Happy new year! I can’t believe we find ourselves already rounding up the past year’s reads. I’m happy that I did meet my reading goal of 65 books this year (I didn’t in 2022), and yet I have a strange sense of dissatisfaction. More on that later, I suppose! In any case, on with the 2023 reading digest…
Goodreads Summary
I’m realising now that I’ve never paid much attention to my pages read in a year. I’m also realising that Goodreads annual summaries have not been cute since 2019—what was the reason??? Why post-modern blandness when we could have fun illustrations??? Anyway…
- In 2022, I read 19,761 pages
- In 2021, I read 26,444 pages — this has been my highest reading year to date as I read 80 books. Ironically, this is also the year that I somehow managed to not write a reading digest.
- In 2020, I read 20,357 pages
- In 2019, I read 21, 207 pages
So in the years that I’ve been tracking my reading, my grand total is 110,448 (wild), and my average is 22,089.6 (nice).
I barely squeezed by with meeting my goal of 65 reads this year and have subsequently readjusted my goal to something a little lower for the second year in a row :’) Last year, I mentioned that it was the first full calendar year of managing grad school and working full-time. This year, I actually took a gap semester in the Spring, yet still struggled a bit with reading—but not for bad reasons! It’s been a wonderful year that’s absolutely been stuffed with the most incredible memories and experiences, and I can absolutely say that’s why it was rather difficult—I definitely DNF’d books that I knew I just wasn’t realistically going to be able to stick with, and that’s semi-unusual for me. But anyway, more on that in a bit.
Looking at my 2023 reading goals
…I actually did not write any up last year! They were basically going to follow the same vibes as my reading goals from 2022. In short, I wanted to make sure I kept reading the classics, a handful of non-fiction/theology books, and then frequently/occasionally (it’s all relative, isn’t it?) go back to childhood favourites, or leftovers/unfinished from previous years.
I fared decently. Almost all of the classics I read were re-reads, and a large portion of them were the ones that I read annually or every couple of years. I did finally pick up some Russian lit in the form of The Master & Margarita, but alas, I did DNF it temporarily; I will def return to it this year! As for non-fic, I picked up a few, some for school and some for pleasure. Theology-wise, I only read three, and two of those were re-reads (for Lent & Advent). Aiming to do better in all categories, so my 2024 reading goals will return this year!
Reads I Adored
New-to-me
In terms of fiction and historical-fiction, I actually really enjoyed Sally Rooney’s Normal People, and although I read it on my Kindle, I liked it so much that I want to get a physical copy at some point. Daisy Jones and the Six was a lovely read that I inhaled within a 24-hour period; the adaptation was brilliant too! The Summer I Turned Pretty books were also a pleasant surprise, and I cannot WAIT for the third series. All the Light We Cannot See was a fantastic first read of the year, and I even got invited to a virtual pre-screening of the first episode on Netflix which was so exciting! I haven’t had a chance to watch the rest of the series, but I know it’s going to be incredible.
As for fantasy, I absolutely devoured up The Poppy War trilogy over the summer, what a phenomenal series. Legendborn & Bloodmarked were a pleasant surprise that definitely grew on me, and I eagerly anticipate Oathbound, which I believe is going to be the final book of the series; it’s expected in 2025! Children of Dune was yet another Frank Herbert masterpiece, and I look forward to finishing the Dune chronicles in 2024. Red Rising by Pierce Brown became fascinating almost instantly, and I am so ready to continue reading the series this year!!
My absolute favourite non-fiction read, and quite possibly favourite read of the year, was Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love. Have already waxed lyrical about it here before and over on Instagram, so I shall refrain from doing so again now. (Fingers crossed the adaptation gets renewed for a second series!!)
Honourable mentions (in no particular order):
- Ghosts, by Dolly Alderton
- The Atlas Six, by Olivie Blake
- Love, Theoretically, by Ali Hazelwood
- The Dutch House, by Ann Pratchett
Special re-reads
As always, my return to Narnia is utterly replete with joy and wonder, even more so this year as I read through the full-colour collector’s editions for the first time. And, as I mentioned at the start of 2023, it was the first time I had not read the entirety of The Lord of the Rings within the 2022 calendar year, something I’ve done for the last several years. As such, I brought it with me into 2023 and, of course, loved every second in Middle-Earth.
My Harry Potter re-read was extra special this year, as I would finish a book weekly and then watch the adaptation every Sunday evening with my brother. It’s a new tradition for me now to read a book and then immediately watch the film. Typically, I’ve read through all of the books and then made my way through the films, and I’ve found this approach so much more fun!
I returned to Ginger Pye and Pinky Pye in the closing days of 2023, & what a very extra special return it was, as I now have my very own kitten <333 The love I have for Aquiles is so different than anything I’ve ever experienced before, & although I’ve been incredibly emotional at the end of GP before this, now that I am finally a pet-owner, it really just hits so distinctly. I can really understand Jerry and Rachel’s love. SO special.
Also Anne <3 & The Space Trilogy!!!
Reads I didn’t love
Sorry Emily Henry fans, I did not really like Book Lovers. It was alright, but definitely too cheesy for me. I tried giving People We Meet on Vacation a chance, but DNF’d rather quickly. Ali Hazelwood may write essentially the same plot in all of her books (which is apparently a running joke, and seems true from the two I’ve read from her), but I like her style, writing voice, and delivery a lot more and want to get to her other books!
Ninth House was good, but I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as I was hoping. I will say, it picked up eventually and left off on a fantastic cliff-hanger, so I have a feeling I’m really going to enjoy Hell Bent. There was just a lot of world-building for so long, and I was definitely struggling to turn the pages a little more often than I would have liked.
Looking back…
I feel something of a sense of bleh. I love that I finally expanded a little more; I read way more contemporary fiction than I ever have (13/65, 20%), but I have to say, I really wish that I would have picked up more classics :/
If you’ve been here for awhile, you know that classic lit is where my heart resides, where the very fabric of my being and soul finds the most joy and resonance in reading. I love all the re-reads, of course, but I want to get back to my core: the incredible backlog of Dickens, the Brontë’s, Austen, etcetera. I want to finally get into the beautiful Russian classics (v determined to FINALLY read Anna Karenina) and delve into English authors I’ve never read before (George Eliot u legend). But more than anything, I want to exist in that realm where I feel so close to the words on the page, having the sweet confidence that so much of what I treasure spiritually and emotionally and relationally is also coming at me from the pages I am reading.
I’ve said it many times, and I will continue saying it for the rest of my life: the best literature comes from authors who actually understand human nature and who communicate that in varying themes and across all sorts of different plots and characters. I’m glad that I did give contemporary literature a proper chance this year. It wasn’t really my plan, but as it was happening I was happy to do so. And I did indeed find a couple of gems that I really, really loved—but something was missing.
I look forward to making my way back to the land that I love, the glorious classics landscape. May this be the year I finally tackle/finish books that I’ve been planning to read for over three years!! I can’t wait to feel that utter refreshment of spirit that comes every time I settle into the pages of a classic read.
Fin
That’s a wrap on my 2023 reading digest—what a year of re-reads, contemporary discoveries, and really making the absolute most out of my Kindle!! I can’t wait to get back to the classics (& fantasy, tbh, really miss it) & discover a wealth of new stories, characters, & themes in 2024! Thank you for reading & do let me know what your favourite/top three reads of 2023 were!! <3