My 2023 Reading Year

#136: Let's award some awards, look at the numbers, and give shoutouts!

Happy New Year!

This week I’m digging into my favorites and least favorites of 2023, starting with this post about books. I had a rich reading year with plenty of hits and only a few misses.

I still spend way too much time and energy caring about the wrong things, like pages read vs. audio hours listened, so this year I tried to either strictly read on paper/kindle OR strictly listen on audio with no mixing via hybrid approach. I have some thoughts and stats on that later on.

In this year-end round up you’ll find my favorite books of the year (fiction, series, and non-fiction), a list of made-up awards (Biggest Surprise, Physically Angry Award, The Sticky Award), my reading stats, and my most anticipated 2024 releases.

At the very very end I have a list of shoutouts so be sure to at least scroll to the end!

Favorite Books

Favorite Fiction: The Secret History; Lessons in Chemistry
I wrote about The Secret History in a separate post and it is one of my favorite things I’ve written. Please check it out if you haven’t yet! I found the book highly entertaining and worthwhile.

I haven’t written about Lessons in Chemistry yet because I still need to watch the show, which should happen in 2024! It’s a great story that illustrates how sexism hurts women and men. My friend Michael picked up a copy for me at a Danish bookstore since the European cover (pictured above) is so much better than the American version.

Favorite Series: The Slough House series by Mick Herron; Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry

The 8 books and 4 novellas in the Slough House series by Mick Herron really made my year. I love a good series with consistent entries. I’ve mentioned previously that these can feel a little formulaic, but I was never bored and always invested in the characters. Readers of the entire series including the short stories are certainly rewarded for the time investment.

Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite books and the re-read didn’t disappoint. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Streets of Laredo is one of the best sequels I’ve ever experienced. To complete the series, I read the prequels Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon this year, but I found them expendable. Neither makes the next two books any better or richer than they are on their own.

Favorite Non-fiction: Four Thousand Weeks, How to Do Nothing, Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?

I wrote about two of these already and I love what I wrote so check the links above. Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Séamas O’Reilly was my favorite discovery of 2023. It’s a hilarious and inspiring memoir about O’Reilly’s upbringing in Northern Ireland as the fifth of eleven children being raised by a single dad. I’m not a fan of the memoir genre, especially celebrity memoirs that feel phony and emotionally distant (probably because most are ghost written). This felt authentic and relatable and I know Séamas wrote every word. It also has the added bonus of being about a dad who loves his kids and they know it and love him in return. Unlike other memoirs like the brilliant Educated or The Glass Castle (which I haven’t read), there is no abuse of any kind so I can recommend it without that trigger warning. I hope you get a chance to check it out.

My Made-up Award Winners and Losers

• Biggest Surprise: The Secret Hours. I wrote about this at length, it was a blast.

• Biggest Letdown: The Broken Earth trilogy (The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky). Threepeat Hugo award winning trilogy that I wanted to love but had a hard time connecting with across all three books. If you love it, I’d love to hear from you!

• Best Audio Performance: Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? Séamas O’Reilly narrates his memoir and I recommend the audiobook hands down. You’ll get maximum Northern Ireland effect which increases the overall charm.

• Time Waster Award: The Violin Conspiracy. I wish I could have that time back but alas, it’s gone forever. The book club discussion was fun but I would have rather talked about a better book.

• Physically Angry Award: Candide. I closed the book and the only thing I could think of to say in my Goodreads review was “Eff this book.” I know, I’m a heathen for saying it! But it made me angry and I found no redeeming qualities other than prompting another fun book club discussion. You’re welcome to tell me why I’m wrong or that I should delete this entire paragraph and “tend my garden.”

• Most Sticky Award: Catch-22. Such a bizarre reading experience unlike any other and so many scenes/characters that have stuck with me (Snowden, Kid Sampson, Milo Minderbender, Nately’s whore’s kid sister). Maybe it was the frantic nature of the dialogue that sounded even more hectic at 1.5x speed. I was baffled by this book and not enjoying it at all, then suddenly floored by it. I’m curious if you like it and I’d love to know why.

• Least Sticky Award: Transcendent Kingdom. I hate saying it but not much has stuck with me.

Reading Stats

• Total Books Read: 70

  

• 54 written by men, 16 by women ← lopsided once again :(

• 35 by authors new to me and 35 by familiar authors (many were remaining books in a series). The 35 familiar include 6 re-reads (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Lonesome Dove, Rules of Civility, East of Eden, The Firm, A Time to Kill).

• 57 fiction and 13 non-fiction. To break that down even further, lots of spy thrillers (the entire Slough House series), literary fiction, classics, and graphic novels followed by a little of everything else.

  

• 12,233 pages read with my eyes and 363 hours read with my ears.

  • Exclusively listened to 28 audiobooks totaling 363 hours but I listen at 1.5 speed (somebody do that math). 4 books were exclusively read on kindle. The rest were read on paper or hybrid of kindle and paper. I don’t know why I care so much about this, but I do.

• Oldest book: Candide (1759). Newest: The Secret Hours (2023). Surprisingly, that’s the only 2023 book I read all year! The most of any given publication year was 2022 with 7 followed by 2019 with 6.

  

  1 from 1700s, 2 from 1800s, 16 from 1900s, 51 from 2000s

• 16 five-star reviews. I absolutely adored 23% of what I read! Not too bad. I liked the majority of what I read which is why I say it was a solid year. 11 books (16%) were just ok or worse.

  

Most Anticipated Books of 2024

Table for Two by Amor Towles - I predict I will really like this collection of stories. 4 stars.

The Mercy of Gods by James SA Corey - I predict I will like this new work of fiction by the Expanse guys. 3 stars.

James by Percival Everett. I predict this will rock my world. 5 stars.

Slow Productivity by Cal Newport. I predict this will be consistent with other anti-productivity books but with more research. 4 stars.

Shoutouts

I love connecting with people over books and I want to thank/shoutout the following individuals who made 2023 a memorable year!

• Jenny Pate for reading every post and for your ability to sleep through the light of my laptop and the sound of the keyboard clicks.

• Michael Perkins for inspiring me to keep going every day regardless of what the critical inner voice says.

• Jeremy Anderberg for being my text buddy and for starting The Big Read, which I hope we do until we’re 90.

• Sarah Miller from Can we read? for constantly innovating, for being the best to collaborate with, and for giving me the idea of the year end shout out :)

• Gayla Gray - I see your likes and appreciate all the good you’re doing on substack!

• Shelby Boyer at The Good Word for her never back down opinions and bursting at the seams creativity.

• Luiza Campos for coming up with the greatest publication name/concept of all time (Read, Watch, Binge) and your insightful writing.

• Andrew Eubanks for collaborating and being no nonsense and direct to balance out my yes nonsense and wordiness. If you wrote a substack, everyone would read it.

• Cat Meyn Matthews for reading every post and for our two member “not a book club” book club.

• Sara Skidmore for being my “talk about books while running” buddy which is the type of friend I’ve always wanted.

• Mom and Dad for putting books in my crib and your undying support.

• CCLS book club — I don’t think any of you read this but I’m so so glad to be in the best of all possible book clubs.

• Ball Book Club - especially Keturah, Kalie, and Vanessa who I know are reading this.

• Phil Fernberg for reading and emailing me with recommendations.

If I’ve forgotten anyone, I’m sorry! I thank you, too, for making 2023 a wonderful reading year. Here’s to 2024!

Kyle