BALIOC’S READING LIST, 2017 EDITION

This list counts only published books, consumed in published-book format, that I read for the first time and finished.  No rereads, nothing abandoned halfway through, no Internet detritus of any kind, etc.

1. The King’s Blood, Daniel Abraham
2. The Tyrant’s Law, Daniel Abraham
3. The Widow’s House, Daniel Abraham
4. The Spider’s War, Daniel Abraham
5. Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia, Peter Pomerantsev
6. Goodbye Columbus, Philip Roth
7. In Calabria, Peter S. Beagle
8. All the Tea in China: How To Buy, Sell, and Make Money on the Mainland, Jeremy Haft
9. Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do, Claude M. Steele
10. The Secret History of the World, Mark Booth
11. Portal of a Thousand Worlds, Dave Duncan
12. Mira’s Last Dance, Lois McMaster Bujold
13. King’s Dragon, Kate Elliott
14. Prince of Dogs, Kate Elliott
15. The Burning Stone, Kate Elliott
16. Child of Flame, Kate Elliott
17. Within the Sanctuary of Wings, Marie Brennan
18. Unsouled, Will Wight
19. Soulsmith, Will Wight
20. Blackflame, Will Wight
21. Mister B. Gone, Clive Barker
22. The Girl With All the Gifts, M. R. Carey
23. The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, Francis Fukuyama
24. Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us, Daniel Koretz
25. City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett
26. Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World, Rutger Bregman
27. The Unholy Consult, R. Scott Bakker
28. Penric’s Fox, Lois McMaster Bujold
29. The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie
30. Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right, Angela Nagle
31. The Green Count, Christian Cameron
32. The Fifth Season, N. K. Jemesin
33. The Obelisk Gate, N. K. Jemesin
34. The Stone Sky, N. K. Jemesin
35. Skysworn, Will Wight
36. The Little Drummer Girl, John le Carré
37. Soleri, Michael Johnston
38. Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, Lisa Delpit
39. Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
40. Vallista, Steven Brust
41. The Prisoner of Limnos, Lois McMaster Bujold
42. Edgedancer, Brandon Sanderson
43. Oathbringer, Brandon Sanderson
44. The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard
45. The Ruin of Angels, Max Gladstone
46. The Will to Battle, Ada Palmer
47. The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman
48. The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden

“Full-length” works consumed in 2017: 42

Works consumed in 2017 that are maybe too short to count (novellas, etc.): 6

Plausible works of improving nonfiction consumed in 2016: 11

Works consumed in 2017 written by women: 16

Works consumed in 2017 written by men: 32

Balioc’s Choice Award, fiction division: The Will to Battle

>>>> Honorable mentions: Oathbringer, The Unholy Consult

[basically it was a year of good genre-fiction series continuing to be good]

Balioc’s Choice Award, nonfiction division: The Origins of Political Order

>>>> Honorable mention: The Secret History of the World

[ultimately I have to give it to the sedulously-informative-if-kinda-boring history tract over the batshit lunatic Manifesto of Occult Syncretism, but it was close]

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This was a really shitty year for me, reading-wise, in multiple ways.  I just didn’t read enough overall, I definitely didn’t read enough serious nonfiction, and far too much of what I did read was mediocre-to-garbage.  Ah well.  That’s why we track these things: to keep ourselves honest, and to figure out what needs improving.