Seven Books I Loved in 2012

So since I basically only ever read books on my Kindle anymore, it’s pretty easy to look back and figure out what I read in the last year, as opposed to my previous system of devouring paperbacks and then tossing them back somewhere into the crawling chaos of disorganized horror that is my apartment. I thought I’d take advantage of that fact and let you know what stood out for me this year, in roughly the order I read them.

Kill the Dead: A Sandman Slim Novel  – I loved the first book, Sandman Slim , when it first came out, even though I’ve often jokingly referred to it as “urban fantasy for bros.” There’s just something charming and fun and energetic about these books and their tough-as-nails protagonist, and this book does a great job at expanding on the world introduced to us in the original. Kill the Dead continues to take old and familiar ideas and completely flip the table on them, in a breezy but heartfelt style that delivers both real laughs and high stakes.
Ready Player One – For an utter geek like myself who came of age in the Eighties, this book is pure, unadulterated nostalgia candy. I love the idea of kids in the future obsessively studying the pop-culture of my youth — you know, for reasons — and then having the wish-fulfillment adventure of a lifetime inside a virtual world that they can mold to their geeky little wills. Is this book any good? Heck, I don’t even know. I was too busy packing my bags and getting ready to move into it.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell — I almost hesitate to include this one, because I haven’t actually finished it yet; but that’s not because it’s bad or boring, but because a.) it’s quite long, and b.) I don’t really want it to end. Its story of the study of magic in England and its revival is easily the most detailed, immersive alternate history I’ve ever read. It has a very entertaining cast of characters and a tone that manages to both dryly amusing and yet haunting, often at the same time.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children — This one I definitey hesitated to include, because in a lot of ways, I thought it, well — wasn’t very good, despite the fact that I’d heard so many good things about it. It’s a book that very badly wants to be a Tim Burton movie, a kind of twee and obvious story that ends a little suddenly and sets itself up for a sequel a bit too eagerly . . . . I dunno, I liked it well enough to read the entire thing, but thought there wasn’t a lot to it. So why is it on a list of books I loved? Because once I read it, then I found out that all the creepy vintage pictures in it I thought were Photoshopped were actually pictures the author simply found at flea markets and swap meets, and that he had written this story around the pictures he found. And I thought that the idea of doing that was so freakin’ awesome that I was willing to forgive the end result for any flaws.
Bait Dog — I was one of the backers for the Kickstarter campaign for this book. I’d read his novella Shotgun Gravy  and absolutely loved it — I thought that its protagonist, Atlanta Burns, was a wonderfully vivid character, lovable and flawed; scared, hurt and a complete bad-ass. I really liked the revenge-against-the-bullies theme, and thought it was just the right balance of revenge fantasy and real-world consequences, including an ending that broke my heart. I really wanted to see where this went next, and Bait Dog doesn’t disappoint — Atlanta takes on even bigger bullies in a cruel and terrifying subculture, with even more at stake. Author Chuck Wendig writes a blog called TERRIBLEMINDS, which is a never-ending fountain of excellent writing advice and equally excellent profanity.
John Dies at the End — I’d heard a lot of interesting buzz about this book, which is written by David Wong, the Editor of Cracked.com – I think he might have mentioned it in his columns there once or twice. I became especially interested when I found out it was being made into a movie by Don Coscarelli, who directed Phantasm , which is the best movie ever okay okay it might not actually be the best movie ever but I love it to little bits. But anyway, John Dies at the End is about a drug called Soy Sauce that gives users “a window into another dimension.” That doesn’t really tell you what the book is like. I don’t . . . actually know how to tell you what the book is like. It’s not a novel. At least, I wouldn’t call it one. It’s a disjointed and slightly dreamlike series of events that kinda sorta add up to a story. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes childish and disgusting, it’s almost always laugh-out-loud funny. I might sound like I’m overstating my case here, but this really pushed my boundaries of what you can actually do in “a book” and still end up with something solidly entertaining.
Constellation Games  – When I read Ready Player One, I thought, “Holy crap, you mean they let people who basically live on the Internet write books now?” I hadn’t seen anything yet. With its inventive plot and hilarious dialog, this book assumes you’re already familiar with science fiction tropes, Internet culture, and the history of console games, and just grabs you by the wrist and starts running. Hat tip to musician Sam Sheets for turning me on to this one; it’s fantastic and I don’t understand why I’m not hearing about it everywhere already. I don’t know if this book is The Next Big Thing or not, but it damn well should be.

That’s it from me for 2012. See you on the flipside.