Uncanny Tales: Storytime for Adults

I was honored that Chris Humphreys recently read some of my short fiction as part of the Vancouver Public Library's "Uncanny Tales: Storytime for Adults" series.

In a delightful dark and black and white setting, Chris reads my short stories "That Old Silk Hat They Found" and "Browsers."

"That Old Silk Hat They Found" is a tale that appears in my mini short story collection Snowman Shivers: Dark Humor Snowman Tales and is about my perception of what might really happen should a snowman come to life.

"Browsers" is the tale of a bookshop that feeds, like a Venus flytrap for book nerds, and appears in my mini-story collection Active Reader: And Other Cautionary Tales from the Book World.

 

 

You can see the video here.

Chris has, so far, narrated a few of my horror story collections.

Bumps in the Night: Creepy Campfire Tales

 

Night Cries (Nocturnal Screams Volume 1)

 

 Ode to Classics (Nocturnal Screams Volume 2)

 

Meet The Author: Burlington Public Library

On Aug 31, 2021 Burlington Public Library is hosting an event with me.

 

During the event I'll be sharing my journey through writing and publishing, the inspiration and origin of my "Canadian Werewolf" series, and an excerpt from my most recent novel in that series: Fear and Longing in Los Angeles.

The event is free, but you'll have to register online in order to attend.

Best Book Ever Podcast: Neil Peart's Traveling Music

I was a guest on a recent episode, Episode 58 of the Best Book Ever Podcast.

Book worm host Julie Strauss and I talked about Neil Peart's memoir Traveling Music: The Soundtrack of my Life and Times.

 This was my second appearance as a guest on the show, and I was honored to learn that I was the first repeat guest that Julie'd had. (I chatted about George R. Stewart's Earth Abides on my previous appearance, which was in Episode 9).

I am, admittedly, a lifelong fan of Neil Peart, and of the rock band Rush. I fell in love with the band first for their meaningful and brilliantly crafted lyrics, which Peart writes. So when he started to write books, I was obviously along for the amazing ride.

It was intriguing to talk to Julie about this book because I loved it, and she had a few issues with it. But when you can have a meaningful and respectful conversation about something you don't agree about, that's when interesting growth and introspection can happen.

And it's always been about growth and introspection when I read Peart's lyrics or his prose.

 

Haunted Canada Road Trip (Virtual)

If you have young ones in the home looking for something fun (and a little creepy) to do, why not check out this great series of videos from my friend and fellow horror author, Joel A. Sutherland.

(In all honesty, you don't have to be a kid to enjoy them - you can be, like me, a kid at heart. Because I've been loving this series)

Click here to see the Playlist of YouTube Videos

Joel is the Silver Birch Award-winning author of the Haunted Canada series and has been called Canada's answer to R. L. Stine by Quill & Quire.

To top it off, he's a great guy, and a librarian. C'mon, how COULDN'T you love the guy?

Joel, who was born in Ottawa, kindly wrote the introduction to my adult non-fiction book Creepy Capital: Ghost Stories of Ottawa and the National Capital Region.

As of today (March 26, 2020), there are 9 segments of Joel's daily Haunted Canada Road Trip.

Definitely worth checking out.

Here's the first one in the series about a haunted hospital in BC.

 Enjoy!!!

There's Something Here As Strong As Life

"Suddenly you were gone

From all the lives you left your mark upon

- I remember."

-Neil Peart, Afterimage, Grace Under Pressure (RUSH)

Earlier this week the world lost legendary drummer and author Neil Peart. Peart, who was born on Sept 12, 1952 in Hamilton, Ontario died in Santa Monica on Jan 7, 2020. RUSH and Peart's family made the announcement late on Friday Jan 10th.

“It is with broken hearts and the deepest sadness that we must share the terrible news that on Tuesday our friend, soul brother and band mate of over 45 years, Neil, has lost his incredibly brave three and a half year battle with brain cancer,” began a statement from Rush. He was 67.

I first learned about Peart when my dear friend Pete Mihajic insisted that I listen to the 1984 album, Grace Under Pressure.

I had been spending a lot of time thinking and reading about anxieties over potential nuclear war and gotten involved in some nuclear disarmament groups. Pete said that this RUSH album had themes that were reminiscent. Certainly, the album's first track "Distant Early Warning" brought that to mind, as did many of the other tracks, such as "The Enemy Within" and "Red Sector A" - although I later learned of Peart's inspiration for the song of a prison camp being inspired by fellow bandmate Geddy Lee's mother's accounts of surviving the holocaust.

I listened to Grace Under Pressure over and over and over on the cassette tape that Pete recorded for me. Then I went out and bought the album. Then the cassette.

I fell in love with the thoughtful and pensive lyrics, the musical styling, everything about this band.

As an interesting aside, earlier this month an anthology of science fiction stories, Galaxia was published which includes a short story called "Grace Under Pressure" which I'd originally wrote to try to sell to Kevin J. Anderson for an anthology he was editing. Because I knew he was a huge RUSH fan I titled it that as a nod to our favorite band. ;) I didn't sell the story to Kevin, but was able to get it into this other anthology.

Then I bought the album Signals which also resonated with me with songs such as "Subdivisions" and "The Analog Kid" which were stark reminders of growing up as a nerd who never felt like he fit in. I wrote articles for the high school newspaper about how the songs resonated with me.

RUSH became a centerpiece for my friendship with Pete and Steve Gaydos and John Ellis.

 

 

 

 

 

I actually can't count the number of RUSH concerts that we saw together over the years. And I would never be able to count the number of hours we listened to their music and talked about the meaning of the songs. We loved that the guys of RUSH seemed to be more like us (nerds) than they were larger than life rock stars. They were three best friends who thought of one another like brothers and enjoyed making music and playing together for forty years.

 

But I got a little ahead of myself there. After discovering how much I loved Grace Under Pressure and Signals I moved on to get more backlist albums like Fly By Night and their first album, Rush. That first album did not include Peart, and so many of the lyrics weren't as philosophical and pensive. But John and I used to play many tracks from it before heading to high school dances, in particular the song "In The Mood" because it was, as the song lyrics go, roughly "a quarter to eight" when we were listening to it and getting ready to head to the dance.

The title track off of "Fly By Night" has been a song that has been with me through virtually every single significant change in my life over the decades. I first showed up to play it for Steve when he moved away to college, then it became my "acknowledge" change song for so many things.

I, of course, worked my way through all of their albums, and so many of their songs have been the backdrop to the soundtrack of my life in so many ways.

"Hold your fire
Keep it burning bright
Hold the flame
'Til the dream ignites
A spirit with a vision
Is a dream with a mission

I hear their passionate music
Read the words
That touch my heart
I gaze at their feverish pictures
The secrets that set them apart

When I feel the powerful visions
Their fire has made alive
I wish I had that instinct
I wish I had that drive"

Neil Peart, Misson, Hold Your Fire (RUSH)

It's rare for me to get into any sort of meaningful conversation about something without likely bringing up something from a RUSH song lyric that pertains to the topic. From songs like "Entre Nous" or "Spirit of Radio" or "Cinderalla Man" or "Circumstances" or "Madrigal" or "Limelight" or "Marathon" or "Mystic Rhythms" or "Dreamline" or "Far Cry" or "Caravan" - oh, who am I kidding? There are too many songs so meaningful to me to mention.

RUSH's music has been an integral part of my life. And it will continue to be.

"Listen to my music

And hear what it can do

There's something here as strong as life

I know that it will reach you."

- Neil Peart, Presentation, 2112 (RUSH)

I met Liz in 2014, just as RUSH was beginning to near retirement. And, as I do, I shared many of the songs and meaning of the band, it's music, and it's trio of amazing people with her. We listened to plenty of their albums together, we watched Beyond the Lighted Stage together. Seeing the back story of this band helped her understand the depth of the importance they had to me. And we attended their final tour, the R40 tour, together, which was really special.

When I found out that Neil Peart also wrote fiction and non-fiction, I was beside myself with joy, gobbling up everything he wrote, from his first co-authored short story to his first non-fiction travel memoir, and all the way through his writing career.

 

I have loved all of his books, but if I had to pick a favorite, it might be Traveling Music: The Soundtrack to my Life and Times. One of my favorite pictures of me and my son when he was a baby, was of the two of us having an afternoon nap. On the nightstand there is a copy of Neil's book, which I was mid-way through reading at the time.

While I never had the pleasure of knowing Neil personally, I am good friends with Kevin J. Anderson, who has long been a close friend of Neil. Considering how private a person Peart was, and the fact that he enjoyed working hard as a drummer, lyricist and writer, but was never comfortable in the role of celebrity and the way that fans fawn over and place them on pedestals, I was perfectly fine never trying to push through that veil. Why make someone uncomfortable for no good reason. I could admire and respect the man and his phenomenal work without having to gush in person to him about the incredibly powerful and positive inspiration he had on my life.

"Living in a fisheye lens
Caught in the camera eye
I have no heart to lie
I can't pretend a stranger
Is a long awaited friend."

- Neil Peart, Limelight, Moving Pictures (RUSH)

The closest I suppose I ever got to him was when I re-published a short story that Neil Peart and Kevin J. Anderson wrote called "Drumbeats" in the 2012 anthology I edited, Tesseracts Sixteen: Parnassus Unbound. Tesseracts was an anthology to spotlight Canadian authors, and Anderson is the only American to make it into the series, because his co-author, Peart, was Canadian.

When my buddy Kevin was in town to launch the novel Clockwork Angels, he stayed at my place in Hamilton, and at the celebratory dinner of the book launch with Peart and ECW, Kevin brought a copy of the anthology so that Neil could sign a copy for me.

 

It was an honour to bring back into print a story that I have long adored. And, earlier this week, I had the privilege of bringing it to more readers, as I have included "Drumbeats" in the guest editor issue of Pulphouse magazine that I just turned in to Dean Wesley Smith and WMG Publishing. It'll be out later this year.

Several years back, Kevin and I were enjoying craft beers on a patio at The Winking Judge in Hamilton when he invited me to submit a story to an anthology he was co-editing that was going to be called 2113 and feature stories inspired by the music of RUSH. The title story would be written by Kevin J. Anderson, and be a sequel to the story told in the RUSH album 2112. He told me to pick a song that hadn't already been spoken for, and to send him something.

I chose one of my absolute favorite RUSH songs, "Losing It" and wrote a story entitled "Some Are Born to Save the World." The beautiful and haunting song, "Losing It" explores the lives of a writer who can no longer create, and a dancer who can no longer dance as they age and their mind and body begin to fail them.

"Some are born to move the world

To live their fantasies

Most of us just dream about

The things we'd like to be

Sadder still to watch it die

Than never to have known it

For you the blind who once could see

The bell tolls for thee"

- Neil Peart, Losing It, Signals, RUSH

My story was about a superhero who could no longer save people as he reaches old age and his own body and powers begin to fail him.

It was a significant honor to re-publish a story co-authored by Anderson and Peart. But it was another truly unique honor to be able to write a story inspired by one of my favorite RUSH songs of all time.

The book cover features the "Starman" from the album cover for 2112 standing up to his knees in water and facing away from the viewer. I can ALWAYS tell a RUSH fan when I have the book at a comic con or other show where I have an author table, because they recognize the font and styling of the cover as matching 2112 from across the room and often stop, turn, then make a bee-line to the table to pick up the book as if it were some magical oracle.

I know that look, because it's likely the look I get on my face every time a RUSH song starts to play.

Because I know I'm about to be transported into some special place.

"As the years went by, we drifted apart
When I heard that you were gone
I felt a shadow cross my heart"

- Neil Peart, Nobody's Hero, Counterparts

I have written and spoken about Neil Peart countless times over the years. The words and music and example that he set continue to inspire me, and will continue to inspire me.

Thank you, Neil Peart, for the amazing gifts that you shared with the world, for the inspiration in all of the truly remarkable work that you left behind.

You will be missed. But you will be remembered and honored.

[EDIT - On Jan 14 I recorded a special Thanks for the Inspiration: Neil Peart episode of my Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing Podcast, which includes a bit of this same info]

Books Don't Go Bad, They Just Page Away

As a life-long book nerd, I'm pretty pumped to be part of a bundle of novels and stories all focused on books and bookish things.

The BOOKS GONE BAD BUNDLE, from BundleRabbit, is a collection of nearly 260,000 words of 2 novels and 10 stories from 11 authors and is certain to be an excellent 24 hours or so of reading for those who revel in book-themed tales.

Using the catch-phrase "Speculative Tales about a Uniquely Portable Magic" (in reference to the quote from Stephen King), the bundle, which is available at all major eBook retailers, contains:

• "Clockwork Lives" by Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart (Novel)
• "Quest for the Three Books" by Dawn Blair (Novel)
• "These Chains" by Dayle A. Dermatis (Story)
• "Warning! Do Not Read This Story!" by Robert Jeschonek (Story)
• "The Page Turners" by DeAnna Knippling (Story)
• "Active Reader" by Mark Leslie (3 Story Collection)
• "Guardian of the Grimoire" by Karen McCullough (Novella)
• "The Story for the Letters" by Kate MacLeod (Story)
• "Petra and the Blue Goo" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Story)
• "Invasion of the Book Snatchers" by Ryan M. Williams (Story)

My own collection of three bookish themed stories, Active Reader, is a part of the bundle and was the genesis for the idea for the bundle. I love bookish themed stories and I wanted to see if there was a way to collect a bunch of them together to give other book nerds like me an easy way to read a bunch of book-centric tales of books, booksellers and librarians.

The bundle, as mentioned, is available at all major eBook retailers. You can get to it by following any of the links below:

BundleRabbit Page: With full synopsis of bundle and each individual eBook - and retailer link
Books2Read.com (links to all retailers, including Kindle, Kobo, Apple and Nook)

5 Ways To Use Free As An Author

When I was recording a recent episode of the Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing podcast, I began reflecting on the various ways that an author can leverage FREE in order to build their author platform.

Below are those points, quickly summarized.

1) To Get Readers Hooked on a New Series

Offering the first book in a series free can bring a large funnel of new readers to your books. And, for authors who perhaps don't have more than a few books in that series, sometimes offering a free short story that is linked to that series is a great way to get people to try out your characters and their unique world/setting.

Examples:

Finding Inspiration in Everything

I was pretty pumped to be interviewed by USA Today bestselling author Patricia McLinn on her relatively new podcast that focuses on readers.

AUTHORS LOVE READERS is a conversation between authors about how and why they create stories.

 
It was a heck of a lot of fun! 

The episode was entitled FINDING INSPIRATION IN EVERYTHING WITH MARK LESLIE.

I know Patricia from author circles and usually see her once a year at the annual NINC (Novelists, Inc) writer's conference in Florida. It was great to be able to catch up with her and to share some insights and reflections on the writing part of my life, which I have recently returned to with new dedication and conviction.

Patricia asked some great questions and pulled some interesting tidbits out of me as well, including why I chose to market my work as "horror" even though most of the material, though dark, doesn't quite go into what most people think of as horror.

Podcast: Stark Reflections on Capturing Reading Data via eBooks

In the third episode of the Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing podcast, Mark interviews Sinead McElhinney, PR Coordinator on the Communications team from Rakuten Kobo in Toronto, Ontario about some interesting reading data that Kobo released near the end of 2017. They discuss the analysis of reading data, understanding core eBook readers better, as well as some of Sinead’s favorite things about her role in the book industry.

Sinead and Mark at RT (Romantic Times) in Atlanta in May 2017 (May the 4th, if you catch the subtle hint from Mark's t-shirt)

During their conversation, Sinead and Mark discuss:

What Canadians Read in 2017

One of the things I always loved about Kobo was their willingness to share insights about reading data.

I rec'd two messages from Kobo today that really tickled me.

One was about my Kobo Reading Life. (And yes, when I created Kobo Writing Life I DID base it on the already awesome "Reading Life" program the company had crafted)

Interesting to see how much MORE reading I have done in the past month compared to the one before that. Not working 60 to 80 hours a week can have that positive affect on a person's reading time. (I'm MUCH richer for the reading experience)

The other was a fascinating series of lists and stats about what Canadians were reading on Kobo in 2017. Below are some snippets from that message:

Dark Tales on the Street

Thanks to the support of my publisher (Dundurn) and the Ontario Media Development Corporation, I was able to accept the request from the good folks at The Word on the Street Halifax to read from and discuss my latest ghost story book, Haunted Hospitals, co-written with Rhonda Parrish.

I love the city of Halifax and haven't been here since a little over three years ago. (Okay, I was back in the area a couple of years ago, but drove past Halifax on the way to Hubbards, a beautiful community on St. Margarets Bay)

It was wonderful to be back. Halifax is a gorgeous city to walk around, and this time, the weather (a bit seasonably warmer than normal for mid Sept), was glorious.


I attended the pre-event reception on Friday night, getting a chance to mingle with other writers, including hanging out with Nicola R. White. Then, on the walk back to my hotel, I took a slight detour to check out the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site. It was, of course, closed, but the fog that had rolled in off the ocean created a delightfully eerie view, and I marveled in it as I walked quietly through the dark fog.

The Word on the Street itself, which is a single full day of bookish goodness, was wonderful. I had the chance to mingle and chat with wonderful publishers, authors and booksellers, and even ran into my old friend and fellow horror and ghost-story writer, Steve Vernon.

For my author appearance, I shared the stage with another Dundurn author, Lorna Poplak, author of Drop Dead: A Horrible History of Hanging in Canada for a session called "Dark Tales." Lorna's book is fascinating, and the readings and talk she did on it were stellar. I also think that our books and the things we discussed were quite complimentary and over-lapped nicely.

 

Below are a few pictures of WOTS Halifax as well as the absolutely beautiful Halifax Central Public Library location (where it was held).

After WOTS was over I had the chance to do some more walking around. This time I sought out the Victoria General Hospital where I did a Facebook Live video sharing one of the stories from Haunted Hospitals about the ghost of the Old Grey Nun, and then proceeded to explore a few of the newer wonderful breweries that Halifax has to offer.

In all, a wonderful trip filled with bookish delights and wonderful Halifax sights.

My 2015 In Reading

Wow. So I only posted 3 articles to my blog in 2015. And I didn't even do the annual summation of the books I had read the year before either.

Hoping to kick-start this year into at least 12 posts -- let's see if I can do at least 1 post every month, shall we?
 

HIGH LEVEL SUMMARY OF MY PAST YEAR IN BOOKS

Here's a bit from my year in books as summarized by Goodreads.

• I read 41 books in 2015 (not counting the ones I had to read for work, ie, as an editor).
• The shortest book I read was 45 pages (Kevin J. Anderson's Million Dollar Productivity)
• The longest book I read was 495 pages (Stephen King's The Bazaar of Bad Dreams)
• The most popular book I read was The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins 
• (I'm most surprised that Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchman wasn't the most popular one)
•  I enjoyed at least three (perhaps four depending on how you classify them) romance novels in the past year. Two Marie Force novels, one straight out romance (Maid for Love), another romantic suspense (Fatal Affair), one Liliana Hart romantic comedy/suspense (Whiskey Rebellion) and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project
• I only read 3 non-fiction books in the past year. Odd, I normally like to read more. In fact, I'm sure I read more - at least one or two other non-fiction books for writers. Perhaps I missed recording a few. Will have to go back and double check that.

I won't break the list down the way I have in years past -- simply, I'll list the books that I most enjoyed having read in the past year, linking to each one.  In no particular order, here at the books I loved the most from my 2015 reading:

Poles Apart - Terry Fallis

The Damned - Andrew Pyper

12 - Sean Platt & David Wright

Clockwork Lives - Kevin J. Anderson

Last Call - Sean Costello

The Martian - Andy Weir

The Crossing - Michael Connelly

The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion

Fatal Affair - Marie Force

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

The Eerie Elevator at Waterdown Public Library

It was a slightly rainy, windy and overcast night at Waterdown Public Library

Last night I did a talk and reading from Tomes of Terror: Haunted Bookstores and Libraries at Waterdown Public Library. The location is included in a chapter of my book and talks about the eerie elevators there and the fact that, despite being checked for mechanical error, they often have a life of their own, opening for no reason when nobody has pushed the call button and even trapping people between the two floors.

A #horrorselfie in front of the tombstones at WPL

The elevators started acting in this manner shortly after a pair of tombstones from Waterdown founders Alexander Brown and Merren Grierson were found and placed on display at the library.

One of the many signs advertising this talk/reading

I had a blast with the staff of the library, who were all awesome. But I mean, really, how could bookish people not be amazing? The library was decorated with all kinds of great Halloween displays, appropriate spooky-themed reading for adults and kids alike, and they had wonderfully creative signs hung all over the store announcing the event, which took place on the second floor in the children's section.

Barnaby, all set up and ready for the talk and reading

I casually relayed several of the stories from my new book, as well as from Haunted Hamilton, then I read from two short chapters and wrapped up the evening with the tale of "The Legend of Prospero's Ghost" - a story about my own personal experience with this ghost at McMaster University.

The awesome Waterdown Library staff posing in front of the elevators/tomestones

The interesting thing is that, even though the library was closed and all staff and patrons were upstairs listening to me tell my tale, the elevator door to the second floor opened twice on its own. Sara, one of the staff members there, told me this took place during my talk - it's a good thing I didn't notice it myself, otherwise I might have run screaming from the building.

Sara and Kari posing with Barnaby

I am a big chicken, after all . . .

Events Week of Halloween

For a writer of dark fiction and true ghostly tales, the week leading up to Halloween is often a busy one. Not only do I have a new non-fiction book out - TOMES OF TERROR: Haunted Bookstores & Libraries, but my new novel I, DEATH is also currently making its way into the world.

Here is my schedule for this week.

Tuesday October 28th - 7:30 PM - Waterdown Branch, Hamilton Public Library
(25 Mill Street North, Waterdown, ON)
Reading, talk and book signing, including stories about the haunted elevator at the Waterdown Branch

Tuesday October 28th - 10 PM Eastern - TBR Podcast Interview
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JZjkgO5v8U)
Author Mark Leslie Lefebvre joins TBR to talk about scary books. Post apocalyptic fiction, horror, thrillers - anything scary is game! Live listeners, please note we'll be running at 10PM EST this week. Jamie Maltman, Michael La Ronn and Patrick Stemp will see you there!

Wednesday October 29th - 7:00 PM - Terryberry Branch, Hamilton Public Library)
(100 Mohawk Road West, Hamilton, ON)
Reading, talk and book signing, including a couple of stories involving the Terryberry Branch of HPL

Thursday October 30th - Merril Collection, Lillian H. Smith Branch, Toronto Public Library
(239 College Street, Toronto, ON)
Shining a Light on the Dark Side
The Friends of the Merril Collection present a discussion of horror writing and publishing in Canada, featuring members of the Horror Writers Association: Sephera Giron, Mark Leslie, Nancy Kilpatrick, and Richard S. Todd. This event will take place in the Merril Collection reading room on the 3rd floor of the Lillian Smith branch.

Friday October 31st - CHCH Morning Live - Approximately 8 AM
At approximately 8 AM on CHCH Morning Live, Mark and his skeleton mascot Barnaby Bones will be in studio making an appearance on the morning program to share a few creepy tales about haunted bookstores and libraries.

Friday October 31st - Evening
Mark Leslie will be Trick or Treating with his son!!!!

Another Great Night Out With Authors

I had an amazing time at a recent ChiSeries Toronto reading on Wednesday night. A great crowd, I got to share the stage with two amazing writers and a couple of fantastic musicians.  Good times.

Looking forward to another Toronto reading event with multiple for a reading series called Night Out With Authors.

Monday, January 20, 2014

featuring   Mark Leslie,  Kate Maddison,   Margaret Moore and   
Open Mic for Writers*

Doors Open at 6:30 at the Tranzac Club Readings begin at 7:15

One of the things I love about Night Out With Authors is that the have Open Mic for Writers as part of the evening.

This allows writers who want a chance to share their work or even cut their chops on getting public reading experiences a great chance to do so.

There is a $5 cover to get in that night, but it does look like it'll be a wonderful evening.

January Brings Cold Plus Cool Readings

I am delighted to be one of the authors featured at this month's ChiSeries Toronto readings on Wednesday January 15th from 8PM to 11PM.

I will be reading alongside the amazing Gemma Files (whom I haven't seen in ages it seems) and the wonderful Emily Pohl-Weary (whom I'm looking forward to meeting).  Kari Maaren will be the evening's musical guest.

I have only been to a couple of the ChiSeries readings, but have avidly enjoyed each one. Great people, good conversation and fun readings.

Here is the Facebook Events page for it.

If you're in the neighbourhood of Augusta & Dundas (Augusta is about halfway between Bathurst & Spadina on Dundas St. W), pop in for a fun evening.

Top 10 Books Read in 2013

For the past several years, I have written post summarizing the best 10 books that I read in the previous year.  I have found it a lot of fun. Of course, since I'm such a slow reader and I quite enjoyed MOST of the books I read each year, it's really hard to narrow it down to only 10.  My "short-list" is likely closer to 20 books, which makes it really difficult, since some amazing reads ended up not in the top 10.

Here are the basic rules I follow for this annual post:

a) The book has to be completed within the calendar year. So, even if I started reading a book the previous year it only counts when I actually finish reading it.  I also don't include books that I abandoned mid-way through reading (which I do quite often I'm afraid - sometimes I get back to them, when I do, I count them only once completed)

b) This is a list of books I READ in 2013 - so this isn’t a “Best Books of 2013” lists - it’s a personal list of my favourite books which I read in the last calendar year.  (Thus, there will be plenty of titles that were published well before 2013 on my list)

c) I don’t count the children’s picture books that I read with my son. Not because I don’t think of them as books - they are wonderful books - but we go through them so quickly (and so many times) that I couldn't possibly keep up with tracking them. (I DO, however, count mostly text based young reader and young adult books that I read - usually because they’re not books that can be read in a single short sitting -- ie, they take longer to consume and thus aren’t likely to be missed on my list)

A few summary stats:

I read 53 books in 2013.  Not bad. I was shooting to hit at least 52 and did okay. Not great. Not shabby. Satisfactory.  Of course, 4 of those books were graphic novels and 7 of them were under 30,000 words.  But I still considered the reading experience unique and worth culling out separately.

• 38 FICTION
• 15 NON-FICTION
• (4 were graphic novels)
• (18 of the books I listened to in audio format)
• (9 of the books on this list were read in print - 26 of them were eBooks) - I did, however, purchase 12 of the books print.  (Yes, I buy more print books than I read - I bought at least another dozen or so books for myself last year that I haven't yet read and at least two dozen more books that were given to other people......curse of the book nerd)

Here are the TOP 10 FICTION BOOKS that I enjoyed the most reading in 2013. 

  
THE BLACK BOX - Michael Connelly
I love Harry Bosch, and this is another enjoyable read. Beautiful story, great twists, incredible mystery.

THE DEMONOLOGIST - Andrew Pyper
Another triumph from Pyper - a terrifying thriller ride following a Milton scholar on a trip through hell as he tries to find his daughter who was taken by a demon. 
 
DOCTOR SLEEP - Stephen King
I was impressed with King's look at how the traumatic events of "The Shining" affected Danny, including the alcoholism and drug abuse related to trying to block out his "talent." 
 
DEVOURED - Jason Brant
Brant is a solid writer whose prose and this post-apocalyptic thriller with an intriguing plague that turns people first into "slow zombies" and then more dangerous powerful "vampire-like" creatures kept me hooked from beginning to end

FANGIRL - Rainbow Rowell
I was told to read "Eleanor & Park" first, but this one captured my attention first. I love the way Rowell riffs off Harry-Potter type craze and particularly how she explores the world of fan fiction from the writer's perspective.

FAT VAMPIRE - Johnny B. Truant
This could, so easily, have turned into one of those short cute jokes turned into a SNL type skit that runs way too long, but Truant takes the premise and portrays Reginald (the hero) in a sympathetic and compassionate light. It's funny, but also suspenseful and satisfying. I immediately went on to read Fat Vampire 2: Tastes Like Chicken. (There are 6 books in total in this great series

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS - John Green
This one hung out on my "to read" pile for quite a while. I kicked myself for having waited to get into it. Despite the tear-inspiring moments and teenage angst, there are some fun and interesting characters that kept me reading and enjoying thoroughly.

GONE GIRL - Gillian Flynn
Wow. So I avoided this one because it was so damn popular and I guess I didn't realize how much of a fantastic thriller it would be. It caught me by surprise and delighted me.  The "he said" / "she said" dual-ling perspective was incredibly well done by Flynn.
 
ORIGIN - J.A. Konrath
An incredible techno-thriller with all the elements that makes Michael Crichton great combined with a good solid dose of sci-fi arguments regarding religion and the universe merged with a nice punch of fear and terror.

A TAP ON THE WINDOW - Linwood Barclay
Barclay's thrillers are always satisfying, and this one, involving missing people, small town cover-ups, other secrets that may or may not have something to do with suspicious activities from the police, and the tragic suicide of a teenage son, is no exception. Brilliantly written.

Here are the TOP 5 NON-FICTION Books that I read this past year:

DRAWING OUT THE DRAGONS - James A.Owen
Owen is a wonderful inspiration, and this incredible little book is perfect for writers, artists and creators of any sort. Owen provides tremendous perspective on such things as not sacrificing something you want the most for something you want the most this moment

THE POWER OF HABIT - Charles Duhigg
A wonderful look at habits, including the underlying reasons behind the habits that we make, the hidden motivations that drive us to continue our habit-forming ways, and the reason why it is virtually impossible to break a habit, but not to replace one.

SALT, SUGAR, FAT - Michael Moss
Startling, intriguing and informative. You'll never look at the food industry or processed food the same way again. I'm actually a little surprised I haven't bought some land and starting growing all my own food after reading this.
 
SELL YOUR BOOK LIKE WILDFIRE - Rob Eager
I bought this after watching Eager on stage at a digital book event in New York. He was engaging and informative and entertaining, so I bought the book shortly after his talk. The book itself is well-done and, despite having read numerous books on promotion, I made a ton of notes in the margins of this one.

TRAFFIC - Tom Vanderbilt
Before reading this book I always thought that "late mergers" (the folks who rush to the end of an open lane whenever a lane is ending on a highway) were selfish jerks. But, understanding traffic flow better, I realize the longer people stay in that lane, the better traffic flows for everyone.  (So long as the jerks don't cut people off and drive like idiots while doing so)


Above I have linked to each author's own web page.  For purchasing the books, I'm sure there's a "world's longest river" that everybody knows about, but I'd like to also recommend trying to keep the money you spend on books as local as possible and check the books our at your favourite local bookstore.  Indiebound.org has a listing of  indie bookstores in Canada and the US. (And, hey, if you're in the US, your favourite local bookstore is also likely able to be able to sell you the eBook too, via a collaboration between Kobo and the ABA......check out Indiebound.org)  There, I'll get down off my soapbox (for now).