2023 Book Roundup

2023 has been a great year for me in terms of books. Being my first year out of school, I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like. I read a ton in grade school and high school, but got so busy in college, I read maybe 10 books in a year.

In January, I downloaded Goodreads and StoryGraph to track my reading, setting a goal of about 40 books. As of today, I’ve read 185 books this year, so it’s safe to say I underestimated myself. If you want to skip all my stats and just see my five star reads, feel free to jump to the end.

Throughout the year, I read books in a variety of manners. With physical books, some I read in one sitting, others I slowly read before bed each night. I downloaded the Kindle app for the first time on my phone, reading when I was waiting for appointments or meetings to start.

I also started listening to audiobooks. Sometimes they were a good distraction while getting ready in the morning or doing dishes. However, my favorite use of audiobooks was in any trips home I took. I listen to audiobooks in two-time speed. With seven and a half hours free in my drive to Wisconsin, I was easily able to breeze through at least two books a trip.

Before I get to my favorite and least favorite books of the year, I’d like to share some of my stats. I downloaded the app StoryGraph specifically for this reason, as I love to see my stats in terms of page number, genre and format.

With a total of 185 books read this year, I read 67,586 pages and listened for 771 hours. Most of my books were medium paced and in the 300-499 page category. I read a majority of fiction books, but surprised myself with 68 nonfiction books as well. My top two genres were romance and fantasy, though the next two genres, memoir and historical, fit more in the nonfiction style.

I read 84 print books, 23 digital books and listened to 78 audiobooks. My top three authors were Sarah J. Maas, Julia Quinn and J.R.R. Tolkein. While it will be no surprise that almost 100% of the books I read were in English, I did manage to read three books in Spanish this year. I hope to concentrate more on that next year. I read the most books in July (32) and the least in March (five).

It will be no surprise to my friends that my average rating out of five is 4.07. I gave 43 books five stars and 48 books four stars, with 38 books scattered in between. The lowest rating I gave a book was two stars. I generally reserve one star for books I dislike so much I don’t finish. While I certainly didn’t finish a couple books this year, I didn’t get far enough into any of them to feel like I could put them on my list of books read.

The types of books I read varied greatly. I reread “The Hunger Games,” “Throne of Glass” and “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, all of which had at least one more book added to the series since I first read them. I learned I love autobiographies, reading those from celebrities such as Nick Offerman, Mara Wilson, Jennette McCurdy and Jill Dugger, as well as more educational ones from Tara Westover, Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. and Michelle Obama.

I read a number of classics, both old and new. “Moby Dick” received three stars while “Anna Karenina” and “Dracula” both received four stars. I finally read the “Lord of the Rings” series, including “The Hobbit.” They all received four stars, save for “The Two Towers,” receiving four and a half stars. Other newer classics I read included Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood.

Now, I present all my five star reads of 2023: “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” “A Court of Mist and Fury,” “A Court of Wings and Ruin,” “Crown of Midnight,” “Queen of Shadows” and “Kingdom of Ash,” all by Sarah J. Maas.

“The Hunger Games,” “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins.

“Interview with the Vampire,” “The Vampire Lestat” and “Queen of the Damned” by Anne Rice.

Nonfiction: “Gangsters vs. Nazis” by Michael Benson, “If at Birth You Don’t Succeed” by Zach Anner, “Black Birds in the Sky” by Brandy Colbert, “The Princess Spy” by Larry Loftis, “Controlling Women” by Kathryn Kolbert and Julie F. Kay, “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed, “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed, “Where am I now?” by Mara Wilson, “The Sisters of Auschwitz” by Roxane Van Iperen, “The Nuns of Sant’ambrogio” by Hubert Wolf, “Becoming” by Michelle Obama, “Lean in” by Sheryl Sandberg, “Children Under Fire” by John Woodrow Cox.

Fiction: “Sword Catcher” by Cassandra Clare, “The Mixtape” by Brittainy Cherry, “Winter Garden” by Kristin Hannah, “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens, “The Dark Highlander” by Karen Marie Morning, “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez, “Love and Other Words” by Christina Lauren, “Home Front” by Kristin Hannah, “The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah, “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros, “Book Lovers” by Emily Henry, “Iron Flame” by Rebecca Yarros, “Red, White & Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston, “The Kiss Quotient” by Helen Hoang, “The First Stone” by Teshelle Combs, “Midnight Jewel” by Richelle Mead, “It’s in His Kiss” by Julia Quinn.