These are books I technically finished in 2019 insofar as I read every word on the page. But what is “reading a book?” In grad school I learned to “break” a book: that is, not to read it but to systematically break it down into introductions, conclusions, chapters, headings, main points, thesis statements, and themes. Is that really reading or is it some kind of brute force data extraction?
So I have a long list of nonfiction books in my “reading” category but some part of me feels I haven’t “finished” reading them. I’m still breaking them. Or maybe I go break a piece off now and then when I need some data.
Fiction doens’t really work like that though—not for me. So the fiction list here is longer.
In part, it is so long becuase over the summer I accomplished my goal of reading the entire Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Except for a one novella I couldn’t find in the library and a couple of short stories, I finished every book. The whole series is dying for a breezy TV adaptation.
Nonfiction
- The Storm Before the Storm – Mike Duncan
- Breakfast at the Victory – James P. Carse
Fiction
- A Closed and Common Orbit – Becky Chambers
- Annihilation – Jeff Vandermeer
- Borne – Jeff Vandermeer
- The Bayern Agenda – Dan Moren
- Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Cryoburn – Lois McMaster Bujold
- The Flowers of Vashnoi – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Diplomatic Immunity – Lois McMaster Bujold
- A Civil Campaign – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Komarr – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Memory – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Mirror Dance – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Brothers in Arms – Lois McMaster Bujold
- The Borders of Infinity – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Labyrinth – Lois McMaster Bujold
- The Mountains of Mourning – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Ethan of Athos – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Cetaganda – Lois McMaster Bujold
- The Vor Game – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Barrayar – Lois McMaster Bujold
- Shards of Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold
- Persepolis Rising – James S.A. Corey
- Tiamat’s Wrath – James S.A. Corey
- Master and Commander – Patrick O’Brian
- Ordination – Daniel M. Ford