Recreation of a list on my no longer active hacked/dead (RIP) website.
in 2015 I finished 106 books. At nearly 2 books a week, it is by far the most I have ever read in a single year.
Although I’m recreating this list in 2023, the list itself is the same books and order that it was in 2015. So even though I would now move some stuff around (few too many popular science books I’m not sure I stand by. Also can’t imagine the Toobin written Supreme Court book has aged well.), I’m leaving as is so I can see what 8 year-ago-me thought.
Looking at the list of books I am taken back to the studio apartment I had at the time. I can remember leaving one job without a replacement, being unemployed (maybe that is the answer to how I read so much), starting a new job, adventures, lazy days, etc. The covers are a visual sense memory bringing back where I was and what I was doing throughout the year as I made my way through the titles.
Of the 106 books I finished, the below 39 were my favorite in December 2015.
Favorite Books Read In 2015
39
Life Itself by Roger Ebert
Pages: 436
Release Date: September 13, 2011
38
What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
Pages: 303
Release Date: September 2, 2014
37
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
Pages: 369
Release Date: August 23, 2007
36
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Pages: 312
Release Date: September 30, 2008
35
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Pages: 306
Release Date: January 19, 2010
34
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Pages: 333
Release Date: January 24, 2012
33
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer
Pages: 448
Release Date: May 21, 2013
32
The Martian by Andy Weir
Pages: 384
Release Date: September 27, 2011
31
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
Pages: 303
Release Date: May 10, 2011
30
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Pages: 320
Release Date: June 5, 2012
29
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Pages: 15
Release Date: February 11, 2003
28
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett
Pages: 491
Release Date: 1990
27
The Bees by Laline Paull
Pages: 340
Release Date: May 6, 2014
26
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
Pages: 561
Release Date: May 22, 2012
25
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King
Pages: 434
Release Date: March 6, 2012
23-24
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
Pages: 368
Release Date: April 21, 2015
23-24
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer
Pages: 383
Release Date: September 15, 2009
22
Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History by Penny Le Couteur
Pages: 375
Release Date: 1991
21
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Pages: 1152
Release Date: May 1, 1999
20
Cosmigraphics by Michael Benson
Pages: 320
Release Date: October 14, 2014
19
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Pages: 499
Release Date: October 25, 2011
18
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Pages: 152
Release Date: July 14, 2015
16-17
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Pages: 652
Release Date: July 16, 2005
16-17
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Pages: 759
Release Date: July 21, 2007
15
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
Pages: 336
Release Date: February 11, 2014
14
Glasshouse by Charles Stross
Pages: 335
Release Date: June 27, 2006
10-13
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
Pages: 397
Release Date: May 5, 1998
10-13
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
Pages: 335
Release Date: 2000
10-13
Notes from a Big Country by Bill Bryson
Pages: 416
Release Date: 1998
10-13
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
Pages: 497
Release Date: May 27, 2010
9
The Oldest Living Things in the World by Rachel A. Sussman
Pages: 269
Release Date: January 1, 2014
8
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Pages: 466
Release Date: July 7, 2015
5-7
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Pages: 572
Release Date: October 14, 2008
5-7
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
Pages: 781
Release Date: August 21, 2007
5-7
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Pages: 672
Release Date: July 17, 2006
4
The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert
Pages: 295
Release Date: May 6, 2014
3
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf
Pages: 473
Release Date: September 1, 2015
2
The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
Pages: 288
Release Date: March 1, 2012
1
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Pages: 333
Release Date: September 9, 2014
