My year in review: 2023

Happy New Year! It's unlikely that 2024 will be any better than the horror shows of the previous few, but we can always hope. I've been told I need to be less pessimistic, so let's start the new year with some optimism. May 2024 be better than the year that preceded it. 

In terms of reading, this has been a much better year for me than 2022 (when I was also too generally exhausted to even do a round-up of my reading), so I'm tentatively hoping to read at least as much and to manage my standard 52 reviews, but possibly as many as 104. It took a lot of dedicated review writing in the latter half of December to make my double Cannonball happen. As always, I usually had a fairly sizeable review backlog hanging over me for much of the year, I'm going to try to be better about reviewing as I go along (as I have said every year since the beginning of time, it feels).

I am also going to try to curb my Reading Challenge obsession this year. The occasional challenge to help me make reading lists and make sure I actually go through my ever-expanding TBR will probably be useful, but I'm not going to officially sign up for any, just do the Cannonball-related ones. In 2023, I signed up for and completed 21 different challenges - too many rules to abide by at any given time.

Reading challenges I completed:

1. Single Cannonball - 52 reviews
2. Double Cannonball - an additional 52 reviews, totaling 104
3. Goodreads Reading Challenge
4. The Story Graph Reading Challenge
5. Cannonball Passport Challenge
6. Cannonball Bingo
7. Audiobook Challenge
8. Backlist Reader
9. Book Bingo on My Reader's Journey
10. Colour Coded Challenge
11. Diversity Challenge
12. Finishing the Series
13. Forever Young Adult Reading Challenge
14. Monthly Keyword Challenge
15. Monthly Motif Challenge
16. Mount TBR Reading Challenge
17. Read It Again, Sam
18. Read My Bookshelf
19. Tackle My TBR
20. What's in a Name?
21. Reading Challenge Addict

Thanks to my nifty spreadsheet, which I acquired over on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, it's been a lot easier to track my reading over the past year. I had quite a few DNFs, which I've decided not to count. My total ended up being 122 books, and my lovely spreadsheet also claims I read 42624 pages, which isn't too shabby. It's certainly a lot more than I managed in 2022.

New books read: 97                Re-reads: 25 (includes a lot of books adapted by Graphic Audio)

E-books: 72 (59%)                     Hardback/paperback: 34 (27.8%)                 Audio: 16  (13.1%)

I obviously also acquired a whole lot of books in 2023. 411 in total. 71.5% were e-books, 22.6% were dead tree ones (includes paperbacks, hardbacks, comic books, and manga), and 6.8% were audiobooks. Of the 411, ten were free (I'm very fond of a 3 for 2 offer on books) and five were gifts.

My favourite reads of 2023 (listed in alphabetical order by author, because I don't want the headache of ranking them):

• Anxious People (Folk med ångest) - Fredrik Backman
• The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy - Megan Bannen
• Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
• For Never & Always - Helena Greer
• Love, Theoretically - Ali Hazelwood
• Make You Mine This Christmas - Lizzie Huxley-Jones
• Gender Queer - Maia Kokabe
• The Last Graduate - Naomi Novik
• The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
• Consort of Fire - Kit Rocha

Other notable mentions:

• With the Fire on High - Elizabeth Acevedo
• Magic Tides and Magic Claims - Ilona Andrews
• Georgie, All Along - Kate Clayborn
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers
• Legendborn - Tracy Deonn
• Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries - Heather Fawcett
• Emily Wilde's Map of the Underworld - Heather Fawcett
• A Lady for a Duke - Alexis Hall
• Check & Mate - Ali Hazelwood
• Happy Place - Emily Henry
• Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute - Talia Hibbert
• Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher
• Knockout - Sarah Maclean
• The Marquis Who Mustn't - Courtney Milan
• Miss Buncle's Book - D.E. Stevenson
• A Tempest at Sea - Sherry Thomas
• Network Effect - Martha Wells

After some consideration, I have decided not to list my worst reads of the year, I don't really want to name and shame anyone. Besides, none of the books I read in 2023 were so egregiously bad that I really wanted to write a scathing hate review, some were just a bit underwhelming.