I only read six books this year. Eight if you count the 50 page summaries I read of How To Influence People and Millionaire Next Door, two popular business books.

Regardless, the total was less than half of what I normally devour in a year — a little over one a month. No matter. I’d like to think I’m doing this instead.

Still, I’d like to read more next year. So before starting The Space Merchants, The Power Broker, and a dozen more samples I have downloaded to my Kindle, these are the books I enjoyed most in 2015: 

1. The Last Place on Earth. Roland Huntford’s account of the 1911 South Pole race between Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott is well-researched, inspiring, and downright legendary. I adore it.
2. Console Wars. This non-fiction by Blake Harris has it all: your childhood, the answer to your next marketing challenge, cultural divides, innocence, under bellies, triumph, and loss. It’s also a whole lotta fun.
3. Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. If it weren’t for a slow second quarter where very little happens, I would rank this much higher. There are parts in the third quarter where I was gulping and gasping, it’s so intense.
4. From Russia With Love. Wildly regarded as the greatest James Bond novel, the real star of the book is the menacing villain (aka Grant).
5. At Home: Short History of Domestic Life. Not as good as Bill Bryson’s masterful Short History of Nearly Everything. Nevertheless, At Home will make you appreciate each room in your home as well as modern living.

Honorable mention: Death on the Nile. It’s a page-turner, but not as good as Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Murder of Roger Ackroyed, Murder on The Orient Express, and Cards on the Table in that order.

See also:

• My favorite books of 2014
• All my book reviews