{"id":135750,"date":"2018-01-01T10:47:05","date_gmt":"2018-01-01T17:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=135750"},"modified":"2018-01-08T07:39:24","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T14:39:24","slug":"books-of-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/01\/01\/books-of-2017.html","title":{"rendered":"Books of 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking at my Goodreads records<\/a>, in 2017 I read 92 books.<\/p>\n

In fiction, I read 26 new books, and reread 27 (including a (re)read of all of Peter David Star Trek New Frontier<\/i> series and quite a few Rex Stout Nero Wolfe).<\/i> Nine were 5-star books; I think my favorite new entry, for a variety of reasons, was April Daniels’ Dreadnought,<\/i> as both a very solid super-hero story and a great coming-of-age \/ establishing-your-identity sort of story.<\/p>\n

In non-fiction, I read 6 new books (most of them audiobooks — the number was down with my commute being in abeyance. I gave 3 of them 5 stars (which seems high — 5 star ratings are sometimes impulsive, I fear). I’ll give top new rating to As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling,<\/i> by Anne Serling as a great insight not only into the man (who was far more than a cigarette-smoking creepy voice artist), but also into television and writing of the 50s and 60s.<\/p>\n

In comic TPBs \/ graphic novels, I read 15 new, and reread 14 old. Of the five 5-star books, I’ll give my top rating for new reads to Jim Zub’s Wayward Deluxe Vol. 1<\/i> as an incredible blend of traditional and new mythmaking, steeped in Japanese culture but with a fresh (and gorgeous) eye.<\/p>\n

It’s altogether some have slipped through the cracks here, but that’s a pretty good set of numbers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking at my Goodreads records, in 2017 I read 92 books. In fiction, I read 26 new books, and reread 27 (including a (re)read of all of Peter David Star Trek New Frontier series and quite a few Rex Stout Nero Wolfe). Nine were 5-star books; I think my favorite new entry, for a variety … Continue reading “Books of 2017”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,36,11,4],"tags":[519],"class_list":["post-135750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-media-books","category-media-comics","category-personal","tag-newyearseve"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/all+the+time+in+the+world.jpgimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1246,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/02\/06\/cartoon_cartoon.html","url_meta":{"origin":135750,"position":0},"title":"Cartoon Cartoon","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Feb-02 9:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've not been much into on-line comics, but it's worth reading Warren Ellis' Superidol story. Since it's written by Ellis, you can know in advance that it will be weird,...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6509,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/24\/submitted_for_y.html","url_meta":{"origin":135750,"position":1},"title":"Submitted for your approval","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 24-Aug-04 2:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure when I'll download it, but this adaptation of Planet of the Apes into a Twilight Zone episode sounds fun. When I first started gathering information about POTA,...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136205,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/03\/the-twilight-zone.html","url_meta":{"origin":135750,"position":2},"title":"“… the Twilight Zone”","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-May-18 7:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"A mash-up of Rod Serling TZ intros, all synced to end simultaneously with those three, final, fateful words. Odd, but fascinating. View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Twilight%2BZone%2Bnightmare.gifimgmax%3D660.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134226,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/13\/hes-alive.html","url_meta":{"origin":135750,"position":3},"title":"“He’s Alive”","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 13-Aug-17 6:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Rod Serling hated bigotry and prejudice with the fire of a burning sun, and, as a WW2 vet (serving in the Pacific) born into a Jewish family, he had an abiding hatred for fascism. I find his Twilight Zone episode \"He's Alive\" -- where a bush league American Neo-Nazi gets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nationalism & Exceptionalism"","block_context":{"text":"Nationalism & Exceptionalism","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/nationalism-exceptionalism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/B3ID7k0_xn4\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":129320,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/31\/my-bookish-year-in-review.html","url_meta":{"origin":135750,"position":4},"title":"My Bookish Year in Review","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 31-Dec-15 3:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So I've been slavishly (well, occasionally but thoroughly) recording my reading in Goodreads, just for these sorts of annual listings.https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/user\/year_in_books\/2015\/4631805Unfortunately, it conflates my \"text\" books with my \"audio\" books with my \"graphic novel\" books, which I consider three separate categories. If you want to see a more complete listing, you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23565,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/08\/this-is-sci-fi.html","url_meta":{"origin":135750,"position":5},"title":"This is Sci Fi","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 8-Nov-11 9:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I loved John Berkey's work -- the first two illustrations here from Star Wars (the Original) are iconic to me, and I had several other SF books over the years that he did cover art to. #ddtb Embedded Link Sci Fi Illustrations by John BerkeySci Fi Illustrations by John Berkey\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135764,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135750\/revisions\/135764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}