79. Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

(I am aware that this is a comic rather than a book, but I'm counting it nevertheless because it was equivalent time-wise. And look! The cover even refers to it as a novel.)

Watchmen depicts the adventures of a few masked vigilantes towards the end of their socially acceptable reign of power. Nuclear war draws ever closer, both pushed forward and impeded by the presence of Dr Manhattan, a true super hero. Society is very unstable, and there are some out there that want to take advantage of that to tip the future into the channel they prefer.

Several of my friends are comic fans, but I've never really gotten that involved with them before. I really enjoyed reading Watchmen, not only because the story was chaotic enough to be interesting while still being straightforward enough to understand, but because I enjoyed the medium as well. Comics are much more visual than books, and it's quite fun to read a story mostly through dialogue and images. I had a bit of trouble reading this at first due to computer display issues, but once I had located a paperback copy at my local library, I was able to dive right in to the story. Definitely worth a look.