Not only are we saying good-bye to another year but also another decade! We say hello to the Roarin' 20's and good-bye to...umm...whatever the hell this last decade is called. Man, I've hated the last 20 years. How lame is it to live in a decade that doesn't even have a cool name? I've been waiting for this since the Nifty 90's!
And what better way to welcome a new decade than with unnecessary end-of-year awards! This one's about books. That's right! It's the seventh annual TROXELLIAN LITERATURE AWARDS! I rate all the books I've read over the past year and give them fake awards that are completely pointless in the grand scheme of things. But, hey, why not?
This past year, I read a decent variety of graphic novels, non-fiction, YA fiction, adult fiction, and classics. I never read current bestsellers because I'm a hipster, and I'm cool like that. That's why it's interesting to take all these very different kinds of literature, dump them into a steel cage, and see which one climbs up and over the top for the victory.
I would like to point out that I read all five Game of Thrones novels this year and that, in itself, is a huge accomplishment. It's actually a miracle I read anything else, but now I know every family tree of every major house of Westeros and what each character ate for breakfast each day of their life. That J.R.R. Martin and his food descriptions...
Here are the nominees in the order that I read them. I’ll post the winners sometime before the end of the year:
1. Calvin and Hobbes Collection #1 by Bill Watterson (comic)
2. Calvin and Hobbes Collection #2 by Bill Watterson (comic)
3. Calvin and Hobbes Collection #3 by Bill Watterson (comic)
4. Calvin and Hobbes Collection #4 by Bill Watterson (comic)
5. Even Cowgirls get the Blues by Tim Robbins (F)
6. Feed by Tobin Anderson (F)
7. Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (F)
8. Dumplin' by Julie Murphy (F)
9. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (F)
10. Painted Blazes by Jeffery Gray (NF)
11. Dune by Frank Herbert (F)
12. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (NF)
13. A Game of Thrones by J.R.R. Martin (F)
14. A Clash of Kings by J.R.R. Martin (F)
15. A Storm of Swords by J.R.R. Martin (F)
16. A Feast for Crows by J.R.R. Martin (F)
17. A Dance with Dragons by J.R.R. Martin (F)
18. White Noise by Don Delillo (F)
19. Half a Life by Darin Strauss (NF)
20. A Boy Called It by Dave Peltzer (NF)
21. The Lost Boy by David Peltzer (NF)
22. Going Bovine by Libba Bray (F)
23. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (F)
24. Replay by Ken Grimwood (F)
25. All our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
26. Walking Dead Compendium #3 by Robert Kirkman (comic)
27. Walking Dead Compendium #4 (comic)
28. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (F)
29. The Enemy by Charlie Higgons (F)
30. Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake (F)
31. The Dead by Charlie Higgons (F)
32. Reincarnation Blue by Michael Poor (F)
And there you have it! Those are the nominees for the random awards I'll be giving out after Christmas. See you then!