My 2023 Year in Books
Running out of space, books read and unread
It’s that lovely time of the year when I look over my stats and list my favourite books. I’ll leave them at the bottom of the page in an obvious attempt to get you to scroll down. Let’s go.
Stats
I was surprised to see that I’ve read 52 books this year, about 16500 pages. This is the same figure as last year, and I suppose a book a week is a nice soundbite. I’m surprised because from September onwards, I’ve felt that the arse has really fallen out of my reading. If I had wanted, I really could have read 60 titles this year but I lost my motivation.
There are some hazy reasons for this. In September I found I couldn’t motivate myself to read ‘books I didn’t want to read’. I forced myself to read a couple of titles that I couldn’t be bothered with. I dropped a few others a couple of chapters in, which is unlike me.
I just read what I wanted, so I suppose you could say I was a bit of a mood reader. Some fiction in particular started to annoy me - it’s hard to explain, but it felt a but frivolous. There’s a lot going on in the world and fiction is a great escape but it wasn’t enough for me and felt a bit empty. I wanted books to really engage me and some fiction wasn’t doing it. I could say this was a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ scenario, but by December I knew this not to be true as the fiction I wanted to read, I loved. More of that later.
Format Genre & Challenges
75% Fiction, and helped in the non fiction stakes by the reading challenge. I’m mostly reading non-fiction at the moment and wish I had read more. It’s something I can see changing. But seven out of twelve for the challenge was pretty good.
56% Digital, 37% print, the rest audio. I cut back on kindle deals this year, as my TBR pile was annoying me (I also entered a challenge for that - 6 out of 12, can do better). The mood reading has helped shift some of that. Interesting that Spotify has audiobooks available, 15 hours a month, so I reckon that will increase next year. I’m still a sucker for lovely hardbacks this year, as evidenced by my insta. Bookshelves issues are ongoing.
27.5% Irish titles, which is decent but I thought I’d read more. I’m going to improve on this. I finished the year with four books by Irish authors that I just had to read before years end, so that boosted it a little. 40% US titles but I think next year I’d like to be a bit more adventurous. Just a thought.
Over half the books I read were ARC’s from Netgalley. This was also the year that I received a lot of requests from self published authors and I had to turn a lot down due to time constraints. Sorry, just can’t read ‘em all.
Blogging
My visitor numbers really improved this year, and honestly I’m not sure why. Maybe because it’s my third year and I’m consistently publishing posts but I don’t know how the algorithm works. I made the decision to include some ads on my site in a bid to at least pay for the hosting. Time will tell if that was the right decision. I’m not in this to make money, but I’d like to cover my expenses at least. I don't think that’s been greedy but I hope the ads aren’t overly intrusive - I try to keep them to a minimum. Look, here’s one now.
One of my favourite times for reading was early morning, so I’ll be sticking with my Voyage of the Dawn Reader. It’s such a pleasant time sticking the nose in a book and here’s a picture from my Summer / Autumn book spot.
Am I still enjoying blogging? Hmmm. It’s become a bit of a habit I suppose. Not every book feels interesting enough to write about but generally speaking I have some sort of reaction to my reading. It helps me to frame my thoughts on a book, although it’s not up to me to decide if that’s interesting or not. Some people read my reviews or leave comments, but I generally don’t care. It’s just a thing I do and if it starts to become tiresome I won’t do it anymore.
Books of the year
Such a strong year for Irish fiction. One of my early favourites was Michael Magee’s ‘Close to home’ and it was great to hear him speak at the John Hewitt and grab a few words with him. ‘Prophet song’ by Paul Lynch has obviously grabbed the headlines, deservedly so, and ‘Bee Sting’ by Paul Murray ran it close, such a wild ride. John Boyne continues to be one of my favourites storytellers and ‘All the broken places’ along with the novella ‘Water’ make him a must read author for me.
‘Small mercies’ by Dennis Lehane was fierce and utterly authentic, with Mary Pat being one of my favourite characters in a while. ‘Birnam Wood’ by Eleanor Catton was was an enjoyable page turning literary thriller and featured an absolutely mad ending that was worth the entrance fee alone.
Honourable mentions to ‘Kala’ by Colin Walsh and ‘My Father’s house’ by Joseph O’Connor, and ‘Strange Sally Diamond’ by Liz Nugent. ‘Yellowface’ by Rebecca F. Kuang was easy to spot on the bestsellers list - like I say, such a strong year.
Reading ‘Empire of Pain’ by Patrick Radden Keefe quickly followed by ‘Demon Copperhead’ by Barbara Kingsolver was a complete immersion in the American Opioid Crisis, one meticulously researched non-fiction and the other an exuberant updating of the modern tale, but still about surviving grinding poverty. Two hefty page turners.
Books I loved that weren’t released this year but that I got around to included ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ by Amor Towles which joins my all time fave books list. Just give me a lovely warm feeling every time I read it and I missed the count and the inhabitants of the Metropol. Looking forward to the TV series.
‘Notes on an execution’ was another that impressed me, and really got me thinking about my attitude to true crime books. I did end up reading ‘A thread of violence’ by Mark O’Connell, which was fascinating but also not your typical true crime book.
Some of the non-fiction that I did read also feature in my favourites. ‘Ootlin’ by Jenni Fagan was heartbreaking and deserves the widest possible audience, visceral and necessary.
‘Stolen Focus’ by Johann Hari made me reassess my use of social media, my phone, and my sweet, sweet, precious time. ‘Breath - the science of a lost art’ by James Nestor made me explore my breathing techniques and I still refer to it. ‘Quiet - the power of introverts’ by Susan Cain was a book I didn’t think I needed but that gave me a lot of solace, and ‘a newfound sense of entitlement to be myself.’ A reminder that the right book can encourage us to accept ourselves and maybe change our behaviours. Still learning lessons after half a century on the planet.
My interest in non duality continues to blossom and I’m on my second read of Angelo DiLullo’s ‘Awake - it’s your turn’ - just crystal clear and to my mind groundbreaking. It’s like he’s sending despatches from another planet that I can see but just haven’t landed on. Yet. ‘The untethered soul’ and ‘The power of now’ were books I revisited and proved to be as influential and useful the second time around. I expect to be reading a lot more in this field.
My longest book of the year was ‘A little life’ by Hanya Yanagihara which was a real experience. Sometimes I feel that books are washing over me and this was a reminder that I can still be floored. Parts of this book left me a wreck but what a story. I’m glad to have read it but I have a hard job recommending it, if you know what I mean.
So there’s my 2023 year in books. Thank you for visiting my site and I wish you every happiness in the new year and as usual, let me know your favourite reads of the year below.