I found quite a few books to be earthshakingly good this year, many more so than usual. I don’t know if this means it was the books that were better or if it was I who had become a better reader. I am of the perhaps mistaken notion that it is the reader that creates the book through reading, so I would be inclined to say that I had evolved in the past year, and that after one-third of a century I’m finally realizing how amazing a book can be. 

The best new novel I read was the Dalkey Archive’s translation of The Truth About Marie by Jean-Philippe Toussaint. There is an excerpt and a review of this book in the latest issue of Asymptote (here: http://bit.ly/uFyuno). The excerpt is stunning. 

The freshly reissued The Train by Georges Simenon (Melville House), is one that I have given away two copies of so far. This short French novel tells the story of an unexpected love affair on a train full of people fleeing their hometowns as Nazi tanks encroach. 

I first read The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa (Pantheon) this spring and it has firmly affixed its place as one of my two or three favorite novels of all time. Di Lampedusa writes with incredible humor and insight, which makes the story of a dying 19th century Italian aristocracy alluring even today. 

I just finished reading a 700 page manga by Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka titled Ayako (Vertical). Tezuka’s work ethic (like Simenon’s) had very few peers and it’s easy to get lost in the enormous worlds he created. Ayako is a family drama set in post-WWII Japan that skirts the line of the perverse. 

There were three great non-fiction books that came out this year that I had a chance to read. The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick (Pantheon) provided some much-needed context for our information-based society.

Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work! by Douglas Coupland (Atlas), a well-written biography of the media theorist, tread on similar ground while revealing a surprisingly spiritual side to McLuhan.

And Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (Simon and Schuster) was a worthy read and may convince you of the value of psychedelics, intuition, and following your own path.