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Dec 12, 2012

15 good books I read in 2012

A strange reading year with not enough comics or novels in it. In no particular order…

Book I couldn’t believe wasn’t more popular
Tim Kreider’s We Learn Nothing

Book that introduced me to one of my new favorite thinkers
Sarah Bakewell’s How To Live: Or A Life Of Montaigne

Book I probably pimped more than my own
Mike Monteiro’s Design Is A Job

Favorite novel I read that isn’t really a novel in any conventional sense
Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood

Books read about reading
Pierre Bayard’s How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read and Alan Jacobs’ The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

Best book about how art works
David Byrne’s How Music Works

Book I thought I would hate that I actually liked a lot
Alain de Botton’s Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion

Book I can’t believe I’m putting on this list but it was actually super helpful
Pamela Druckerman’s Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting

Book that made me laugh a lot
Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story

Book I’d never read that was adapted into a movie I’ve probably seen a dozen times
Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Best book (only book) I read this year that mentioned Tommy Wiseau’s The Room
Tom Bissell’s Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation

Best book that I should’ve spread throughout the year, but gobbled up in one chunk
Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence

See my past reading years 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

What should I read next year?

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