I set myself the target of reading 60 books in 2016, and I just managed to make it with hours to spare. Whew!

GoodReads has handily put together my year in books, but I decided to flesh it out with a blog post and provide some background and opinions, along with an explanation of how I read.

How (and what) I read

I used to only read fiction for fun (hi, I’m an English graduate), but in recent years I’ve tried to branch out more. I’d say I probably read 65% fiction, 35% non-fiction.

With fiction, I’m really into crime and thrillers at the moment. Anything psychological or with lots of twists is likely to grab my interest. I’ve also been into strong female protagonists (mentally, physically, whatever), complex characters, and dystopia this year. I love anything set in the 1960s or 1920s. I love books about technology and startups, but they have to be at least vaguely believable (i.e. a higher level than CSI Cyber). I will read pretty much anything once, whether it’s chick lit or sci-fi.

The non-fiction pretty much tends to be books about the web, business/economics, self-improvement or mental illness. Sometimes all the above. Occasionally I’ll read something which is a more documentary-style or historical book, and these tend to mostly be about disasters of some kind: plane crashes, wars, ship sinkings etc.

The only books I will go out of my way to avoid are ones written to make the reader cry. If a book makes me cry, I generally don’t read it again.

I read fiction anywhere and everywhere, but these days it tends to be tucked up in bed just before going to sleep, or when travelling. I particularly like fiction for plane journeys as I hate take off and landing (too much Air Crash Investigation). Non-fiction is generally confined to occasional early morning reads, train journeys, and anywhere I’m not likely to get interrupted. It usually inspires me to go and do something, so I tend to avoid reading it at night when I’m trying to wind down.

How I rate books

GoodReads lets you rate books anywhere between one and five stars. Personally I think it should be 1 to 10, because most books seem to average out at 3.something, but anyway, it’s up to 5 stars.

When I rate books, this is roughly how I rank them. I always finish books even if I don’t like them, because I’m a completionist and slightly crazy.

1 star = Awful. One of the worst books I’ve ever read.
2 stars = Pretty dire. Sometimes a book can be alright on content (effectively a 3), but knocked down to a 2 for being poorly written or edited.
3 stars = I liked it, but it wasn’t anything special.
4 stars = A great book, with a couple of small niggles.
5 stars = One of the best books I’ve ever read. I’ll definitely be reading it again and recommending it to people.

Ratings can change with rereads. They aren’t set in stone…some books age better than others, and my tastes change over time too.

Over the year I read a lot of great stuff. I’m getting pretty good at picking things I know I’ll enjoy, so there wasn’t much to complain about. I gave a lot of 4s and 3s. Two books got a 1, and 9 books got 5s, so here’s a quick breakdown of the best and worst in no particular order.

The Best of 2016

Orphan X – Gregg Hurwitz

This is a book I picked up at random, and I’m so glad I did. Gregg Hurwitz writes comic books as well as thrillers, and this comes through a lot in his writing. Some of the action scenes are written in a way that feels like you’re watching a movie, and there’s even a ‘post credits’ scene at the end, following the acknowledgements and reading group discussion questions. This seems to be a new series, so I’m really looking forward to the next one.

GoodReads description: “Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He’s also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets—i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear. Now, however, someone is on his tail.”

Where Am I Now? – Mara Wilson

Ever seen Matilda? Or Miracle on 34th Street? Or Mrs Doubtfire? This is a memoir from the little girl who was in the films. Miracle on 34th Street was actually the first movie I saw in the cinema, and Mara is the same age as me, so I was interested in reading this. It turned out to be a series of chapters on different topics, covering everything from anxiety to growing up to Robin Williams’s death to the pressures on Hollywood actresses. I would have liked a little bit more background about her commercial and acting careers (although there are some interesting snippets sprinkled through) and I think the chapters would have benefited from some re-ordering, but all in all a great read. I felt like I’d been out for a coffee with a really good friend I hadn’t seen for ages, and I didn’t want it to end.

Paranoia – Joseph Finder

This was a re-read. I lent my copy of it to someone years ago and they never returned it, so I bought a new copy after I came across the film version on Netflix recently. (The film is truly awful by the way, but the book is brilliant). Corporate espionage with a Silicon Valley setting is exactly the kind of thing I love, and this book has endless twists and turns. Some of the tech is beginning to sound a little dated now, but it’s got a great plot and interesting characters.

Madness: A Bipolar Life – Marya Hornbacher

Being around someone with an active mental illness is unbelievably tough. They lash out, you feel helpless, you don’t understand them. There’s been a big theme in the media and on the internet this year of talking about mental illness, but while people urge others to talk about it, it still seems that not many people really do. This is an extremely insightful and interesting memoir from someone suffering from bipolar disorder. The good, the bad, and the incredibly ugly are all written about honestly and in a way that anyone can understand, whether they know about bipolar disorder (or depression) or not. If you know someone trying to help someone with a mental illness, give them this to read. It will completely change the way they think. If you know someone with a mental illness, give them this to read too – they’ll be able to identify with something in it, no matter how small.

Slade House – David Mitchell

An other-worldly novel that keeps you guessing right to the very end. What’s actually happening at Slade House, and how are all the characters’ stories connected? A beautifully written story that creates a ghostly/sci-fi/thriller genre all of its own.

102 Minutes – Jim Dwyer

A really interesting non-fiction take on 9/11. Interspersed with little-known facts and historical background, you follow the stories of individual people in the building through the events of 9/11. It feels a lot more personal than most non-fiction books, and there are lots of great ancedotes woven through the timeline of events. A must-read.

The Martian – Andy Weir

I picked this up because I loved the film, and I wasn’t disappointed. If you aren’t familiar with it, the premise is, guy gets stranded on Mars, guy has to find a way to survive. It’s written in a way that makes it sound completely believable (to my untrained mind, at least), and both film and book avoid the common problem of tedious monologue. The book goes into more scientific detail and gives the other astronauts more personality and attention, but other than that it’s pretty close to the film.

Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive – Noah Goldstein

Manipulating people (and machines) is a big part of any marketer’s job, so any ideas and success stories are welcome. There are lots of books along these lines, but if you’re going to read any of them it should be this one. It’s easy to dip in and out of, and the sections on social proof and scarcity are particularly insightful.

Happiness by Design – Paul Dolan

The tagline for this book is ‘Change what you do, not how you think,’, which goes against the grain of typical psychology and self-help books. I’m not a big fan of books where the premise is, ‘You’re wrong’, which is why I rated Happiness by Design so highly. Paul Dolan looks at the science behind happiness, making the case that it’s generated from two sources: pleasure, and purpose. Some people lean more towards one and some the other, but you can use this foundation regardless to improve your own happiness. The other key problem with this type of book is that it’s written badly (it’s often corny or insincerely peppy), and again Happiness by Design avoids this altogether. Everyone will get something out of this book, and it’s definitely worth picking up.

The Worst of 2016

The One Minute Manager – Kenneth Blanchard

Billed as a guide for helping people become good managers, this book is absolutely awful. The entire thing is an extended allegory about How To Talk To Other Human Beings In An Office Setting, and it’s both repetitive and incredibly condescending. It was written in the 1980s and to be honest I’m surprised it’s still around. It has just two things in its favour: 1) it’s short and 2) choice bits are guaranteed to make anyone in business laugh hysterically. I very rarely get rid of books, but this one is off to the charity shop.

The Night Book – Richard Madeley

Richard Madeley is one half of a TV presenting duo with a well-known book club to their name. I love the book club and often pick up their recommendations, so I thought this would be good too. It’s probably the most wrong I’ve ever been. Someone should have just turned round to Richard Madeley and just said, “Mate, this is bloody awful. Get a ghost writer in and you can probably salvage it, but it needs a lot of work”. It’s a crime story, and to be fair the plot is quite interesting in places. Unfortunately the characters are one-dimensional, make extremely unlikely decisions, and their relationships are wholly unbelievable. Add to that poorly written but pretentious dialogue and descriptions, and the whole thing gets tiresome very quickly. It feels like it’s been written extremely quickly out of need rather than by someone who cares. A first draft with some potential, but really one to avoid.

Check out the full list of books I read in 2016.

What were the best and worst books you read in 2016?