The dreaded year of 2020 may not have been great for going places or spending time with friends or feeling joy, but it seemed custom made for reading ... and yet I didn't end up reading more than I usually do during a normal year. In fact, by number of books, I probably ended up reading less. Maybe that had to do with me releasing two books of my own this year or maybe there was too much going on in the world to enjoy a good book. Approaching 2020 with any kind of common sense or logic may be an exercise in futility.
Still, what better way to end the year than with a totally unnecessary end-of-year awards blog post! Not even a global pandemic can stop the eighth annual TROXELLIAN LITERATURE AWARDS! I rate all the books I've read over the past year and give them fake awards that make sense to me and no one else, and since I don't read recent bestsellers, the awards honor books absolutely no one is talking about! Super cool!
This past year, I read a decent variety of graphic novels, non-fiction, YA , adult fiction, and classics. Because I didn't have access to some of my usual book pipelines, I ended up rereading a lot of books this year, too. None of that matters because they all get dumped into the same steel cage to see which literary work is the most hardcore, the most badass, and the most extreme!
Here are the nominees in the order that I read them. I’ll post the winners sometime before the end of the year:
1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Volume 1 by Bryan Lee O'Malley (comic)
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Volume 2 by Bryan Lee O'Malley (comic)
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Volume 3 by Bryan Lee O'Malley (comic)
4. The Fear by Charlie Higson (F)
5. The Sacrifice by Charlie Higson (F) (F)
6. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart (F)
7. Batman: White Knight by Sean Murphy (comic)
8. Noise by Darin Bradley (F)
9. A Walk with Whistler (NF)
10. Cinder by Marissa Meyer (F)
11. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (F)
12. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (F)
13. White Whine by Streeter Seidel (NF)
14. Ulysses by James Joyce (F)
15. Look at the Birdy by Kurt Vonnegut (F)
16. Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut (F)
17. The World According to Garp by John Irving (F)
18. The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau (F)
19. Nuclear Dawn by Kyla Stone (F)
20. Point of Impact by Kyla Stone (F)
21. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (F)
22. The Cider House Rules by John Irving (F)
23. The Stand by Stephen King (F)
24. The Wheels of Time by Robert Jordan (F)
25. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (F)
26. The Boys Volume 1 by Garth Ennis (comic)
27. The Boys Volume 2 by Garth Ennis (comic)
28. The Boys Volume 3 by Garth Ennis (comic)
29. The Boys Volume 4 by Garth Ennis (comic)
30. The Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way (comic)
31. Fight Write by Carla Hoch (NF)
Not interested in any of these books? Then check out my absurdist comedies, The United States of Walmart and Cheshire Moon here!