The Best Books I Read in 2015

This was originally published as part of my monthly reading newsletter.

Beginning in early 2014, inspired by Ryan Holiday’s Reading Recommendation Email, I began my own version of it, first on Tumblr, then on TinyLetter. Ryan’s version has over 40,000 subscribers and mine does not, so it’s not like I was trying to undercut him, but rather to simply champion the practice of reading and also give insight into the books I did consume since I’m often asked about the books I’ve read.

This is the second year of my reading list (here is the best of 2014) and I wanted to read more this year. While I did, I still fell short of my goal. In total, I polished off 29 works of fiction and 30 non-fiction books. But, to be fair, I also published two books of my own — one a collection of short stories, one a collection of sports and pop culture essays — so those took some time. Plus, I do have a family and a career.

Still, I’m hoping for more in 2016.

There was also an unexpected benefit to writing the newsletter: it made me a more engaged reader, particularly with non-fiction books. It led to me taking notes and actually forced me to take something away from the words rather than just racing to finish the book and put it back on the shelf without retaining anything.

Below are the best books I read in 2015. This list will be different than most because only a few of them actually came out this year — that’s just when I finally got to know them. There are plenty of celebrated works that were released this year — Between the World and Me, Dead Wake, A Spool of Blue Thread — that I simply haven’t gotten to yet.

Please be aware that I bring my own baggage and these rankings are simply my opinions and not an objective critique on whether these books were good or bad. It won’t be the first time my feelings on books differed from that of the general public.

While I struggled with choosing the second and third spots for both categories, the top choices in both fiction and non-fiction were slam dunks. Both are among the greatest books I’ve ever read and I’ve spent much of my time recommending them to anyone that will listen.