The Millions's Year In Reading 2013, My Year In Reading 2017

December 20, 2013 10:14 AM

The Millions has finished its Year In Reading for 2013. Sixty-eight people, including Metafilter's own Stephen Dodson, write about the books they read in 2013. Highlights include Choire Sicha, editor at The Awl, Sergio de la Pava, who wrote A Naked Singularity, and Rachel Kushner, who wrote The Flamethrowers. Full list here.
posted by Rustic Etruscan (18 comments total)

Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story was one of the greatest books I read this year. And it's polar opposite was Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings - a book so awful that I quoted sentences from it as Facebook posts to warn the world.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 10:47 AM on December 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 was my favorite book of the year.
posted by shothotbot at 10:54 AM on December 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think The Golem and the Jinni was my only new-release of this year, sadly enough. It was fine, probably not completely deserving of the immense praise it has received.
posted by Think_Long at 10:56 AM on December 20, 2013

Another huge shout-out to The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, by Teddy Wayne (also on the Millions list). I haven't felt so bad for a kid since Salinger.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 10:57 AM on December 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Right now I have about 30 favorites for the year. Not sure how to cut it down but maybe these 6 will do: Devil in the Grove, The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, The Skies Belong to Us, Dark Pools, Masters of Doom, The Fall of the King.
posted by stbalbach at 11:10 AM on December 20, 2013

Favorite book published this year: Janet Malcolm, Forty-One False Starts. Essays by the best essayist we have. She can make me care about anything. Even fine-grained art-world politics! Even sweaters!
posted by escabeche at 11:22 AM on December 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Just to point out that "the charge was to name, from all the books they read this year, the one(s) that meant the most to them, regardless of publication date." It's not yet another "best of 2013" list.
posted by languagehat at 11:48 AM on December 20, 2013

oh wow, totally missed that, and I've been glancing over these in my reader everyday for like a month.
posted by Think_Long at 11:52 AM on December 20, 2013

Just to point out that "the charge was to name, from all the books they read this year, the one(s) that meant the most to them, regardless of publication date." It's not yet another "best of 2013" list.

Thanks for pointing that out. Nothing in the FPP says that the books selected needed to be published in 2013, but you're right that that's the impression it gives. I probably should have found a better way to phrase it.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 11:57 AM on December 20, 2013

Also Metafilter's Own Choire Sicha.
posted by gingerbeer at 1:01 PM on December 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

My favourite book read this year was Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain. Satire and soap opera and high literature and low comedy all rolled into one. Plus football. It was entertainingly brilliant.
posted by Keith Talent at 1:06 PM on December 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

I keep track of all the books I read through the year, and aside from bugging friends with the list on FB on New Year's Day, I'm not bragging but because I have nowhere else to put it, I always hope someone else will talk about what they read during the year too. My personal list applies only to books I have never read, regardless of the year they are published. I re-read a lot during the year too but those don't get listed.

TBH, I am not entirely sure why I keep a list, but I think it has something to do with keeping track of authors whose books I really liked. But it could also be because I really like lists.
posted by Kitteh at 1:18 PM on December 20, 2013

My annual list: Books I've Read This Year 2013
posted by TheophileEscargot at 1:25 PM on December 20, 2013 [4 favorites]

Sweet. I would publish mine here but there's a few days yet left in 2013. I'm up to 90 for the year (a record low) but will probably get in 2 more before year is out.

I think the only thing I've read off Theophile Escargot's list is Wolf Hall. Loved it. I need to check out Bringing up the Bodies from the library!
posted by Kitteh at 1:55 PM on December 20, 2013

> Thanks for pointing that out. Nothing in the FPP says that the books selected needed to be published in 2013, but you're right that that's the impression it gives. I probably should have found a better way to phrase it.

Oh, I wasn't blaming you at all! I just noticed that people were treating the thread as an opportunity to cite their "best of the year" books, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it's nice that The Millions provides a venue for getting away from that rather trivial chronological factor and talking about whatever you've been reading and enjoying. I took the opportunity to promote a Russian author who's been dead almost a century and a half. (I'm not sure why they got into the habit of starting off each year's roundup with my contribution, but I consider it a huge honor.)
posted by languagehat at 4:50 PM on December 20, 2013

So, noone could have told me about The Interestings, really? I had to get to the end, really?
posted by nevercalm at 5:49 PM on December 20, 2013

Or I could've tag the entire thing, really?
posted by nevercalm at 5:50 PM on December 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Kitteh, have you considered Booklikes or Goodreads?
posted by Chrysostom at 9:44 PM on December 20, 2013