# Top Ten books you read in 2013 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652 "2014-01-01T19:21:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652/41 "2014-01-05T16:19:39Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Both are favorites of mine, too. Glad you liked 'em. You could really tell Haldeman is a veteran just by reading his story. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2014, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652/42 "2014-01-12T06:52:58Z")
Thrown out her randomly and in no order of errr betterness? (yeah, I know not a word) The Last Apocalypse: Europe at the year 1000 AD - James Reston jr When America met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail - Eric Jay Dolin The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Northern new England Women 1650-1750 - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich I shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaimon Fortunately, the milk - Neil Gaimon Snuff - Terry Pratchett The Rook - Daniel O’Malley The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652/43 "2014-01-13T00:35:01Z")
Hard to narrow down from over 140 books total (audiobooks included) … but in no particular order: _**[The Rook](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10836728-the-rook)**_ by Daniel O’Malley - An amnesiac who slowly discovers she is a high ranking supernatural field agent. I listened to the audiobook, which was marvelous & bought my own copy. _**[An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18170143-an-astronaut-s-guide-to-life-on-earth)**_ by Chris Hadfield. A memoir & gentle self-help guide - written with humility and humour. _**[NOS4A2](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15729539-nos4a2)**_ by Joe Hill. A young woman with a supernatural skill twice crosses paths with a force of evil, who drives a Rolls Royce. _**[The Last Dragonslayer](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13316328-the-last-dragonslayer)**_ by Jasper Fforde. A young woman manages an employment agency for magicians, and inadvertently becomes the title character. Another audiobook. _**[The Day of the Triffids](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/530965.The_Day_of_the_Triffids)**_ by John Wyndham. Nearly all of humankind is struck blind by a strange meteor, and genetically engineered plants start roaming the earth. _**[Unholy Night](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12954783-unholy-night)**_ by Seth Grahame-Smith. The story of Balthazar (aka the Antioch Ghost), a thief bent on revenge who becomes the saviour of The Saviour. _**[Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13615414-gulp)**_ by Mary Roach. A light-hearted, well-researched look at various aspects of the physiological and sociological aspects of eating. _**[The Shining](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11588.The_Shining)**_ by Stephen King. A troubled writer and his family stay in an isolated, haunted hotel in the Colorado mountains. _**[Life After Life](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15790842-life-after-life)**_ by Kate Atkinson. An English woman, born in 1910, lives her life over and over from the beginning, surviving childhood maladies, accidents and more, as if she is destined for something greater. Audiobook _**[The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72223.The_Worst_Hard_Time)**_ by Timothy Egan. Self-descriptive title; heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652/44 "2014-01-13T00:52:58Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > I remember that I loved reading ‘Watership Down’ in the late '70s. Was ‘Shardik’ as good? It rather disappeared without a trace… Not IMHO - if I recall correctly, _Shardik_ got rather bizarre… _The Plague Dogs_ is more like _Watership Down_, in that the story is told from the viewpoint of the animals, but it is Heartbreaking! And **Dung Beetle** - I swear I put my list together before reading yours - I considered adding _Joyland_ and _The Golem and the Jinni_ as well. To be fair, I’ve gotten many reccos from your “Whatcha Readin’” posts 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ace331](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Ace331](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace331)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652/45 "2014-01-13T01:20:28Z")
This past year was the first year a really started reading a lot of books so my list contains a lot of older books. Finished the year with 40 books read. Tended to stick to Series/Trilogies. 1. Game of Thrones Series - George R.R. Martin 2. Divergent Trilogy - Veronica Roth 3. The Maze Runner Trilogy - James Dashner 4. Matched Trilogy - Ally Condie 5. The Goddess Test Series - Aimee Carter 6. The Giver Series - Lois Lowry 7. Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card 8. The Incarnations Of Immortality Series - Piers Anthony 9. The Relic Master Series - Catherine Fisher 10. Under the Dome - Stephen King ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652/46 "2014-01-13T15:49:30Z")
> [@Politzania](#): > > And **Dung Beetle** - I swear I put my list together before reading yours - I considered adding _Joyland_ and _The Golem and the Jinni_ as well. To be fair, I’ve gotten many reccos from your “Whatcha Readin’” posts 🙂 I’ve done well mining your posts also! ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652/47 "2014-01-13T17:24:51Z")
Listed alphabetically: **Kate Atkinson** - _Life After Life_ on several people’s choices already! **Alan Averill** - _The Beautiful Land_ quirky multiverse thriller **Iain Banks** - _The Quarry_ Iain’s final novel **Eric Brown** - _Starship Seasons_ linked sf stories **Robert Cargill** - _Dreams and Shadows_ modern day fantasy with changelings. **James S. A. Corey** - _Abaddon’s Gate_ 3rd in sf series about huge changes in the colonised Solar System **Stephen Lawhead** - _The Shadow Lamp_ 4th in fantasy time travel series **Robert Lyndon** -\* Hawk Quest\* epic Viking/Norman quest adventure across Europe and the Near East **Kim Stanley Robinson** - _Shaman_ novel about the creation of some specific prehistoric paintings **Nevil Shute** - _Ruined City_ trying to turn around a depressed city in pre-war Britain. I see someone else listed _A Town Like Alice_, which I re-read last year as well and nearly made the ‘top ten’ cut… Best of the year was probably _Shaman_, followed by _Life After Life_. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652/48 "2014-01-14T04:57:45Z")
I read 132 books in 2013, which is a little low for me. [ol] [li]Katherine Boo: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity [/li][li]Karen Armstrong: The Spiral Staircase: My Climb out of Darkness [/li][li]Matthew Goodman: Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World [/li][li]Karen Joy Fowler: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves [/li][li]Jo Walton: Among Others [/li][li]Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, & Fréderic Lemercier: The Photographer [/li][li]Gary Snyder: Passage through India: An Expanded and Illustrated Edition [/li][li]Neil Gaiman: Odd and the Frost Giants[/li][li]Khamboly Dy: A History of Democratic Kampuchea 1975-1979[/li][li]Philip Roth: The Human Stain[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Grrlbrarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrlbrarian/32/4048_2.png) [@Grrlbrarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrlbrarian)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652/49 "2014-01-16T04:46:47Z")
This was a great year for me for graphic novels, mysteries, and fantasies. Best, in no certain order: 1. Bill Willingham’s Fables series. Read 1-3 this year. Totally hooked and am on volume 6 now. 2. Taylor, Craig. Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now. Fascinating perspective from many niches of contemporary London, including from those who have chosen to leave it. 3. Roach, Mary. Gulp: Adventures in the Alimentary Canal. Fascinating nonfic that reads like fic. 4. Ballard, J.G. The Drowned World. The images in this book are still vivid i my mind, and I finished it last April 23. Haunting. 5. Colin Cotterill’s Siri Paiboun series. I read 2 & 3 this year (33 Teeth, Disco for the Departed). I have to force myself to read them slowly, one every few months, because ideally I’d like them to last forever: each one is like a visit to Laos. 6. Wooding, Chris. Retribution Falls. To whomever recommended it: yes, you’re right; it does ‘feel’ like Firefly. Wonderful sci fi. 7. Nix, Garth. Sabriel series. This fantasy series set partially in the realm of death was so inventive, I wish I hadn’t read it so I could read it for the first time all over again. 8. Cline, Ernest. Ready, Player One. Every gamer gene I possess loved the geekery and puzzles. 9. Abercrombie, Joe. The First Law trilogy. Such well-developed characters in fantasy that’s familiar - but all fresh too. 10. Everything I read by Neil Gaiman. Honorable mentions: Everything I read by John Green; Helene Wecker’s The Gollum and the Jinni; Lyndsey’s Faye’s Gods of Gotham; Simon Winchester’s Their Noble Lordships; Timothy Hallinan’s Poke Rafferty series; Richard Crompton’s The Honey Guide ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652/50 "2014-01-16T05:49:29Z")
[ol] [li]Ready Player One[/li][li]Ghost Wars[/li][li]Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs[/li][li]Nudge[/li][li]Thinking Fast and Slow[/li][li]The Things They Carried[/li][li]On the Grand Trunk Road[/li][li]Pygmy[/li][li]Ham on Rye[/li][li]Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal[/li][/ol] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-books-you-read-in-2013/677652.md?page=2)