favorite reads of 2015

[Julzz]

In no particular order that I gave at least a 4* in goodreads:
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
A Simple Plan - Scott Smith
The Ruins - Scott Smith
The Water Knife - Paolo Bacigalupi
The Mailman - Bentley Little
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By - John Farris
A Knight of the Seven Kingdom - George R.R. Martin
Is There A Demon In You? - Brian Keene, Mary SanGiovanni, Nate Southard, Wrath James White
Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
The Silmarillion - Tolkien

There's a few others but in the Classics and Philosophy category.

[Tommy]

The books I've read from 2015 this year.

10. Figures of Fear - Graham Masterton
9. Make Something Up:Stories You Can't Unread - Chuck Palahniuk
8. Armada - Ernest Cline
7. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams - Stephen King
6. The Unnoticeables - Robert Brockway
5. Finders Keepers - Stephen King
4. Gold Help the Child - Toni Morrison
3. Jack of Spades - Joyce Carol Oates
2. The Scarlet Gospels - Clive Barker
1. Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith

I thought The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins came out in late 2014, wrong! so my new list is:

10. Make Something Up:Stories You Can't Unread - Chuck Palahniuk
9. Armada - Ernest Cline
8. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams - Stephen King
7. The Unnoticeables - Robert Brockway
6. Finders Keepers - Stephen King
5. Gold Help the Child - Toni Morrison
4. Jack of Spades - Joyce Carol Oates
3. The Scarlet Gospels - Clive Barker
2. Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith
1. The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

[TacomaDiver]

That's awesome that you did that. I added the ISBN but didn't have access to a good image of the cover and when I found one the librarian wouldn't accept it because it came from an unapproved site.

I checked my 2015 stats and it doesn't appear to have changed the page counts though.

Regardless - thanks again for updating the cover for me!

I added a cover and set the number of pages to 9 for the story listed in Goodreads. I don't actually have this title so I can't verify that any of the other information is correct, but you can see if it adds to the number of pages read in your tracking summary.

- Brian

[thelion]

Ignoring the number of books, I did have my best year for the number of pages - 29,312 (not sure if that includes the approximately 9 pages that John Scalzi's To Sue the World story that Goodreads won't allow me to add page count and cover art to.)

I added a cover and set the number of pages to 9 for the story listed in Goodreads. I don't actually have this title so I can't verify that any of the other information is correct, but you can see if it adds to the number of pages read in your tracking summary.

- Brian

[Brian861]

I read 112 books in 2015 (according to my Goodreads tracking.)

I'm lucky to get through a book a year! LOL. I did finish Doctor Sleep (loved it) and Revival (not so much) in 2015. About 60 pages out from finishing Finders Keepers so that will be an easy 2016 stat I can't wait to dive into Bazaar but I'm sworn to read Duma Key first :-/.

[TacomaDiver]

I read 112 books in 2015 (according to my Goodreads tracking.)

The number is kind of misleading since quite a few of them were short stories (not collections, just short stories published as their own book.) Ignoring the number of books, I did have my best year for the number of pages - 29,312 (not sure if that includes the approximately 9 pages that John Scalzi's To Sue the World story that Goodreads won't allow me to add page count and cover art to.)

My top rated books were:

Bone - Jeff Smith (finally finished this series)
Strangers in Paradise - Terry Moore (another series that I never finished until 2015)
Broken Monsters - Lauren Beukes
Black Hat Jack - Joe Lansdale
Brayan's Gold - Peter V Brett
Dome City Blues - Jeff Edwards
Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation - Harlan Ellison
Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
Brody: Hope Unconquered - Erik Wecks
The Hunter from the Woods - Robert McCammon
Paradise Sky - Joe Lansdale
The Thicket - Joe Lansdale
Muse of Fire - John Scalzi

2015 introduced me to two authors that were quickly added to the must read and buy everything pile - Joe Lansdale and Robert McCammon.

I had recognized both authors because of a few publishers that I regularly buy books from (I'm sure you can all figure out who they are) but never read anything by them. Then two things happened - one, Sub Press had a Humble Bundle of books that included books by both authors and 2) a book signing that I went to in Portland, I got to talking to an author there (Gregg Edwards Townsley) and he brought to my attention that Joe Lansdale wrote the short story that one of my favorite Bruce Campbell films was based on - Bubba Ho-Tep. Somehow I never knew this, and coupled with the Sub Press Humble Bundle, I read my first Joe Lansdale work - Black Hat Jack - and I was instantly hooked.

I didn't have any specific goals in 2015, other than to read as much as I can (my commute give me about an hour each way via train for reading,) and I had the happy accident to discover quite a few new authors for my shelves.

Coupled with a number of you here, I added even more books to my shelves (Jim Thompson, William Lindsay Gresham and Michael McDowell specifically since they caused the most "damage" to my checkbook.)

[Martin]

I read fewer books in 2015 than I had hoped to. I also made sure that at least half my reads for the year were from authors I had not read before.

In no particular order here are the top reads from new (to me) authors:
'A Thousand Miles to Freedom (My Escape from North Korea)' by Eunsun Kim
'December Park' by Ronald Malfi
‘First Blood’ by David Morrell
‘The Martian’ by Andy Weir
‘Boy’s Life’ Robert McCammon
‘The Slow Regard of Silent Things’ by Patrick Rothfuss

Also in no particular order are some top reads from some old favorites:
‘Dinner with the Cannibal Sisters’ by Douglas Clegg
‘Bazaar of Bad Dreams’ by Stephen King
‘Salome’ by Mick Garris

I plan to continue seeking out new authors in 2016.

[bugen]

Here are my favorites from 2015, with a 5 or 5- for each:

The House on the Borderland - Hodgson, William Hope
It - King, Stephen
Different Seasons - King, Stephen
The Old Man and the Sea - Hemingway, Ernest
The Happy Prince and Other Tales - Wilde, Oscar
On Writing - King, Stephen
Reprisal (Adversary Cycle) - Wilson, F. Paul
The Touch (Adversary Cycle) - Wilson, F. Paul
The Club Dumas - Perez-Reverte, Arturo
Blue World - McCammon, Robert R.
The Vampire Tapestry - Charnas, Suzy McKee
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Bradbury, Ray
Voice of the Fire - Moore, Alan
The Straw Men - Marshall (Smith), Michael
A House of Pomegranates - Wilde, Oscar
First Blood - Morrell, David
The Blood of the Lamb - Monteleone, Thomas F.
Dagon - Chappell, Fred
Limbus II - Various (Talley, Brett J. (Ed.))

[c marvel]

The total number of books I read in 2015 declined drastically. I'm really unsure why. Only The Thunder Knows/East End Girls (DoubleDown book #1) would be one of two favorite reads in 2015.


Cap

[bookworm 1]

I focused on short story collections a lot this year. The Dark Screams books were super reads.
I have not finished The Bizarre of Bad Dreams yet or Trigger Warnings . Both are good but Trigger Warnings is not as good as the last couple of collections by Gaiman.
Also on my list of favorite books
Dark Net by John R. Little
December Park by Ronald Malfi

[Sock Monkey]

I didn't read as many books this year as I would have liked. My favorite books that I've read--though not published--in 2015 are:

1. The Halloween Children--Brian Freeman and Norman Prentiss (By far my favorite Halloween book of all time. So, so good)
2. The Passage--Justin Cronin

With an honorable mention to Annihilation--Jeff VanderMeer. I waffled between really, really liking it and being completely disenchanted. Over time it grew on me and I'm looking forward to reading the remaining two books in the series. I almost want to revisit this one with a better set of expectations and see how I feel.

I make it a goal to read at least 12 books each year by an author I've never read before. I didn't meet my yearly quota, but my list for 2015 includes:

Nick Hornby
Erik Williams
Ed Gorman
Michael McBride
Justin Cronin
Jeff VanderMeer
J.F. Gonzalez
William Ollie
Geoff Cooper

[Tommy]

The books I've read from 2015 this year.

10. Figures of Fear - Graham Masterton
9. Make Something Up:Stories You Can't Unread - Chuck Palahniuk
8. Armada - Ernest Cline
7. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams - Stephen King
6. The Unnoticeables - Robert Brockway
5. Finders Keepers - Stephen King
4. Gold Help the Child - Toni Morrison
3. Jack of Spades - Joyce Carol Oates
2. The Scarlet Gospels - Clive Barker
1. Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith

[TJCams]

A short list in no particular order, of books I enjoyed this year
1. Last Wish Andrzej Sapkowski
2. Tonight I Said Goodbye Michael Koryta
3. The End of All Things John Scalzi
4. Moth James Sallis
5. The Library of the Lost: In Search of Forgotten Authors Roger Dobson,Mark Valentine
6. Half a War Joe Abercrombie
7. Ataturk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey Patrick Balfour
8. The Border Robert McCammon
9. The Liar's Key Mark Lawrence
10. Dark Intelligence: Transformation Book One Neal Asher
Happy New year!

This is one on my list of wanting to read - sounds like a good one.

[mhatchett]

A short list in no particular order, of books I enjoyed this year
1. Last Wish Andrzej Sapkowski
2. Tonight I Said Goodbye Michael Koryta
3. The End of All Things John Scalzi
4. Moth James Sallis
5. The Library of the Lost: In Search of Forgotten Authors Roger Dobson,Mark Valentine
6. Half a War Joe Abercrombie
7. Ataturk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey Patrick Balfour
8. The Border Robert McCammon
9. The Liar's Key Mark Lawrence
10. Dark Intelligence: Transformation Book One Neal Asher
Happy New year!

[TJCams]

This year went by so fast (at least for me it seemed to). I think my favourite book I read this year was The Loveliest Dead by Ray Garton. Also in my top 5 would be Thunderhead - Preston & Child, King's Duma Key, Station Eleven by Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel, and then either The Witching House by Brian Moreland or the much talked about The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu.

If I had to pick least favourite (most disappointing) reads.... (and this year was a banner year for books I did not like and/or could not finish, sadly), on this list would The Scarlet Gospels - Clive Barker, and The Orenda by Joseph Boyden (which was another book I heard good things about).

Didn't come close to meeting my goals on Goodreads - so going into 2016 I don't think I will set any goals in terms of number of books. My bookshelf has so many books I haven't gotten to yet, plus with quite a few pre-orders from CD, I may scale back purchases (yah..right!). Plus there are at least half a dozen new releases for this year I still want to pick up (including Seveneves, Aurora and the 2nd and 3rd in the Mr Mercedes series, plus others).