serious, as it were. Since writing is rather the inverse of reading, I will not discuss it further here (I have already, for instance here, and I intend to post more poetry in the future).

A proper favourites-of-the-year post may come in the following days, but for now, I’ll just note a few of the standouts. Chesterton’s work, of course, but especially the poems, some of which are phenomenal. The Father Brown stories are classics that I thoroughly enjoyed. Jane Yolen’s writing is generally exceptional, especially the short-story collection Sister Emily’s Lightship. Revisiting Robert Jordan’s world via New Spring was particularly enjoyable as well. Clifford Beal’s The Guns of Ivrea was swashbuckling good fun. And on the theme of reading more poetry this year, I’ve really come to love haiku, such as those in Peter Beilenson’s edited volumes. Reading some new Tolkien was a delight, as well.

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Well, that’s a random bunch of comments. But it was fun to revisit in memory this year’s reading. If you’ve made it this far, thank you! And all best wishes for a happy and reading-filled new year!