Books of the Year 2018

As part of the end-of-year round-up, I can once again present a list of books read in 2018. Note, however, that this list is slightly provisional, as I have had to compose this post in advance, and won't have opportunity to update it for a few days. It is therefore possible that I may have to add a book, or even two, early in the New Year.

(Update: I didn't have to add anything to the list. I've been reading "Anna Karenina", which is taking a fairly long time to get through!)

Here is the list:

1. "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún", by J.R.R. Tolkien
   
2. "Pathfinder: City in the Deep", by Amber E. Scott
   
3. "On the Road", by Jack Kerouac *
   
4. "The Darkling Child", by Terry Brooks
   
5. "Pathfinder: Tower of the Drowned Dead", by Ron Lundeen
   
6. "Against a Dark Background", by Iain M. Banks
   
7. "Lolita", by Vladimir Nabokov *
   
8. "The Sorcerer's Daughter", by Terry Brooks
   
9. "Feersum Endjinn", by Iain M. Banks
   
10. "Only Dead on the Inside", by James Breakwell
    
11. "Pathfinder: Beyond the Veiled Past", by Thurston Hillman
    
12. "Ready Player One", by Ernest Cline
    
13. "The Black Elfstone", by Terry Brooks
    
14. "A Fine Balance", by Rohinton Mistry *
    
15. "Pathfinder: Crownfall", by Thurston Hillman
    
16. "Coruscant and the Core Worlds", by Craig R. Carey, Chris Doyle, Jason Fry, Paul Sudlow, John Terra, and Daniel Wallace
    
17. "Espedair Street", by Iain Banks
    
18. "Dangerous Women", edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
    
19. "William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Force Doth Awaken", by Ian Doescher
    
20. "Pathfinder: Songbird, Scion, Saboteur", by Crystal Frasier and Richard Pett
    
21. "The Hobbit", by J.R.R. Tolkien * **
    
22. "O.L.D. Fantasy Heroic Role-playing Game", by Russ Morrissey
    
23. "Walking on Glass", by Iain Banks
    
24. "The Enchanted Wood", by Enid Blyton *
    
25. "Pathfinder: The Twilight Child", by Ron Lundeen
    
26. "The Algebraist", by Iain M. Banks
    
27. "Rhyming Rings", by David Gemmell
    
28. "Norse Mythology", by Neil Gaiman
    
29. "The Magic Faraway Tree", by Enid Blyton *
    
30. "The Bridge", by Iain Banks
    
31. "The Jesus Storybook Bible", by Sally Lloyd-Jones **
    
32. "Pathfinder: City in the Lion's Eye", by Mikko Kallio
    
33. "The Folk of the Faraway Tree", by Enid Blyton *
    
34. "Canal Dreams", by Iain Banks
    
35. "Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes", by Wizards of the Coast
    
36. "Pathfinder: The Reaper's Right Hand", by John Compton
    
37. "White Knight, Black Swan", by David Gemmell
    
38. "Up the Faraway Tree", by Enid Blyton *
    
39. "Winnie the Pooh", by A.A. Milne * **
    
40. "Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game", by West End Games
    
41. "Stonemouth", by Iain Banks
    
42. "Fools and Mortals", by Bernard Cornwell
    
43. "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", by John le Carré
    
44. "Pathfinder: the Six-Legend Soul", by Amber E. Scott
    
45. "The Quarry", by Iain Banks
    
46. "The World of Peter Rabbit", by Beatrix Potter **
    
47. "The Star Wars Sourcebook", by West End Games
    
48. "Pathfinder: Secrets of Roderic's Cove", by Adam Daigle
    
49. "Midnight's Children", by Salman Rushdie *
    
50. "Complicity", by Iain Banks
    
51. "Rivers of London", by Ben Aaronovitch
    
52. "Dungeon Crawl Classics", by Goodman Games
    
53. "Pathfinder: It Came From Hollow Mountain", by Mike Shel
    
54. "Dunstan", by Conn Iggulden
    
55. "Pathfinder: Runeplague", by Richard Pett
    
56. "Whit", by Iain Banks
    
57. "Father Christmas's Fake Beard", by Terry Pratchett
    
58. "Pathfinder: Temple of the Peacock Spirit", by Jason Keeley
    
59. "A Song of Stone", by Iain Banks
    
60. "Pathfinder: The City Outside of Time", by Amanda Hamon Kunz

So that's 60 books at the time of writing, including ten books from The List. Of these, there are twenty RPG books. There are two re-reads, and four Books for Funsize (including both re-reads). I should note that I have read quite a lot of other books to Funsize, but elected early on not to include most of them - only those with both a meaningful plot and also a reasonable page count. Otherwise it would just make a mockery of the count (even that Beatrix Potter set is a bit of a stretch - since the box contains 21 books each with their own covers, by the strict rules I laid down they should be 21 individual entries).

The book of the year goes to "White Knight, Black Swan", by David Gemmell, which served as a reminder of just why he was my favourite author for so long. A shame that there shall be no more from him.

None of the books from this year were particularly disappointing, so I'll leave that dubious distinction unassigned for this year.

And that's that. For 2019, the target is once again stated as being 60 books. However, the sublists are in a state of flux this year - I only have three (books from The List, books by Iain Banks, and Pathfinders), and two of these will end early. The rest will be made up of a mix of books. We'll need to see if I can come up with some more sensible sublists for the year...