Zachariah Lewis

Last year, I surpassed my goal of twenty-four books, and read thirty-four. Fifteen of them were fiction books. Below are my favourites from them:

Honourable Mentions – These are some books that I enjoyed but either not enough to be classified as one of my favourites, or I preferred another book by the same author:

Louis L’Amour, Heller with a gun.

John Grisham, The Associate.

Stephen King, Carrie.

Stephen King, Cell.

Joe Abercrombie, Half a King.

Favourites (not in order):

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton –

This one was recommended to me by my Mum, who was addicted to this book. I don’t usually read books like this one, but I was glad that I did. The writing was brilliant, and the story was drawn out over years, and never seemed to slow at any point– and the fact that it was based in Australia gave it a fair few bonus points.

Skeleton Crew by Stephen King –

This anthology had a bunch of great short stories, showing that King can write short fiction just as well as his longer works (The Jaunt, The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut and The Monkey were some highlights) – but what made this one of my favourites of the year, was the novella, The Mist. That must be hands down one of my favourite King works, and I absolutely loved it – The Mist combines the best of King’s abilities to create something that seems to come to life.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury –

As someone who loves books as much as I do, there was something so deeply disturbing about this dystopia where they are banned and burnt. Beyond being littered with quotable lines, this book provided insights into the mind of Guy Montag as he became disillusioned with the society he was helping uphold. The way he questions every aspect of his reality – from his beliefs and job, to his marriage and purpose – provides great lessons for anyone that feels that something in the life isn’t quite right.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk –

Speaking of disillusionment, Chuck Palahniuk’s book read more life a manifesto than a story. It calls the reader to challenge everything – their careers, their values, wants, loves, everything. It’s a call to action woven into a great novel. The quotes are great, and the plot moves at a rapid pace. At times, it can be borderline uncomfortable – but that just adds to the thrill of it.

Pet Semetary by Stephen King –

I know I wasn’t going to double up on authors, but Skeleton Crew was an anthology and this one is a novel – one of the best novels I have read in a long time. If I had to rank my fiction books from 2019, this would likely rank first. The way King wields grief as a weapon to devastate in this book, while giving you enough hope to keep you holding on, shows his mastery of the craft. This book starts slow, spending nearly two thirds of it building up to the point when sh*t hits the fan – but when it does, boy, does sh*t hit the fan. At times, I swore out loud and other times I had to shut the book, not wanting to see things unfold – all of this quite publicly at my school library – and yet, I kept going back to it because of how amazingly it was. This has to be one of King’s greatest works.

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie –

I was tossing up between this one and Half a King. The truth was though, The Blade Itself was better. Following the stories of so many different characters, seeing from so many perspectives, witnessing the gritty reality of the world within the book, and seeing how all of it ties together, made this book well worth the read. This book was one of the better grim-dark books I’ve read in a while, where the darkness and brutality weren’t the drivers, but instead worked in the background to further the story – which for the most part was pushed forward by the dynamic cast of characters.

Lord of the Flies by William Goulding –

I couldn’t believe that I waited until I was 17 to read this. I’ve heard that it’s widely overrated – but I loved it (my edition had an introduction by Stephen King, which didn’t hurt either). It was a great book, and watching things fall apart as I got further in made it more of an experience than a novel (also helped by the fact that I got to read this while on an island.) The characters were all so vividly human, so the way their society and morality broke down seemed all the more realistic and it left one big question: Could I survive on a desert island? (That was a lame joke, I know.)

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That’s it. These were the books that I loved the most, and I plan on re-reading a few of them. I hope that if you pick any of them up, you enjoy them just as much.

I’m not usually one who picks what books he’s going to read in advance. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve really tried at times – making long and elaborate plans for what I’m going to read next.

But, by the time I finish the first book in the plan, I usually decide to read something else – and the plan goes forgotten.

However, I think a reading list can be valuable as a constant reference through the year – for when I am trying to decide what to read. I think it’s more flexible than a reading plan – but still gives me some of the benefits.

And so, here is the initial list of books I want to read in 2020 (not in order):

Non-fiction.

• Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley
• Indistractable by Nir Eyal
• High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard
• When Breath becomes air by Paul Kalanithi
• The Elements of Legal Style by Bryan A. Garner
• Improve your handwriting by Rosemary Sassoon and Gunnlaugur se Briem
• Tuxedo Park by Jennet Conant
• Win your case by Gerry Spence
• The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger

Fiction

• Full throttle by Joe Hill
• The Stand by Stephen King
• Ender’s game by Orson Scott Card
• Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Red seas under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
• What makes Sammy run? By Budd Schulberg
• Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

That’s twenty books in total, so even if I go off course a bit, I should still be able to finish them before the year ends.

These are the books that have been sitting on my shelves, that I feel bad for putting off reading. I should be able to get through them all this year, and will do Monthly reading posts to add books and provide updates on what I’ve read.