TimeandTide

Curious as to what everyone's favorite reads were in 2012. The video game, TV, and movie forums have Best of 2012 threads so figured I'd start one here too. Books don't have to be '12 releases, just your five most memorable reads of the past year.

I'll start:

1. Unbroken / Laura Hillenbrand
2. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk / Ben Fountain
3. Behind the Beautiful Forevers / Katherine Boo
4. Wool Omnibus / Hugh Howey
5. Fight Club / Chuck Palahniuk

Coral

I'll do it differently because it's too hard to select.


Top 5 of 2012 (in no particular order):





Top 5 pre-2012 books read in 2012 (in no particular order):





I highly recommend "The Sisters Brothers" and "The Devil all the Time" which were well received critically - but I think they deserved more attention than they've gotten.

lattethunder

1) Matterhorn-Karl Malantes
2) Redshirts-John Scalzi
3) Telegraph Avenue-Michael Chabon
4) The Song of Achilles-Madeline Miller
5) The Grapes of Wrath-John Steinbeck

mhg83

1.Ender's Game- Orson Scott Card
2.Ready Player One- Ernest Cline
3.House Of Leaves- Mark Z. Danielewski
4.A stolen life- Jaycee Dugard
5.Catching Fire- Suzanne Collins

Nick Danger

1. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

2. and down Everything else.

Supermallet

I don't know if I read any books actually released in 2012, but the best books I read in 2012 were:

1. Frankenstein, or: The Modern Prometheus - Mary Shelley
2. Paradise Lost - John Milton
3. The Divine Comedy - Dante
3a. Illustrations for The Divine Comedy - William Blake
4. Weaveworld - Clive Barker
5. The Metabarons - Alejandro Jodorowsky

FunkDaddy J

Some interesting reads last year. For me, it was the year when I read and loved a disturbing number of Teen novels.

1) The Twenty-Year Death by Ariel S. Winter
2) The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
3) Every Day by David Levithan
4) The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth
5) Little Star by John Ajvide Lindqvist. He wrote Let the Right One In. Little Star is a very strange story, but it's one of those compulsively readable books that won't let go.

Hiro11

I read a lot of books, but I didn't read too much that was published this year...

Fargo Rock City - Chuck Klosterman - a re-appreciation of hair metal, will have you reaching for a copy of Vinnie Vincent's Invasion

Our Band Could be Your Life - Michael Azzerad - surprised it took me so long to read this hipster touchstone. It's really good, even if Azzerad strains to make some political points and generally over-emphasizes the importance of the bands.

Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson - a fascinating portrait of one of my heroes. Jobs was a true asshole and more than a little hypocritical, but he was a genuine savant and had impeccable taste in most things. This books aptly describes his contradictions.

Embassytown - China Meiville - one of the most visionary and effective world-creating sci-fi books I've ever read. About the nature of conciousness, xenophobia, obsession and addiction. Truly strange.

Ubik - Philip K. Dick. Everyone needs to read Ubik, I finally got around to it. This book is haunting and disturbing. It's a nightmare. It's also an all time classic.

We Were Young and Carefree - Laurent Fignon - an autobiography of my personal favorite cyclist and the last of the "old school" European romantics in the pro ranks. Fignon's very French, very arrogant and endlessless self-justifying, but he's also honest, a great story teller, has a wonderful sense of the sport and writes surprisingly well. A must read for cyclists.

The Secret Race - Tyler Hamilton - this book will once and for all destroy any illusions you may have about doping in sport. Not just cycling, mind, all sport. Hamilton defines in a very detailed manner just how effective current doping is, how easy it is to get away with and the various conflicts of interest inherent in current doping controls. After reading this, I question every exceptional athletic performance I've seen. It's a sad story and paints a thouroughly disturbing picture.

milo bloom

Re-reads: Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell


New reads: Greatest Show on Earth (Dawkins on evolution)
The Tin Drum
The Man in the High Castle

I should really use one of those reading sites, I think I have a Goodreads login but I've never updated it.

Supermallet

Hiro, Ubik is one of my favorite books. So much imagination.

Nick Danger

I guess that Ubik should be my next PKD title.

After thinking about it, this is my full list.

1. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
2. The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler
3. The Lady in the Lake - Raymond Chandler
4. Witches of Karres - James H. Schmitz
5. Extremes - Nick Middleton

Honorable Mention:
What the Dog Saw - Malcolm Gladwell
I only managed to listen to about half of it before it got returned to the library.

Quake1028

1.I Suck at Girls - Justin Halpern
2.The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
3.The Book of Basketball - Bill Simmons
4.Tough Shit: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good - Kevin Smith
5.American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History - Chris Kyle