2023 in Review
This wrap is largely inspired by the End of Year Survey created by Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner.
2023 Reading Stats
Number of Books Read: 64
I feel like I’ve been averaging around 60 books the last couple of years. But the number is still surprising since I was in a massive reading slump during the last few months.
Number of Re-Reads: 4
That included Fourth Wing, which I read twice last year (once in April and then again in November). Still, that’s less than I expected, to be honest.
Number of Books from Shelves: 0.5
Technically one, The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi, but since it was a reread, I’m only going to count it as half.
Other Fun Stats
- First read of the year: Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison
- Last read of the year: Double Exposure by Rien Gray
- Total pages read: 23,457 pages
- Best reading month: June (18.75% of books read, 19.22% of total pages read)
- Most read author: Nalini Singh (30 books aka 46.88% of all books read)
Best Books of 2023
Favorite Book I Read In 2023
Honestly, this is a hard one, especially since I was the definition of a mood reader in 2023. But here are my top 4 (in no particular order)
- Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
- Allegiance of Honor by Nalini Singh
- Archangel’s War by Nalini Singh
- The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter
Book I Was Excited About & Thought Was Going to Love More
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, which I constantly accidently referred to as “The Unfinished Life of Addie LaRue”, probably inspired by The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin.
I know a lot of book love this book, but for whatever reason, I just could not get into it. I thought the beginning was quite promising but gradually grew more and more disinterested as it went on.
Book I Read In 2023 That I’d Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year
Not quite sure, but probably something written by Nalini Singh – I’m on a mission to make her my most read author again.
She has a new book in the Guild Hunter series publishing this year, so I might reread some of those books. And I want to finish reading the Trinity portion of the Psy-Changeling series so I might reread some of those books as well.
Shortest & Longest Book I Read In 2023
Shortest: Home for Christmas by Charity Ferrell (61 pages)
Longest: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (623 pages)
(According to StoryGraph)
Most Challenging Thing About Blogging or Reading in 2023
Time & motivation.
Looking Ahead
Book I Didn’t Get to in 2023 But Will Be My #1 Priority in 2024
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole! I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of it and am determined to read it before it’s released on Tuesdsay.
2024 Goals & Resolutions
I have six bookish / reading-related goals for this year. They’re all pretty much the same ones as the goals I set for 2022, with some minor differences.
Read at least one page every day
I had a variation of this goal from 2022 that worked out pretty well – to read for at least 15 minutes everyday. So I decided to continue it in 2023, but unlike 2022, it didn’t go well. Life was busier so I had less free time to read. And it became quite stressful to find 15 minutes to sit down and read, especially if I was between books (I would then sometimes spend hours looking for a book to read).
But still, I need some extra motivation to pick up a book and try to read, for however long I can, every single day. I think part of why my reading slump in 2023 went on for so long and got so bad, was that I wouldn’t even try reading. And had no motivation to try. By not even attempting to read, the reading slumps just dragged on, when they could have ended if I had just found and tried to read the right book.
Read 60 books
My usual goal has been 52 books but I feel like I’ve been hitting it pretty consistently so it’s time to up the ante and raise the goal to 60.
Read books off my physical TBR
Same goal from 2023 and 2022 and 2021 and, well you get the idea.
It’s also a goal I’ve more or failed to reach, or make any decent progress on, all these years.
I’m going to try to read at least 6 books from my own shelves in 2024, even though I had the same goal in 2023 and only ended up reading 0.5.
To be fair, I think part of the issue is the fact that I mainly own young adult books, but haven’t been as interested in YA lately, as I have been in the past.
Limit book buying
Pretty self explanatory.
Remember my motto
More than anything, I want to focus more on actually reading instead of just talking about reading. Reading and relaxing and having fun that way, should be prioritized ahead of spending time online and scrolling through social media.
How was your 2023?
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