Blowhard, Esq. writes:

I already shared the movies I saw this year, now here’s the books I read.

The History of Opera by Richard Fawkes
Gamiani, or Two Nights of Excess by Alfred de Musset
Eugene Atget Paris edited by Andreas Krase and Hans Christian Adam
The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon by Suzanne Desan
Film Noir edited by Paul Duncan, Alain Silver, and James Ursini
Norwood by Charles Portis
Augustine: Philosopher and Saint by Phillip Cary
Queenpin by Megan Abbott
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Bad Boy by Jim Thompson
The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe
Love and the Erotic in Art edited by Stefano Zuffi
Symposium by Plato, trans. by Robin Waterfield
Memory by Donald Westlake
I, The Jury by Mickey Spillane
Medea by Euripides, trans. by David Grene
The Power of Glamour by Virginia Postrel
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World by Robert Garland
A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books by Alex Beam
The Dog of the South by Charles Portis
True Grit by Charles Portis
The Happy Hooker by Xaviera Hollander
NYC: Basic Tips and Etiquette by Nathan W. Pyle
American Vampire, Vol. 1 by Scott Snyder
Route 66 in New Mexico by Joe Sonderman
Virginia City and the Big Bonanza by Ronald James
Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell
Roman Polanski: Interviews edited by Paul Cronin
Paying For It by Chester Brown
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke
The Noir Style by Alain Silver and James Ursini
Billy Wilder: Interviews edited by Robert Horton
Richard Stark’s Parker: Slayground by Darwyn Cooke
Innocence and Seduction: The Art of Dan DeCarlo by Bill Morrison
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score by Darwyn Cooke
Bad Girls Need Love Too by Gary Lovisi
The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo, Vol. 2 edited by Alex Chun and Jacob Covey
The Pin-Up Art of Humorama edited by Alex Chun
Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
The Contract with God Trilogy by Will Eisner
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
American Art Deco by Carla Breeze
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Black Pearl by Lloyd Fonvielle
Factotum by Charles Bukowski
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Architecture Without Architects by Bernard Rudofsky
Pueblo Deco by Carla Breeze
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
The Classical Language of Architecture by John Summerson
Six Western Love Stories by Lloyd Fonvielle
The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare
A Red Death by Walter Mosley
The Plague by Albert Camus

While by no means intentional, I guess if I had to detect a theme in my reading this year it was Men’s Fiction or Dick Lit — Jim Thompson, Donald Westlake, Mickey Spillane, Charles Portis, Charles Bukowski, Raymond Chandler. If anyone wants to get the male in their life involved in reading those authors are all great places to start.

Special thanks to Paul Westlake who back here recommended Darwyn Cooke’s graphic novel adaptations of Donald Westlake’s Parker novels. It’s an excellent series so far and I hope Cooke keeps doing them. Here are some samples of his artwork:

What were your favorite books this year?

Related

• For comparison’s sake, here’s what I read last year.