My Top Books of 2018
As we close out another year of reading, I find myself with a renewed appreciation and vigor for the importance and the blessing of reading.
Having devoured books at the hungry pace of 100+ a year for at least fifteen years (I didn’t start keeping track until 2002), I’ve been feeling increasingly uncomfortable and even disturbed by the fact that my reading has fallen off to less than 50 books in the last couple years. This year—a year of big personal changes in my exterior world—was a year in which I struggled with the desire to even just sit down with a book. There was so much I wanted to read, but whenever it came down to it, I had a hard time doing it. (Cue inner panic!) Thanks to a Scribd subscription, I ended up listening to lots of audio books this year, which saw me safely through (and with three more books to my name than last year’s total!).
As I now close out the year, having settled in after a big move, I ecstatically find myself returning to a “reading space” for the first time in several years. Part of this, for me, was realizing and coming to peace with the fact that I will probably never reproduce my previous decade of “information inhalation.” I’m incredibly glad to get to carry the fruits of that decade with me for the rest of my life, but I’m no longer in a place where I’m seeking that of kind of prolificacy just for the sake of prolificacy. I’m learning (in no small part due to some of the books I’ll mention later in this post) to focus on turning my reading back into a joyous pastime rather than just another thing to triumphantly check off my to-do list.
One thing I’ve done is to change up my reading routine to make it more flexible within my daily schedule, sprinkling a chapter of this book and a chapter of that book here and there, while devoting evening reading solely to whatever is completely holding my attention (William Goldman’s hilarious Adventures in the Screen Trade at the moment).
So all in all, I count this one of my best reading years, more for how it’s ending than for how it actually went. That said, despite my struggles with reading this year, I find that it was a year rich in some incredible books (mostly the non-fiction), ones that I daresay will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Following you can find my top books of 2018: 5 Fiction Books, 5 Writing Books, and 5 General Non-Fiction Books.
But, first, the stats:
Total books read: 48
Fiction to non-fiction ratio: 26:22
Male to female author ratio: 27:21
Top 5 genres: Romance (with 8 books), Fantasy (with 6), History (with 6), Writing How-To (with 6), and Self-Development (with 5).
Number of books per rating: 5 stars (4), 4 stars (18), 3 stars (18), 2 stars (8), 1 star (0).
Top 5 Fiction Books
Honestly, it wasn’t a great fiction year for me (which, you may remember, is what inspired last week’s post: The 10-Step Checklist to Writing an Above-Average Novel). I didn’t read anything that ranked higher than four stars (out of five), but the following are my favorites of the bunch, all solid and worth reading.
1. The Commodore by Patrick O’Brian—Read 12-3-18
It is hard to overestimate my adoration for Patrick O’Brian’s unique, endearing, intelligent, and humorous Aubrey/Maturin series, about the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars (brilliantly adapted into what is also one of my all-time favorite movies, Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World). The latter books (this is the seventeenth installment) don’t have quite the same sharpness as the earlier installments, but this episode is as charming as ever, although featuring one of O’Brian’s more rambling and anticlimactic plots.
2. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski—Read 7-28-18
I got a lot of enjoyment out of this series of connected short stories, set in an epic fantasy world. The protagonist is a great character, the settings well-realized, and the action interesting. It’s the same ol’, same ol’—and yet totally not. (I listened to this on audio, and the narrator was excellent.)
3. The Last Convertible by Anton Myrer—Read 3-6-18
This one isn’t as razor-sharp as Myrer’s war critique Once an Eagle (which was my #1 book in 2016), but it’s still an interesting look at both the World War II generation and the progression of life from idealistic youth to realistic middle age. It just barely avoids being soapy in places, but is always enjoyable.
4. Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton—Read 6-1-18
After taking a break from the classics for about six months this year, this was my first foray back. After all that time away, it was surprisingly comforting to be once again surrounded by the lush reliability of excellent storytelling and powerful wordcraft. This is a book well-deserving of its acclaim: a societal critique that remains pertinent and thought-provoking even today.
5. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells—Read 8-9-18
This book is rightfully a classic. Presented in hyper-realistic details, it is a gripping and chilling account. It lacks something in the way of character or, really, plot, but it’s still fantastic.
Top 5 Writing Books
In contrast to my somewhat ho-hum experience with fiction this year, my experience with non-fiction was fantastic. This is particularly true of writing-craft books—which account for all my five-star ratings this year. I’ve decided to divide the writing-craft books into their own category, so I can also share some of my non-writing favorites (see General Non-Fiction below), but, first, here is the best of the best of my reading this year.
1. Walking on Water by Madeleine L’Engle—Read 7-18-18
This book is an intuitive artist’s dream: incredibly beautiful, insightful, and inspiring. I listened to it on audio the first time around, but before I was even halfway done, I ordered a hardcover so I could re-read it and underline it liberally. I’m currently working my way through it again, bit by bit, and enjoying it even more (if that’s possible) the second time around. I’m sure this is the first of many re-readings.
2. Light the Dark edited by Joe Fassler—Read 1-1-18
Usually, I avoid anthologies. Too often, they’re uneven and random. This one, however, is an incredibly special exception. Let me explain with an anecdote: instead of highlighting passages I enjoy, I sometimes use “book dart” bookmarks. Well, by the time I finished this book, I only had about four book darts left in the tin.
There’s just so much to love in this book. We get to hear from so many great authors commenting not so much on the process of writing, but on the life of artistic pursuit, their own inspirations and influences, and their discoveries about what it means to write. The range of perspectives is vast. It’s interesting to see where they contradict each other and where, in some instances, they agree with each other almost word for word.
I was deeply inspired by this book—as evidenced by the many posts it prompted either directly or indirectly, most notably these two:
>>The Words That Changed Your Life: Discovering What Made You a Writer
>>4 (Possible) Reasons Why We Write
3. Book Girl by Sarah Clarkson—Read 10-30-18
Sarah Clarkson speaks to me. In both the books I’ve read from her (the other being Caught Up in a Story, which was my top writing book in 2016 and was partially responsible for one the posts I’m still most passionate about: 5 Reasons Writing Is Important to the World), it’s like someone has looked into my head and described my experiences with a greater emotional understanding than I had for myself.
In both instances, her books came to me at opportune moments, when my life was in flux, with me standing at a crossroads of some sort. I read this one after a significant move—and, as I mentioned earlier, after several years of struggling with the motivation to read. Her ode to words and stories and her loving lists of great books—so many of which I’ve already read—has reinvigorated the reader in me. I don’t think it’s too much to say that her first book changed my life; this one did too.
4. The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr—Read 8-9-18
Another reviewer of this book said she wanted to underline every word. I felt the same; since I was listening on audio, I promptly bought a copy, so I could do just that. Even if you’re a novelist and not a memoirist, as I am, this is a brilliant book, full of spot-on advice and one of the best and most applicable challenges to story integrity I’ve ever heard.
5. Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve by Ben Blatt—Read 6-6-18
This offers entertaining and fascinating stats that provide an insightful “behind the scenes” look at what makes great books and authors tick.
Top 5 General Non-Fiction
1. The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile—Read 4-14-18
This book provides sound basics of the Enneagram personality typing system. It helped me find my own number (3w4) and opened my eyes to areas of personal understanding and growth I hadn’t previously considered. Originally, I only gave this (and the following Enneagram book) a four-star rating. But in hindsight, I realize these books have stuck with me more strongly and provided many more life-changing insights than some of the books I initially liked more.
2. Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery by Don Richard Riso—Read 7-10-18
This book provides excellent in-depth information on the Enneagram system. There’s tons of good stuff here, although I did feel it placed too much emphasis on a descent into psychosis rather than a rise to health. However, thanks to its handy organization, I feel this book is a particularly good aid for writers creating characters, which I talked about in this post: 5 Ways to Use the Enneagram to Write Better Characters.
3. A World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester—Read 11-20-18
Insightful and entertaining at every turn. A great and thought-provoking overview of the Renaissance period.
4. 12 “Christian” Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend—Read 5-29-18
This is the perfect follow-up to the authors’ life-changing book Boundaries (which was my top non-fiction book in 2017). It offers excellent advice that busts through a lot of beliefs many of us, regardless our worldview, take for granted.
5. The Crusades by Zoe Oldenbourg—Read 4-5-18
I read this book long ago and far away when researching my medieval novel Behold the Dawn. Upon re-reading it, I found it deeply engaging and interesting in some places, while dry and too reliant on a confusing blur of names in others. Overall, it is still one of the best books I’ve ever read on the subject and entirely enjoyable in its own right.
Honorable Mention: Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe—An incredibly insightful overview of the post-World War II horrors most of us tend to overlook. Difficult to read at times, but extremely important.
My Books
And if all these goodies aren’t enough to fill your To Be Read pile this year, here’s a few more! 
