One of the down sides of The Job That Spoiled was the effect it had on my reading habits: basically, they went to crap. So, knowing I was going to escape, I set myself a target at the start of the year: 2 books a month, 24 in total.
Halfway through the year, I’m ahead of my schedule: 16 completed. Here’s what I’ve read, so far:
- The Who’s Who of British Crime in the 20th Century, Jim Morris
- Best American Mystery Stories 2011, Harlan Coben (ed)
- The Angels, Bob Yates
- The Murder of Nellie Duffy, Stephanie Bennett,
- The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Giles Milton
- I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, Sylvie Simmons
- The Life of Graham Greene Vol 1: 1904-1939, Norman Sherry
- The Broken Shore, Peter Temple
- Annihilation, Jeff Vandermeer
- The Life of Graham Greene Vol 2: 1939-1955, Norman Sherry
- Sabbath’s Theatre, Philip Roth
- Tactics of Mistake, Gordon R Dickson
- I’ll Be Gone In the Dark, Michelle McNamara
- Dorsai, Gordon R Dickson
- The Life of Graham Greene Vol 3: 1955-1991, Norman Sherry
- Mr Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O’Donoghue, Dennis Perrin
It’s a biography- and true crime-heavy list, and I’ve not real reason for that, other than that’s the way my taste seems to leaning at the moment. The best of them, so far, would be The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which is an entertaining and fascinating look at the formation of the British Secret Service during the early days of World War Two. At the bottom of the pile is Sabbath’s Theatre, which is a repugnant and pointless Mary Sue of major proportions, and The Life of Graham Greene Volume 3, which crosses the line from biography to sycophantic arse-kiss.
I’ve also hot the graphic novels hard, having ploughed through more than fifty. Let’s be honest: Karratha’s not a big town. Still, I’ve read every non-Manga GN in the library and sunk a few orders into Book Depository to boot. Here’s what I’ve read:
- Green Lanterns Vol 2: The Phantom Lantern
- Monstress Vol 1: Awakening
- Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps Vol 1: Sinestro’s Law
- Brightest Day Omnibus
- JSA: The Golden Age
- JLA: Power and Glory
- Justice League Vol 1: The Extinction Machines
- Secret Invasion
- Wolverine vs the Marvel Universe
- X-Men: The Fall of the Mutants
- X-Men Legacy: Legion
- Dark Avengers
- Daredevil: The Man Without Fear
- Avengers Vs X-Men: The New Avengers
- Invincible Iron Man: Reboot
- Planetary Vol 1
- Nightwing Vol 2: Rough Justice
- Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits
- Huntress: Crossbow at the Crossroads
- Justice League United: The Infinitus Saga
- Checkmate: A King’s Game
- Detective Comics Vol 1: Rise of the Batmen
- Wolverine/Gambit: Victims
- Batman: Through the Looking Glass
- Justice League: The Detroit Era Omnibus
- Wolverine: Mortal
- Batman & Robin: Dark Knight/White Knight
- Batman: Ego, the Deluxe Edition
- Eternals
- 4001AD: Deluxe Edition
- Wolverine: Prehistory
- Mazeworld: A Nightmarish Fantasy
- Hellboy in Mexico
- Kid Eternity Book One
- Dalton Monsterzz
- Superman: Ending Battle
- The Filth
- Batman Vol 1: The Court of Owls
- Legion of Monsters
- Batman: Arkham Unhinged
- All Star Batman
- Marvel: The End
- Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft
- Gotham Central Book Four: Corrigan
- The Uncanny Inhumans
- I, Vampire Vol 2: Rise of the Vampires
- Wolverine vs The Punisher
- Uncanny Vol 1: Season of Hungry Ghosts
- All New X-Men: The Ghosts of Cyclops
- Dead Space: Liberation
- Monstress, Vol 2: The Blood
- The Invincible Iron Man: The Future
- Winter City: Volume One
- The Boys Volume Twelve: The Bloody Doors Off
- Nightraven
No competition, here: the two volumes of Monstress, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, are not only the best GN’s I’ve read this year, they are, by some distance, the best GNs I’ve read in years. They’re also likely to be the best books I read this year, bar none. The Monstress story is a sumptuous epic, well-realised and rounded, and genuinely emotional and beautiful. Do yourself a favour. Honourable mentions to X-Men: Legion, which takes a Vertigo-style approach to one of the more problematic characters in the X-Men universe and pulls it off with elan, and Justice League: The Detroit Era, which collects a maligned era in the JLA history, and shows that it was a whole lot better than people remember. Mazeworld was a nice little conceit, as well, and worth looking up.
Worst GN so far? Locke and Key was a massive disappointment: a hoary bunch of clichés sticky-taped over by Joe Hill’s reputation. Winter City is a second-rate Batman/Spawn melange, without wit or nuance. But Dead Space: Liberation is as bad as it gets: one-dimensional characters, thuddingly stupid dialogue, and muddy artwork that looks like it was painted in the dark with one eye closed. There is, literally, nothing to recommend it.
So there we go. 6 months, a tonne of reading. What have you sucked up with your eyeballs so far this year? What’s your favourite read? What should be avoided?
