What Should I Read in 2012?

Better late than never!

In the Before Time, the Long Long Ago (i.e., before I started this blog), I would ask The Vast Wisdom of Usenet (i.e. rec.arts.sf.written) what books I should read this year. Now that I have the blog, I’m posting the question here.

Below are 100 books (or a few more, counting multiple titles by a single author) of fiction I’m considering reading in 2012. With a few exceptions (like forthcoming books), they’re pretty much all books I already own in first editions. Most likely I’ll get to considerably less than 100. The first few are books I’ll probably get to (or are already reading), whereas the rest are a little vaguer (and in alphabetical order by author). That’s where you come in. Tell me which of the books below I should or shouldn’t read, and why. If a book’s not on the list, it’s probably because I’ve already read it, or have no interest in it, won’t get to it this year, etc., so save your electrons instead of suggesting alternates (there are plenty of other places for that). And if I list Book #2 in a linear series, rest assured I’ve already read Book #1.

I don’t promise I’ll read all the highest rated works, but those most highly praised are considerably more likely to be added to the reading stack, which is what’s happened the previous years I’ve done this.

  • Michael Shea: The Color Out of Time (read)
  • Jack Vance: The Killing Machine (read)
  • Stina Leicht: Of Blood & Honey (reading)
  • Joe R. Lansdale: Hyenas
  • Joe Dominici: Bringing Back the Dead
  • China Mieville: Embassytown
  • Robert Jackson Bennett: Company Man
  • Vernor Vinge: The Children of the Sky
  • Philip K. Dick: Clans of the Alphane Moon
  • Michael Moorcock: The War Hound and the World’s Pain
  • Greg Egan: Crystal Nights
  • Peter Ackroyd: Hawksmoor
  • Paolo Bacigalupi: The Windup Girl
  • Iain Banks: Against a Dark Background or Matter
  • John Barnes: Kaleidoscope Century or One for the Morning Glory
  • Stephen Baxter: Traces or Mayflower II
  • Peter S. Beagle: A Fine and Private Place
  • Greg Bear: The City at the End of Time or Hull Zero Three
  • Leigh Brackett: The Best of Leigh Brackett or The Long Tomorrow
  • David Brin: Dr. Pak’s Preschool
  • Tobias Buckell: Sly Mongoose or Tides from the New World
  • Octavia Butler: Fledgeling
  • Jack Cady: The Night We Buried Road Dog
  • Ramsey Campbell: Creatures of the Pool
  • Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
  • John Christopher: No Blade of Grass
  • Susanna Clarke: Ladies of Grace Adieu
  • Hal Clement: Iceworld
  • Avram Davidson: The Adventures of Dr. Esterhauzy or Limekiller
  • L. Sprague de Camp: A Gun for Dinosaur
  • Bradley Denton: Laughin’ Boy
  • Junot Diaz: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
  • Paul Di Filippo: Lost Pages or A Princess of the Linear Jungle
  • George Alec Effinger: What Entropy Means to Me
  • Harlan Ellison: Deathbird Stories
  • Greg Egan: Crystals Nights or Zendegi
  • John M. Ford: The Dragon Waiting
  • Neil Gaiman: Fragile Things or The Graveyard Book
  • Hinko Gotleib: The Key to the Great Gate
  • John Gardner: Freddy’s Book or The Wreckage of Agathon
  • Ray Garton: Night Life or Nids
  • Jane Gaskell: The Serpent
  • Joe Haldeman: The Accidental Time Machine
  • Peter F. Hamilton: Mindstar Rising
  • Robert E. Howard: The Coming of Conan
  • Nalo Hopkinson: Brown Girl in the Ring or The Salt Roads
  • Shirley Jackson: We Have Always Lived in the Castle or The Lottery
  • K. W. Jeter: Noir or Dark Seeker
  • Ha Jin: Waiting
  • James Patrick Kelly: Strange But Not a Stranger
  • Stephen King: Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass or The Colorado Kid
  • Russell Kirk: The Surly Sullen Bell (and yes, I’ve read the 2 Arkham House collections)
  • Henry Kuttner and/or C. L. Moore: The Dark World or Black God’s Shadow or No Boundaries
  • R. A. Lafferty: Archipelago, Aurelia, or The 13th Voyage of Sinbad
  • Fritz Leiber: Night’s Black Agents
  • Jonathan Lethem: Motherless Brooklyn
  • Thomas Ligotti: Grimscribe, Noctuary, or The Shadow at the Bottom of the World
  • Ian MacLeod: Breathmoss and Other Exhalations
  • Ken MacLeod: Giant Lizards from Another Star or The Execution Channel
  • Gregory Maguire: Wicked
  • Barry Malzberg: Hervoit’s World
  • Richard Matheson: Duel
  • Maureen McHugh: Mothers and Other Monsters
  • Sean McMullen: The Miocene Arrow
  • Ward Moore: Bring the Jubilee
  • Richard Morgan: Woken Furies
  • Pat Murphy: The Falling Woman
  • John Myers Myers: Silverlock
  • William F. Nolan: Things Beyond Midnight or Wild Galaxy
  • Naomi Novik: Black Powder War
  • Chad Oliver: The Shores of Another Sea or The Winds of Time
  • Susan Palwick: The Fate of Mice
  • H. Beam Piper: Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
  • Tim Powers: Three Days to Never or Pilot Light
  • Fletcher Pratt: The Well of the Unicorn
  • Mike Resnick: Paradise or Kilimanjaro
  • Alastair Reynolds: Redemption Ark
  • Rudy Rucker: Master of Time & Space or The Secret of Life or White Light
  • Matt Ruff: Fool on the Hill
  • Salman Rushdie: Midnight’s Children
  • Joanna Russ: The Female Man
  • John Scalzi: The Lost Colony
  • Karl Schroeder: Permanence or Lady of Mazes
  • Michael Shaara: The Herald or The Killer Angels
  • Lucius Shepard: Floater or Aztechs or Viator
  • Lewis Shiner: The Edges of Things or Black and White
  • Dan Simmons: The Terror or Hard as Nails
  • Robert Sladek: Roderick
  • Neal Stephenson: Zodiac or The Big U
  • Charles Stross: The Apocalypse Codex (forthcoming)
  • Theodore Sturgeon: Microcosmic God: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon Volume 2
  • Steph Swainston: The Year of Our War
  • Thomas Burnett Swann: The Day of the Minotaur
  • Manly Wade Wellman: The Sleuth Patrol or The Last Mammoth
  • Martha Wells: The Element of Fire
  • John Whitbourne: To Build Jerusalem or Binscomb Tales
  • Jack Williamson and James E. Gunn: Star Bridge
  • Connie Willis: To Say Nothing of the Dog
  • Gene Wolfe: The Land Across (forthcoming)
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    5 Responses to “What Should I Read in 2012?”

    1. […] Lawrence Person asks What Should I Read in 2012? […]

    2. Greg Weeks says:

      I’ve read these off your list and liked them. Anything by Piper.

      Vernor Vinge: The Children of the Sky
      Hal Clement: Iceworld
      L. Sprague de Camp: A Gun for Dinosaur
      H. Beam Piper: Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
      John Scalzi: The Lost Colony
      Jack Williamson and James E. Gunn: Star Bridge

    3. Jennifer says:

      Great list! Some of these are on mine as well. I added a number of them to my list.

      Of those I have already read, I particularly enjoyed:
      Stina Leicht: Of Blood & Honey
      Paolo Bacigalupi: The Windup Girl
      Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book
      Shirley Jackson: The Lottery
      Maureen McHugh: Mothers and Other Monsters
      Pat Murphy: The Falling Woman
      Connie Willis: To Say Nothing of the Dog

    4. Glen says:

      From that huge list, I would highly recommend Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

    5. Dwight Brown says:

      I’d suggest you read “Dark Tower IV” simply because I suspect you’ll feel jerked around by “The Colorado Kid”, knowing you as I do.

      I haven’t read “The Terror” yet, but (as I think you know) my feeling is that the Joe Kurtz series began to hit diminishing returns by the end of the second book, so I’d recommend that over “Hard as Nails”.

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