October 1, 2014: Your readerly recommendations!

Unlike last year’s anemic tally (a mere 65 books read) this year has been a very good one for reading.  I’ve surpassed my goal of 120, finishing up my 140th book last night.  I don’t know how busy prep will keep me once I hit Toronto, but I think I can easily hit the 150 book mark by year’s end.

Yes, I do read a lot, but I’ve got A LOT to read.

Every week, I hit my two favorite bookshops:

The Book Warehouse (http://www.bookwarehouse.ca) where I’m now on a first name basis with the gang and regularly go in to chat,  praise, and critique my recent reads.  Unlike megastore Chapters, the staff here have ACTUALLY READ their Staff Picks, offering up a wonderful range of recommendations.

White Dwarf Books (http://www.deadwrite.com/wd.html) for all of my genre needs (SF, Fantasy, horror, and crime).  While I browse, Akemi spends quality time with the owners’ loveable basset hound (who we ended up dog sitting not too long ago).

I rarely ever leave either place empty-handed.  As a result, THIS, is my burgeoning To-Read pile:

It’s like an ever-growing batch of kombucha, expanding from that original literary mother culture (which, if memory serves me right, is Clive Barker’s Weaveworld). And these are merely the books I have on deck, to be read sooner than later.  My downstairs library holds three times as many titles waiting to be called up to the majors.

As much as I prefer real books, I realize that digital is the way to go for the duration of my  Toronto stay.  Rather than lug around a suitcase of books, I can just download the titles onto my laptop or handy reader.

As a result of Amazon’s continuing war with publisher Hachette, I’ve decided to retire my kindle and purchase all future digital titles via iTunes and Barnes & Noble. Yes, the dispute is a complicated one and it’s not as simple as picking a side – but, in my case, I am because Amazon is the party that is inconveniencing me by making it difficult (if not impossible) to purchase the titles I want to purchase.

Anyway, I’m putting together a Toronto Reading Library and am looking for recommendations.  Here’s a list of some of the books that have been recommended to me so far:

Flash Boys – Michael Lewis

Sous Chef – Michael Gibney

Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by

Love, Nina – Nina Stibble

Black Moon – Kenneth Calhoun

The Slow Regard of Silent Things – Patrick Rothfuss

Complicit – Stephanie Keuhn

The Enchanted – Rene Denfeld

The End of Eve – Ariel Gore

Little Failure – Gary Shtenygart

War Dogs – Greg Bear

The Martian – Andy Weir

Shotgun Lovesongs – Nickolas Butler

Ancillary Sword – Anne Leckie

Silence Once Begun – Jesse Ball

The Paying Guests – Sarah Waters

An Untamed State – Roxane Gray

Winter People – Jennifer McMahon

The Word Exchange – Alena Graedon

J – Howard Jacobson

Season to Taste – Natalie Young

The Lemon Grove – Helen Walsh

The Farm – Tom Rob Smith

Elizabeth is Missing – Emma Healey

The Paying Guests – Sarah Waters

The Bone Clocks – David Mitchell

Letters of Note – Shaun Usher

Wave – Sonali Deraniyagala

The Examined Life – Stephen Grosz

Big Brother – Lionel Shriver

The Reason I Jump – Naoki Higashida

The Silent Wife – A.S.A. Harrison

Kiss Me First – Lottie Moggach

Any of you read any of the above guest and care to weigh in with your thoughts?

Or have a book to recommend me?  Preferably, no: steampunk, alternate wold, magic-themed, magical creatures, vampires, werewolves, zombies, romance, tie-ins, or instalments in an ongoing series.

Tagged: Amazon, Hachette, kindle