How has your year been? Can you believe we're here again, at the end of another year? Years are useful for keeping track of stuff, but they are pretty arbitrary. Some of my students and I came up with a radical and beautiful concept: add a month to the year. We're going to call ours Ember.
Ember is 39 days long, and there will be no school or work. The month of Ember will be 39 days long, and will be dedicated to exploring creativity and new endeavors. I plan to read a lot during Ember.
Okay, back to the real world.
It's Tuesday, and Tuesday means lists. Top Ten Tuesday is the best meme on the internet. Jump on over to The Broke and the Bookish to read more lists, or to be part of Top Ten Tuesday.
In the year of 2013, here are some authors I read for the first time....
1. Vladimir Nabokov. I read Lolita this year, and Wow, just wow. Probably one of the most brilliant and disturbing and beautiful books ever written.
2. Sherman Alexie. Okay, I'm lying. Alexie is totally not new to me. But I love him, he's funny as hell, and he lights up twitter. Also, I did read more Alexie than ever before. Author crush.
3. Bonnie Jo Campbell. Once Upon a River left me gobsmacked, so I promptly read everything else by Campbell that I could get my hands on.
4. Derf Backderf. I read a weird, disturbing, totally true graphic memoir by Backderf called My Friend Dahmer, and it was one of the best books I read this year. It was true, unsettling, very well researched, and surprising in every way.
5. George R.R. Martin. I succumbed, and I'm glad. I'm not at all a fantasy reader, yet I love the Song of Ice and Fire series.
6. Gregory Spatz. I really loved Spatz's short story collection Half as Happy, and look forward to reading more of his work. He also turns out to be a really down-to-earth altogether nice guy, and interviewing him was one of my blogging highlights this year.
7. Lionel Shriver. Her writing is edgy and dark, and makes me think.
8. Octavia Butler. I read Kindred in about a day, and plan to read more by this author.
9. Lynda Barry. I vaguely knew who Barry was, and had read some of her comics. Then I started reading about her writing classes, her research into how the brain works, and became really intrigued. Okay, I'm lying again! This is awful, Don't trust me. I have known about Barry for years. But guys, you need to read What It Is and Picture This and The Freddy Stories and 100 Demons. She is the awesome sauce.
10. John Green. Yes, now I get it. Finding Alaska. That is the good stuff.
For someone who loves to reread books over and over, I think I did pretty well. Except for the whole lying thing.
What authors did you love in 2013 that were totally new to you? Feel free to lie.
4 comments:
I've only read one by Lionel Shriver but she's definitely an author I want to read more from.
@bermudaonion-Which Shriver did you read? I read and liked Big Brother, and We Need to Talk About Kevin is on my TBR shelf....
Rainbow Rowell is my best discovery for 2013. I read all her books and am impatiently waiting for Landline to come out next summer.
@Susan Bybee-I really need to read Rainbow Rowell...I've heard so much about her books. She's going on my TBR list for 2014.
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