Summary: I read 379 books, surpassing my reading goal! In my 2023 Wrap Up, I break down my reading habits, including my favourite reads and my plans for 2024!
Overview
In most wrap-ups, I feel like it’s the norm to comment on how fast time passed. But, reflecting back on 2023, last year felt long. I finished the first year of my graduate program on a high note, got a job for the summer, and started my last year of graduate school (at least for a while). I also travelled a lot, which hasn’t been a priority since before 2020.
With how busy 2023 was, I was concerned I wouldn’t reach my reading goal of 365 books. But luckily, my stress reading came in handy, and I managed to read a lot at the latter end of the year. I finished 2023 having read 379 books, surpassing my goal by 14 books. Unfortunately, I just missed my goal of reading 130,000 pages – I was 948 pages short (just two medium-length books)! My goal for the past few years has been to bring my average book length up, and I’m happy to report that my average book length was 334 pages, an increase of almost 30 pages from 2022. My average rating for 2023 was once again 3.9 stars. Of the 73 books I gave 5 stars to, 56% were re-reads.
Every year, part of what motivates me to read is the reading challenges I join. In 2023, I participated in nine challenges.
- TBR Knockout Challenge hosted by @CompletelyMelanie
- Buzzword Reading Challenge hosted by @BooksAndLala
- Alphabet Challenge
- Diverse Reading BINGO
- #12BooksByAfricanWriters hosted by @PrettyxBookish
- The StoryGraph Reads the World, hosted by The StoryGraph
- Beat the Backlist, hosted by Austine Decker
- 24 books over 500 pages
- 24 nonfiction books
✅ Buzzword Reading Challenge (12 of 12 complete)
✅ Beat the Backlist (52 of 52 complete)
✅ 24 books over 500 pages (25 of 24 complete)
❌ Diverse Reading BINGO (19 of 36 complete)
❌ #12BooksByAfricanWriters (5 of 12 complete)
❌ The StoryGraph Reads the World (4 of 10 complete)
❌ 24 nonfiction books (12 of 24 complete)
Similar to previous years, my yearly wrap up is data-centric. I go through my Goodreads Wrap Up, looking at the books I read that were the most popular, highest rated, my longest read, etc. I also identify my favourite books of each month and discuss my top 3 favourite books of 2023! Lastly, I dive into all the data, including my ratio of new reads to re-reads, most read authors, how many books I read from my backlist, and my diverse reads.
Goodreads Wrap Up
379 books read
129,052 pages read
Most Popular:
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Least Popular:
The Devil’s Own Dare by Alyssa Clarke
Highest Rated on Goodreads:
The Avatar’s Flight by Kristen Banet
My average book length in 2023 was 334 pages.
My average rating in 2023 was 3.9 stars.
My Shortest and Longest Reads of 2023
Shortest Book: The Lord Sorcier by Olivia Atwater
33 pages
This novella is a prequel to one of my favourite historical romances of 2023, Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater. I enjoyed discovering how Albert and Elias (the Lord Sorcier) became friends and learning more about Albert since the novella is told in his POV.
Longest Book: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
848 pages
Joel’s (@FictionalFates) review of The Priory of the Orange Tree convinced me to read this book. And, while it wasn’t my favourite, I was surprised by how fast I finished the novel, considering its slower pace (it took me three days). I enjoyed the detailed world-building and complex geopolitics. I just wished I had connected to the characters more.
My Favourites
For Each Month (from January to December)
🍒 FEBRUARY 🍒: Endings (King Arthur and Her Knights, #7) by K.M. Shea
💅🏻 MARCH 💅🏻: You’re the Only One I’ve Told: The Stories Behind Abortion by Dr. Meera Shah
🌷 APRIL 🌷: Weyward by Emilia Hart
🐝 MAY 🐝: The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre by Natasha Lester
🎣 JUNE 🎣: The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
🏕️ JULY 🏕️: ACE: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen
🍦 AUGUST 🍦: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
🖍️ SEPTEMBER 🖍️: Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
🧛🏻♀️ OCTOBER 🧛🏻♀️: Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
☕️ NOVEMBER ☕️: Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey
🎆 DECEMBER 🎆: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
My Top 3 of 2022
The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre by Natasha Lester
My favourite read from May!
I feel like it’s kind of basic for a book about WWII to be my favourite read of 2023. It feels similar to how most movies on WWI or WWII are inevitably nominated for an Oscar, even if they’re not that good (Dunkirk, anybody). But The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre blew away my expectations. It’s evident the author did so much research – she integrated many historical figures into the narrative – but the book still read like a story (I wasn’t spoon-fed WWII facts). I loved the blend of espionage, fashion, and the slow-burn romance! The commentary on classism and feminism post-WWII really pushed this book into my favourite read of 2023.
Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
My favourite read of September!
It was completely unsurprising that Disorientation made it into my top 3 reads of 2023. The sharp critique of the graduate school experience and the use of satire to unpack the Eurocentricity and colonial reproduction of academic institutions was so well done. I also appreciated that the author engaged with the extremities of both right-wing and left-wing populism that are prevalent right now. Overall, I found Disorientation an incredibly thought-provoking read.
Weyward by Emilia Hart
My favourite book from April!
The third book in my top 3 of 2023 is the debut novel, Weyward. I loved the three timelines that illustrated the varying feminist concerns of the time (in 1619, 1942 and 2019). The realistic portrayal of magic as a tool of empowerment created a strong connection between the three main characters across time and invoked the history of witches being one of the first feminist figures. The whimsy of the novel, plus the focus on women’s relationships with their daughters and how they subvert patriarchy even with minimal social power, created a captivating reading experience.
The Stats
272 new reads; 107 re-reads
About the Authors
My most-read author was a tie between Stacy Reid and K.M. Shea, with 16 books each!
I read the work of 202 authors in 2023! For the first time in a while, I read fewer new-to-me authors (120) than repeat authors (259).
About the Books
Publication Distribution: A total of 106 books were published in 2023!
Debut Novels: I read 55 debut novels in 2023.
What I Read
Book Type: 143 books were from Kindle Unlimited.
Reading Habit: 127 books were “instant,” meaning I immediately started reading the book after purchasing it (and they were never on my Up Next shelf, which is a shelf of books waiting to be read).
Up Next Progress: I read the most books from my Backlist (books purchased pre-2023) in January (with 11 books).
Most Re-read Author: Of the 16 books I read by Stacy Reid, 13 were re-reads, and of the 16 books I read by K.M. Shea, 5 were re-reads.
Note: “New reads” are books I’ve read for the first time by that author.
My Most Read Genres and Tropes
Most Read Genre: Historical Romance with 65 books.
Most Read Trope: Friends to Lovers with 27 books.
Rating Distribution
Most Frequent Specific Rating: 73 books were rated 5-stars
Least Frequent Specific Rating: 2 books were rated 1-star and 1.5-stars each
Most Frequent Rating: In 2023, my most frequent rating was 4 stars, with 149 books.
Diverse Reading
Character Representation: 56% of the books I read in 2023 had a strong representation of diverse characters or minority identities.
Author Representation: 25% of the books I read in 2023 were by a diverse author.
Gender Distribution: 178 of the 202 authors whose books I read in 2023 were women!
Books I Didn’t Get To
There were a few books that I wanted to read and never got around to in 2023. Check out my End of Year Book Tag to see what books I’ll prioritize in 2024!
Goodbye 2023 and Into 2024
One of my blog goals for 2023 was to post more on my blog, which I did! Into 2024, this continues to be a big goal, but with a caveat: I want to make my blog posts more concise. Having every single post be over 1000 words is taking up too much time (which doesn’t even take into consideration formatting).
I’m going to create a separate post for my 2024 reading goals, but a few include raising my Goodreads Reading Challenge to 400 books, raising my page goal to 140,000 pages, reading 60% of the books I purchase in 2024 and reading 50% of my backlist.
Stay tuned for a post about the challenges I’m participating in this new year and my 2024 TBR.
Happy New Year, everyone!
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