I Think, Therefore I Write: 2023 books: A greedy indulgence

This year, I reached a new level of bookish nerdery. I've always had a disconnect between what I think I can read and what I'm actually able to read, but in 2023 I deluded myself into thinking that I could keep up with all the latest releases and catch up on some old titles. If you want something badly enough, you can make it happen, right?

As a result, my TBR (to be read) stack on my nightstand became an alarmingly high tower I fully expected to topple over one night while I was stress-dreaming about all the reading I hadn't gotten to yet.

July 2023. This book tower looks pretty reasonable compared to what it looked like in early December.

I also enjoyed several library binges, where I stretched my holds max (50 books) almost to the limit and established myself as one of those special patrons who regularly enters the library with a giant bag over one shoulder.

I was too scared to make a tower out of my library books, so I divided them up by genre and lined them up against the wall instead.

I was greedy about books this year, but still emerged from 2023 with far more unread books than I wanted. Something that always baffled Deluded Angie when she returned stacks of unread books to the library and her TBR stack kept getting taller, not shorter.

I was disciplined enough to read a good chunk of the books I bought or checked out from the library, but would have needed to quit my job or acquire speed-reading superpowers to devour even half of what was taunting me just at my house.

One thing I wasn't delusional about, though, was how good the reading was this year. 2023 was an exceptionally great year for new releases, and I've gotten pretty good at choosing books that are a good match for me, too—a crucial skill for any voracious reader who can't afford to waste time on bad or disappointing books.

Book stats

Goal: 80 books

Books read: 96. As much as it pains me to get so close to another 100-book year, I don't regret falling short. It means I had a life outside of the book world too, even if it doesn't look like it.

Pages read: 36,744 (about 368 pages per book). Is it just me, or are books getting longer? Seems like the average book length used to be 200–300 pages.

Books abandoned: 13

Rereads: ZERO. Considering how hard I tried to read all the new releases this year, this shouldn't surprise me, but it really does. Rereading books has been a part of my reading identity my whole life—I've never once gone a whole year without rereading something. I have a hunch I'll be rereading a lot of books next year, so equilibrium will be restored.

This graph demonstrates why I always have trouble answering the "What kinds of books do you read?" question. I don't know how to get straight to the point without leaving out important genre preferences.

Ratings

I've gotten less stingy with my star ratings the last few years, and it's rare that I finish a book that earns less than 3 stars from me. The result is a happier reading life.

Fiction vs. nonfiction

I read nonfiction much slower than I do fiction, but both are constants in my reading life.

Male vs. female authors

I could almost use the same pie chart for fiction vs. nonfiction and male vs. female authors. Most of my nonfiction books were written by men, whereas most of my fiction books were written by women.

Longest book: The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese (724 pages).

Shortest book: Long Chills and Case Dough, by Brandon Sanderson (67 pages). Hilarious, considering Sanderson often gets the "longest book" callout on these recaps.

Favorites

I almost didn't pick favorites this year because narrowing it down to just two books felt more impossible than usual. But after I finished compiling this post I realized that I hadn't talked about a few of my favorites yet, so I decided to feature them as my official favorites. But just know that they share this honor with at least 10 other books.

Fiction: Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano. This is a story about four sisters, which was all it took to pique my interest, coming from a family of four girls (and one boy) myself. While this book isn't exactly a retelling of Little Women, it is an homage of sorts, and the sisters reference the March sisters much like my sisters and I did. I found a lot to relate to in this book, and it checked all my literary boxes.

Nonfiction: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver. I found this memoir about a family that only ate locally grown food for a year fascinating. Food, in general, is a topic that interests me to no end (this isn't the first time I've picked a food-centric book for my favorite nonfiction pick), but this one made me want to overhaul my life and center it on nutritious food. I wouldn't go so far as to grow all of my own food, but a career pivot to something in the nutrition realm did cross my mind.

Book pairings

One of my favorite things about reflecting on my reading year is seeing the random themes that emerge. This year a lot of the themes came in pairs, so I decided to highlight some of them in book pairings.

Pandemic novels

I didn't seek out pandemic books this year, but two of my favorite books ended up being set during 2020. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett, is about a family with three adult daughters who move back home to wait out the pandemic and help out at their parents' cherry orchard. It was such a lovely, comforting book, and it made me wish I could have spent the spring of 2020 picking cherries with my mom and sisters while our mom told us stories about her life.

Happiness Falls, by Angie Kim, is also a family story set during early covid, but it is anything but cozy. Instead of reminiscing together, this family is focused on figuring out why their dad disappeared, an event that had only one witness: his son who can't speak. I don't usually go for true crime / murder mystery type books, but this one had me hooked. It had so many layers to it and I learned so much about so many things as I raced through it.

Creepy guys stalking actors

I read a lot of books about actors this year, which definitely wasn't planned because I don't enjoy spending time with narcissists. Two of those actresses unfortunately had stalkers, as seen in The Eden Test by Adam Sternbergh and With My Little Eye by Joshilyn Jackson. I actually enjoyed The Eden Test, but With My Little Eye really creeped me out. Parts of it hit a little too close to home, I guess. I don't think I'll be picking up another book with a stalker any time soon.

Aquatic POV characters

I kid you not—this popped up more than once this year. First was in Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, which is about an octopus who helps solve crimes. Well, one crime. Which is more of a family mystery than a crime. The premise sounds gimmicky, but it actually works in what feels like a realistic way. Really enjoyed this book.

The other book, Shark Heart by Emily Habeck, had an even weirder premise. In this world, people can get a strange disease kind of like Alzheimer's, but instead of slowly losing your memories and sense of self, you gradually transform into an animal. Lewis, a newlywed and drama teacher (again with the actors!), turns into a shark. It's a beautifully written love story, but was kind of an uncomfortable read. Seeing people turn into another species was a little bit too weird for me, even though, again, it was written in a way that felt very true to life.

Dinosaurs coming back TO life

I finally got around to reading Jurassic Park, and it was excellent. A zombified dinosaur makes an appearance in Jim Butcher's Dead Beat too, which was also very entertaining. Why are dinosaurs so much fun?

Opioids

One of my first nonfiction reads was Patrick Radden Keefe's Empire of Pain, which is about the Sackler family and the opioid crisis. A few months later I read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, thinking I was getting a reimagining of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield (which it technically is), and instead getting another devastating account of how OxyContin destroys lives. Both were troubling reads, but well worth the time. I still think about them both often.

Maine

When I have a trip coming up, I like to read a book about or set in that place shortly before I leave. This is partly the Hermione in me wanting to do my homework, but it also amps up my excitement for the trip. I love getting to know a place in the pages of a book and then geeking out over it shortly thereafter in real life.

So with a family trip to Maine in September, I knew I would be reading at least one book set there. But apparently Maine is a popular place to visit in the literary world too, because it kept showing up in the books I was reading. (No complaints here—Maine is pretty great.) Happy Place by Emily Henry was my favorite of the batch. I love Emily Henry, and this was my favorite novel of hers. Flying Solo by Linda Holmes mentioned Bar Harbor (where we stayed) a few times, which made me very excited, but was otherwise kind of a lame book.

Epic races

This one is a bit of a stretch, but I wanted to make sure I talked about both of these books. They're both about racing to a finish line, in a way, so I'll make it work.

First is The Emerald Mile, by Kevin Fedarko, which chronicles the fastest trip down the Colorado River via boat, and wow it was a ride. The 1983 record was broken after this book came out, but it's still a thrilling read. Kind of surprised no one has turned it into a movie yet.

The epic race in The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer is much more my style, though. Instead of risking life and limb to shatter a record racing through the Grand Canyon, the characters in this book are on a quest (in Maine!) to win the last book written by a famous author. It's basically Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but with books. This was one of the biggest surprises of my reading year and is a great one if you need a little more hope in your life.

Year of Sanderson

I can't finish out this year without touching on the Year of Sanderson publishing experiment. I have no problem giving Brandon Sanderson more of my money, so I signed up for the subscription box on Kickstarer pretty much the moment I heard about it. The subscription included one box a month full of Sanderson goodies, including four secret novels Sanderson wrote during covid (plus a bonus short story from his college years).

I was mainly there for the books, obviously, but it was the fun swag items that impressed me the most. Lots of high-quality stuff (my Sanderson collection now rivals my Harry Potter collection) and so many creative ideas. Every time I opened a box I imagined how much fun it would be to be on Sanderson's marketing team. Maybe some day.

As for the books, I felt like they weren't up to Sanderson's usual standard, but I really enjoyed two of them and all of them are beautiful to look at. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter was my favorite of the batch, in part because of this quote, which perfectly encapsulates why I don't enjoy endless sunny days, especially during the summer:

"There was a certain enervating effulgence of sunlight, sapping away strength, making him lethargic. Perhaps, Painter thought, that was what the sun subsisted on: burning as fuel the willpower of those who lived beneath it."

August 2023. The bookends I got in the Mistborn box prompted a full-on library reorganization, with Brandon's books taking the coveted spot at the top. The rest of my Sanderson paraphernalia is displayed on the little bookcase on the far left.

All the books I read in 2023

Bolded titles = books I rated 4.5 or 5 stars
DNF = did not finish

A Fire Endless, Rebecca Ross
The House of Spirits, Isabel Allende
Five Winters, Kitty Johnson
Keeper of Enchanted Rooms, Charlie N. Holmberg
3rd, 4th Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction, Daniel Beccera
We Are the Light, Matthew Quick
The Untold Story, Genevieve Cogman
Where the Drowned Girls Go, Seanan McGuire
The Guns of August, Barbara W. Tuchman
Lunar Love, Lauren Kung Jessen
Someone Else's Shoes, Jojo Moyes
River Sing Me Home, Eleanor Shearer
The Perishing, Natashia Deon (DNF)
Blood Rites, Jim Butcher
American Gods, Neil Gaiman (DNF)
Georgie, All Along, Kate Clayborn
The Priesthood Power of Women: In the Temple, Church, and Family, Barbara Morgan Gardner
The Invisible Woman, Erika Robuck
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Mist and Fury, Sarah J. Maas
The Soulmate, Sally Hepworth
Tress of the Emerald Sea, Brandon Sanderson
The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman
Us Against You, Fredrik Backman
The Wilderwomen, Ruth Emmie Lang
A Court of Wings and Ruin, Sarah J. Maas
These Precious Days, Ann Patchett
Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
Mormon: A Brief Theological Introduction, Adam S. Miller
The Paris Apartment, Lucy Foley (DNF)
The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies, Ben Fritz
Sign Here, Claudia Lux
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
Love and Other Words, Christina Lauren
The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, Brandon Sanderson
Happily: A Personal History—with Fairy Tales
Travel as a Political Act, Rick Steves
The Once and Future King, T.H. White (DNF)
Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
The Eden Test, Adam Sternbergh
Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life, Sutton Foster (DNF)
The Bookshop on the Shore, Jenny Colgan (DNF)
Happy Place, Emily Henry
The Last Thing He Told Me, Laura Dave
Heartburn, Nora Ephron
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, Kevin Fedarko
Watch Us Shine, Marisa de los Santos
To Shape a Dragon's Breath, Moniquill Blackgoose (DNF)
Pandora, Susan Stokes-Chapman
Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture, Tom Hanks (DNF)
Ether: A Brief Theological Introduction: Rosalynde Frandsen Welch
The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese
King: A Life, Jonathan Eig
Recipe for Persuasion, Sonali Dev
I Feel Bad About My Neck, and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, Nora Ephron
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Brandon Sanderson
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West, David McCullough (DNF)
With My Little Eye, Joshilyn Jackson
Lost in the Moment and Found, Seanan McGuire
Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt
Ink Blood Sister Scribe, Emma Torzs
Yellowface, R.F. Kuang
Same Time Next Summer, Annabel Monaghan (DNF)
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President, Candice Millard
The Wishing Game, Meg Shaffer
The Gifts, Liz Hyder
No Two Persons, Erica Bauermeister
Homecoming, Kate Morton
The Collected Regrets of Clover, Mikki Brammer
The Secret Book of Flora Lea, Patti Callahan Henry
Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World, Gretchen Rubin
Shark Heart, Emily Habeck
Tom Lake, Ann Patchett
The Northern Reach, W.S. Winslow (DNF)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver
Apples Never Fall: Liane Moriarty
Flying Solo, Linda Holmes
The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For, David McCullough
Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry
Moroni: A Brief Theological Introduction, David F. Holland
Dead Beat, Jim Butcher
Scarlet, Genevieve Cogman
Starling House, Alix E. Harrow
A Mirror Mended, Alix E. Harrow
Dead Voices, Katherine Arden
The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic, Breanne Randall
Spells for Forgetting, Adrienne Young
The Sunlit Man, Brandon Sanderson
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf (DNF)
The Lost Queen, Signe Pike
The Forgotten Kingdom, Signe Pike
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, Charles C. Mann
Adult Assembly Required, Abbi Waxman
Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano
The Mysteries, Bill Watterson
Love, Holly, Emily Stone
Original Grace: An Experiment in Restoration Thinking, Adam S. Miller
The Last Russian Doll, Kristen Loesch
The Christmas Bookshop, Jenny Colgan
Long Chills and Case Dough, Brandon Sanderson
Happiness Falls, Angie Kim
A Winter in New York
Mr. Dickens and His Carol, Samantha Silva
Cytonic, Brandon Sanderson
Burning Questions, Margaret Atwood
Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson (DNF)