Writers are, above all, readers. So in the tradition of all the fun Top 10 posts that fly around the Internet this time of the year, here are my top books of 2013.
At any given time, I usually have a bookmark in different books: a novel, a general non-fiction book, a writing book. I’ve highlighted my Top 5 favorites in each category below. And, just for fun (and because I’m a trivial stats nerd), here’s how my reading habits shook out this year.
Total books read: 149
Fiction to non-fiction ratio: 84:65
Male to female author gender: 84:65 (not a typo, and, no, the males didn’t write all the fiction I read and the females didn’t write all the non-fiction)
Top 5 genres: Classics (with 33 books), historical fiction (22), writing how-to (22), non-fiction history (17), fantasy (13).
Number of books per rating: 5 stars (8), 4 stars (58), 3 stars (64), 2 stars (17), 1 star (2).
Top Fiction Books
(Note the following are affiliate links.)
1. The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
3. I, Claudius by Robert Graves
4. Sweetie by Kathryn Magendie
5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Top General Non-Fiction Books
1. Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends by William Guarnere and Edward Heffron with Robin Post
2. Natasha’s Dance by Orlando Figes
3. The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors by Juliet Barker
4. In Tuscany by Frances Mayes
Top Writing Books
1. The First 50 Pages by Jeff Gerke
2. The Moral Premise by Stanley D. Williams
3. Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder
4. Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge
5. Let’s Get Visible by David Gaughran
Tell me your opinion: What are your top books of the year?
