Book List 2009

Time once again for the annual “What I Read This Year” list, in the order I read them and broken down by type. The number of books in all categories went up from last year. Nearly two books per month (non-fiction and fiction) and well over one collected edition per week. Some clunkers on every list, but overall, a lot of good stuff packed in this year!

Non-Fiction

1. Belushi: A Biography - Judith Belushi Pisano and Tanner Colby (Excellent read. Reminded me of Live From New York.)
2. Marvel Chronicle: A Year by Year History - Tom DeFalco, Peter Sanderson, and Tom Brevoort (Maybe the best Xmas gift I got last year!)
3. War as They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America in a Time of Unrest - Michael Rosenberg
4. God, Country, Notre Dame - Theodore M. Hesburgh with Jerry Reedy (Recommended by our parish priest. Good read.)
5. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk - Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
6. The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music - Steve Lopez (A very quick read. Although hard to believe, I think the movie was even more slight.)
7. I Swear I Was There - David Nolan
8. Time Bandit: Two Brothers, The Bering Sea, and One of the World’s Deadliest Jobs (audio) - Andy and Johnathan Hilstrand, with Malcolm MacPherson
9. Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain - Marty Appel
10. Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher
11. An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood - Jimmy Carter
12. We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin’ Showbiz Saga - Paul Shaffer with David Ritz (There isn't a hipper mother fucker on the planet!)
13. Vinnie Here: Fanciful Conversations Between a Pastor and His Dog - Rev. Joseph Kraker & Vinnie
14. The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio, A Memoir - John Gorman with Tom Feran (Radio Daze “lite”)
15. My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir (audio) - Carl Reiner
16. 11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944 (audio) - Stanley Weintraub
17. How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion (audio) - Daniel H. Wilson
18. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 - Simon Reynolds
    

Fiction

1. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
2. The Stranger - Albert Camus, translated by Matthew Ward
3. I Love You, Beth Cooper - Larry Doyle (Recommended all over the place as a great book. Completely underwhelmed by this thing. Don’t see it as anywhere near being a “John Hughes ’80s film in book form” as it was touted to me.)
4. The Witches - Roald Dahl
5. Boy: Tales of Childhood - Roald Dahl

Trade Paperbacks and Collected Editions

1. The New Mutants Classic, Volume 1 - Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod
2. The New Mutants Classic, Volume 2 - Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema
3. Spider-Man/Red Sonja - Mike Avon Oeming , Mel Rubi
4. The Astounding Wolf-Man, Volume 1 - Robert Kirkman, Jason Howard
5. Batman: Haunted Knight - Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (Love Loeb and Sale’s Batman work!)
6. The Transformers: All Hail Megatron - Shane McCarthy, Guido Guidi
7. Powers: The Definitive Hardcover Collection, Volume 2 - Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Avon Oeming
8. RASL - Jeff Smith
9. Air: Letters from Lost Countries - G. Willow Wilson, M.K. Perker
10. The King - Rich Koslowski
11. Ms. Marvel, Volume 1: The Best of the Best - Brian Reed
12. Ms. Marvel, Volume 2: Civil War - Brian Reed
13. Ms. Marvel, Volume 3: Operation Lightning Storm - Brian Reed
14. Mini Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors - Chris Giarrusso
15. Mini Marvels: Secret Invasion - Chris Giarrusso
16. The Demon Omnibus - Jack Kirby
17. Maxwell Strangewell - The Fillbach Brothers
18. The Walking Dead, Book One - Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn
19. The Walking Dead, Book Two - Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn
20. Y: The Last Man - The Deluxe Edition, Book One - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra
21. Wanted - Mark Millar, JG Jones, Paul Mounts (Saw the movie first. Entertained by both.)
22. The New Mutants Classic, Volume 3 - Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz
23. Fantastic Four - Visionaries: John Byrne, Volume 4 - John Byrne (Possibly the best collection of single issues ever.)
24. Classic Transformers, Volume 2 - Various
25. Fantastic Four - Visionaries: John Byrne, Volume 5 - John Byrne
26. Civil War: Heroes for Hire - Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti
27. Y: The Last Man - The Deluxe Edition, Book Two - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra
28. Daredevil Omnibus, Volume 1 - Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev (Giving the FF Visionaries Volume 4 a run for its money in the “best collection of single issues ever” category.)
29. Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimate Collection, Volume 1 - Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley
30. Civil War: X-Men - David Hine, Yanick Paquette
31. The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man - Frank Miller
32. Indiana Jones Omnibus: The Further Adventures, Volume 1 - Various
33. Young Avengers, Volume 2: Family Matters - Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung, Andrea Divito
34. Civil War: Punisher War Journal - Matt Fraction, Ariel Olivetti, Mike Deodatto
35. Civil War: Iron Man - Various
36. Storm - Eric Jerome Dickey, David Yardin, Lan Medina
37. Black Panther - Reginald Hudlin, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Dean White
38. Spider-Woman: Origin - Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Reed, Luna Brothers
39. MySpace Dark Horse Presents - Various
40. Super Human Resources - Ken Marcus, Justin Bleep
41. Wolverine: Logan - Brian K. Vaughan, Eduardo Risso
42. Daredevil: Battlin’ Jack Murdock - Zeb Wells, Carmine Di Giandomenico
43. The Nobody - Jeff Lemire (Absolutely lived up to its billing. Fantastic story.)
44. Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man - J. Michael Straczynski, Ron Garney
45. House of M: Avengers - Christos Gage, Mike Perkins
46. Spider-Man vs. the Black Cat - Various
47. Annihilation Classic - Various
48. Annihilation: Conquest, Book One - Various
49. Nova, Volume 1: Annihilation Conquest - Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
50. Nova, Volume 2: Knowhere - Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
51. Annihilation: Conquest, Book Two - Various
52. Queen & Country: Definitive Collection, Volume 1 - Greg Rucka
53. The Walking Dead, Book Three - Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn
54. Punk Rock and Trailer Parks - Derf (Fantastic story from a local guy.)
55. Whiteout - Greg Rucka, Steve Lieber (Not nearly as strong as his Queen & Country work, but entertaining.)
56. Fantastic Four/Spider-Man Classic - Various
57. Dead @ 17: Ultimate Edition - Josh Howard
58. Daredevil: Yellow - Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (Didn’t really care for this story at all. I have Spider-Man: Blue and Hulk: Gray on my shelf, but don’t really want to read them after this.)
59. Absolute Dark Knight - Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, Lynn Varley (Stunning.)
60. Captain Britain Omnibus - Various
61. The Walking Dead, Book Four - Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn (This series is amazing. I don't find it as personally depressing as others do; I think it's just appropriately affecting storytelling.)
62. Chew, Volume 1: Taster’s Choice - John Layman, Rob Guillory
63. The Mighty Avengers: Assemble - Brian Michael Bendis, Frank Cho, Mark Bagley
64. Queen & Country: Definitive Collection, Volume 2 - Greg Rucka (Reading Queen & Country makes me want to pull out my MI-5/Spooks DVDs and rewatch that series. Thrilled I got Volumes 3 and 4 for Christmas this year!)
65. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Alan Moore, Kevin O’Neill (Enjoyed this so much more than Watchmen! Great story.)
66. The Complete Essex County Hardcover - Jeff Lemire (I read all 512 pages of this amazing book over the course of 24 hours. More personal than The Nobody, it's haunting and gorgeous.)

Friends Like These...

I alluded to this on Twitter the other day, but it’s always amazing to discover how talented your friends are. Last year I got knocked back by a package from Dave.

(Coloring courtesy of my kiddo.)

This year, it was Alan. I know he’s creative, what with his producing audio theater and the like, but I had no idea he could draw as well!


But this is not to take away from my friends who I am already aware have humbling talent, like Pat...


I’m just a guy who fancies himself a writer and is a comic book fan. These friends of mine are talented artists.