Last updated this list on 31st December 2016; 36 books in about 52 weeks, averaging about two thirds of a book a week. I have read quite a bit of science fiction this year, plus the usual politics and history.

I have put in bold those which I consider to be the five best books I have read this year. But they’re all good books, since I have only listed those books which I actually finished (and I tend to give up on books that aren’t good).

2016 books

  1. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
  2. One L by Scott Turow
  3. The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
  4. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
  5. Believer: My Forty Years in Politics by David Axelrod
  6. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
  7. Augustus: First Emperor of Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy
  8. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (re-read)
  9. I, Claudius by Robert Graves
  10. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
  11. The Fear Index by Robert Harris
  12. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris (re-read)
  13. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (re-read)
  14. Hannibal by Thomas Harris (re-read)
  15. Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (re-read)
  16. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (re-read)
  17. Claudius the God by Robert Graves
  18. The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe
  19. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  20. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
  21. The Magician King by Lev Grossman
  22. The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman
  23. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany
  24. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (re-read)
  25. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest by Stieg Larsson (re-read)
  26. Citizens of the Green Room by Mark Leibovich
  27. The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
  28. This Town by Mark Leibovich
  29. Death’s End by Cixin Liu
  30. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (re-read) (7 books really, but since they’re short let’s count them as one)
  31. The Artemis Fowl series (don’t judge) (8 books really, but aimed at 12 year-olds so let’s count them as one)
  32. The Martian by Andy Weir
  33. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
  34. The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
  35. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
  36. Conclave by Robert Harris