Recently I was asked by Akylina of popular Literary Sisters blog if I had read anything interesting in 2018. I started drafting a response to her comment, but partway through realized I might as well make a short article about it while I was at it.
This year since I was busy translating I didn’t spend that much time on reading for pleasure, and I didn’t post reviews for every book I wrote. But as I went back and looked at the reviews I did post I was surprised to have read more than I thought I had.
So here is a list of top books that I read in 2018 (most were not published that year). It is a mix of books in Japanese and English.
- “Swim With an Elephant, Embracing a Cat”「猫を抱いて象と泳ぐ」 by 小川洋子 (Yoko Ogawa) [Review]
- “Invitation to a Beheading” by Vladimir Nabokov [Review]
- “Boy of Civilization” (文明の子) by Hikari Ota (太田 光) [Review]
- “Dark Matter” by Blake Crouch [Review]
While I didn’t remember too many details from some of these books, I still vividly remember “The Lightkeepers” by Abby Geni [Review], despite having read it a year earlier, in 2016.