I love my Osprey Porter 46 L backpack so much that I am declaring it my favorite item of 2014. I originally purchased it just for backpacking in Europe, but I've ended up using it for just about every other trip I've made. It's very well made, comfortable, deceptively spacious, and fits easily in all overhead compartments. Sure there were some occasions when I didn't want to run around with a heavy backpack on in the summer heat, but the incredible ease with which I could hop off a plane and navigate through stony alleyways and steep stairs was well worth it. Thanks Osprey Porter, you're the real MVP.
Honorable mention goes to Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead." Yeah, yeah, it was written in the 80s, but I read it this year so it's going in the 2014 category. When I first started reading it, I was expecting a direct sequel to "Ender's Game," not a completely different sort of story set 3000 years in the future with the same characters. But it is fantastically written - that character and background development, tension building, and political and military philosophy analysis. The second time I read it this year, I also read Card's introduction where he mentioned that he wrote "Ender's Game" because he was ultimately trying to eventually write "Speaker." Everything eventually points to the concept of a speaker for the dead who speaks on behalf of the deceased, not necessarily with a nice eulogy, but with an honest life biography that explains motivations and intentions rather than just actions. Highly, highly recommend this book.
Lastly, here are some of my favorite pictures from the year.
