53. Fifty-three. Firty-three.
Damn. Five short of even a tie. Ah, well. I’m already off to a good start this year (I highly recommend Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson; it’s one of the best science fiction novels I’ve read in ages), and I read some truly excellent books during this most recent whirl around the sun.
The best six, for instance. This was the year I discovered Alan Moore’s astoundingly brilliant Swamp Thing—six volumes of absolutely the best writing, comics or otherwise, I’ve ever consumed (or, as was the case with this series, been consumed by). The story ranges from horror to fantasy to science fantasy and back again. Moore’s writing is glorious in its moods and fevers. It’s the sort of book that you believe, once you’ve read it—unto the point of mania—that everyone else in the world should read it, too. I got all six volumes from my local library. Chances are wonderful that you can, too. The first volume wraps up the threads of the story arc that came before. The next five volumes change your head forever.
2019 was the year I discovered the raucous nihilism of Charles Bukowski, and the beautiful neuroses of Charlie Kaufman (the library had the screenplay to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, too; they really do have everything).
Final Girls, by Riley Sager was exactly what I needed to be reading when I read it: bloody and a little trashy and riveting. Jonathan Carroll’s Bones of the Moon got into my sentences for almost a month. Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum got into my nightmares. (As did The Hellbound Heart. I’ve been a Hellraiser fan since I was a kid, but I’d never read the novella it’s based on. There’s a certain bleak, erotic hedonism to the book that the films lack.)
And I discovered my new favorite Stephen King novel, Pet Sematary. One of the most beautiful and disturbing books I’ve ever read. Outside of The Shining, this feels the most personal, to me. It’s a disquieting book; I thought about it whenever it was out of my hands until it was done.
If I don’t stop now, I’ll just tell you about all of them, and I’ve got books to read. So, without further ado, it’s…
Max’s Magnificent 2019 Reading List! (Audiobooks in bold.)
Gunsights (Elmore Leonard)
The Law at Randado (Elmore Leonard)
Last Stand at Saber River (Elmore Leonard)
The Grifters (Jim Thompson)
Post Office (Charles Bukowski)
Love is a Dog from Hell (Charles Bukowski)
Save the Cat! (Blake Snyder)
Hollywood (Charles Bukowski)
Blue is the Warmest Color (Julie Maroh)
The 39 Steps (John Buchan)
The Best American Erotica 2001 (Various, Ed. Susie Bright)
The Seventh (Richard Stark)
The Ambler Warning (Robert Ludlum)
The Handle (Rchard Stark)
You Are a Badass (Jen Sincero)
And the Hippoes Were Boiled in Their Tanks (Jack Kerouac & William S. Burroughs)
After the First Death (Lawrence Block)
Junky (William S. Burroughs)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Charlie Kaufman)
The Comedy is Finished (Donald E. Westlake)
You Could Call it Murder (Lawrence Block)
Words are My Matter (Ursula K. Le Guin)
Final Girls (Riley Sager)
Bones of the Moon (Jonathan Carroll)
Storey’s Guide to Keeping Honeybees (Malcolm T. Sanford & Richard E. Bonney)
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (Grant Morrison)
At the Mountains of Madness (H.P. Lovecraft)
The Abolition of Man (C.S. Lewis)
The Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume 1 (Alan Moore)
The Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume 2 (Alan Moore)
The Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume 3 (Alan Moore)
The Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume 4 (Alan Moore)
The Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume 5 (Alan Moore)
The Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume 6 (Alan Moore)
The Early Stories of Philip K. Dick (Philip K. Dick)
Pet Sematary (Stephen King)
Top 10 (Alan Moore)
Top 10: The Forty-Niners (Alan Moore)
Smax (Alan Moore)
Hawaiian Dick: Byrd of Paradise (B. Clay Moore)
The View from the Cheap Seats (Neil Gaiman)
The Airtight Garage (Moebius)
Tell-All (Chuck Palahniuk)
The Hellbound Heart (Clive Barker)
Doom Patrol Volume 1 (Grant Morrison)
Doom Patrol Volume 2 (Grant Morrison)
Doom Patrol Volume 3 (Grant Morrison)
Doom Patrol Volume 4 (Grant Morrison)
Doom Patrol Volume 5 (Grant Morrison)
Doom Patrol Volume 6 (Grant Morrison)
Presto: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales (Penn Jillette)
A Grief Observed (C.S. Lewis)
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Not too shabby.
—Max