I went into 2023 with 3 reading goals:

1. Read 100 books
2. Make a dent in my TBR: end the year with less than or equal to what I started with
3. Write a review for every book I read in StoryGraph

I'm happy to say that I achieved all my goals and learned a bunch along the way. And it's always fun to break down your reading stats for the year.

Read 100 books

In 2022, I read 84 books. That quantity felt good because I was finally reading enough variety to keep me excited for what's next. I was reading enough that I was able to learn and draw connections from wildly different books — different genres, different forms, different settings, etc.

In 2023, I wanted to push myself just a little bit more.

I read more than 120 books this year. And I learned that pace is just a bit too much for me. I think if I had stuck to my original goal of 100, that would've been my sweet spot.

I consume a lot of my books on audio while I'm in the pottery studio. And so it's not hard for me to read 7 books in a month. But averaging 10/month meant that I didn't get to spend as long with some books as they needed.

Make a dent in my TBR

I started 2023 with 65 books on my TBR (to-be-read list). I ended the year with 37. I continued to add to my TBR throughout the year, so by my best guess I read about 50 books off my TBR. That's a little more than 40% of all of my reads. I'm happy with that ratio.

One of my biggest learnings for my TBR is that I don't have to add every book I hear about to that list.

Once a book is on that list, I feel enormous pressure to read it. And guilt the longer the book sits on that list.

I started maintaining a separate list of recommendations that friends and other people make. I found that I was adding recommendations to my TBR then realizing later that I didn't actually want to read them. But once a book was on my TBR list, I felt pressure to read it.

Now I can keep track of what people have recommended without feeling guilty if I decide not to read them. Sometimes you just have to trick your brain 🙃

I also use my TBR every time I add books to my library holds. That really helped me whittle the list down this year.

And if a book isn't available from the library, I tag it "buy-used" so I can keep track of books to prioritize if I see them in a used bookstore. Now I have a fun scavenger hunt every time I'm out shopping.

Write a review for every book I read

I always rate the books I read, but this year I wanted to review every book too. At the end of 2022, I found that there were books that I couldn't remember anything about. I thought writing a review could help me summarize why I liked or didn't like a book. I didn't want anything too formal, just a couple sentences.

I didn't realize that of all my goals, this would actually be the most challenging. In the latter half of the year, I kept falling behind and would have to try to remember books from 2 months ago to review.

I use StoryGraph for keeping track of my reading and reviews. It's a better alternative to Goodreads, in my opinion. It's more community-focused, more fully featured, doesn't support Amazon, and incorporates user feedback into its public roadmap.

I've already seen the payoff from keeping up with this goal. Reading my reviews helps jog my memory and leads to better book conversations with my friends. And I've been able to give better book recommendations too!

2023 by the numbers 🤓

123 books read

64% fiction, 36% nonfiction

January and May were my highest reading months with 13 books each

November was my lowest reading month with 7 books

Longest book read: 640 pages, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Shortest book read: 64 pages, Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor

Total DNFs: 5

Total 5-star reads: 17 books

My 5-star fiction reads:

1. Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen
2. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
3. My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson
4. Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby
5. A Million Quiet Revolutions by Robin Gow
6. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
7. We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride
8. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

My 5-star nonfiction reads:

1. How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler
2. Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America's Revolutions by Mattie Kahn
3. Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
4. How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis
5. Abuela, Don't Forget Me by Rex Ogle
6. Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want by Ruha Benjamin
7. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
8. They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
9. Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Gina Dent, Beth E. Richie, Angela Y. Davis, Erica R. Meiners

Other interesting trends

Comparing 2023 to 2022, I read very similar types of books. I had basically the same ratio of fiction to nonfiction reads in both years. I read about the same-length books. And I chose books with similar pacing.

Even though I read 36 more books in 2023, I only rated 1 more 5 stars (16 5-star reads in 2022 compared to 17 in 2023).

The biggest difference is that I reached for darker, more challenging reads in 2023 than I did the year before.

I also found some fun micro-niches in what I read.

Grandparent stories

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• Abuela, Don't Forget Me by Rex Ogle
• Our Gen by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
• My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
• The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
• The Switch by Beth O'Leary
• Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maud Newton
• The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
• The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais
• Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as Told to Me) Story by Bess Kalb
• How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior

Books in verse

• A Million Quiet Revolutions by Robin Gow
• Abuela, Don't Forget Me by Rex Ogle
• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
• We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride
• Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades
• The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin by Kip Wilson

Goals for 2024

1. Read 100 books

Knowing that reading ~100 books feels like my sweet spot, I'm going to try to stay right around this quantity again. But paying special attention to not pushing too fast.

2. Read more of the physical books on my shelf

I'm starting the year with 26 physical books on my shelf that I'd like to read. I'd like to end the year with the same or less.

3. Read more books by non-US and non-UK authors

I want to read books from a diverse range of voices. But trying to respectfully track author identities in your reading is complicated. How much does the author choose to share? How do you handle shifting and changing identities? How do you handle mixed, multiple, or expansive identities? Are any labels that aren't self-chosen fair?

This year, I only tracked the number of non-cis-men authors, non-white authors, and non-US/UK authors that I read.

• 87% non-cis-men authors
• 48% non-white authors
• 17% non-US/UK authors

Seeing these numbers, I'd like to read more books from authors outside the US and the UK.

Full 2023 book list (in the order I read them)

1. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
2. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
3. The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide by Steven W. Thrasher
4. Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
5. The Binding by Bridget Collins
6. x+y by Eugenia Cheng
7. Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
8. Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class by Catherine Liu
9. Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers by Deborah Tuerkheimer
10. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
11. Thrust by Lidia Yuknavitch
12. The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
13. They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
14. The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake
15. Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo
16. A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister
17. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
18. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
19. Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves by Glory Edim
20. The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean
21. Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
22. The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
23. The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade
24. A Million Quiet Revolutions by Robin Gow
25. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
26. Abuela, Don't Forget Me by Rex Ogle
27. The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
28. Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen
29. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
30. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
31. The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
32. Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey into the Heart of Desire by Tracy Clark-Flory
33. Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Gina Dent, Beth E. Richie, Angela Y. Davis, Erica R. Meiners
34. Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
35. They Never Learn by Layne Fargo
36. The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara
37. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
38. Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie
39. Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages by Janina Ramírez
40. Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
41. Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
42. Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade
43. Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz
44. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
45. Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada
46. We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride
47. Killing Rage: Ending Racism by bell hooks
48. Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion by Bushra Rehman
49. How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis
50. Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
51. Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley
52. The Birdcatcher by Gayl Jones
53. Little Rabbit by Alyssa Songsiridej
54. The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton
55. Our Gen by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
56. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiya Hartman
57. Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic by Esther Perel
58. The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West
59. Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
60. Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor
61. The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
62. Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby
63. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
64. Strip: A Memoir by Hannah Sward
65. All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews
66. Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
67. Weyward by Emilia Hart
68. The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan
69. Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades
70. The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
71. The Switch by Beth O'Leary
72. Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maud Newton
73. The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
74. Chemistry by Weike Wang
75. True Biz by Sara Nović
76. Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton
77. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
78. When the World Didn't End by Guinevere Turner
79. Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman
80. Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
81. Long Division by Kiese Laymon
82. I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
83. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
84. No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister
85. American Hippo by Sarah Gailey
86. She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore
87. Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
88. Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
89. After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time by Nick Srnicek, Helen Hester
90. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
91. The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais
92. Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
93. We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
94. Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as Told to Me) Story by Bess Kalb
95. Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want by Ruha Benjamin
96. The Maid by Nita Prose
97. The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
98. First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung
99. Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America's Revolutions by Mattie Kahn
100. Lucky Girl by Mei-Ling Hopgood
101. Banyan Moon by Thao Thai
102. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
103. The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century by Amia Srinivasan
104. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
105. The Guest by Emma Cline
106. The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin by Kip Wilson
107. You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir by Maggie Smith
108. All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
109. Three Girls from Bronzeville by Dawn Turner
110. How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior
111. The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper
112. The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O'Rourke
113. How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler
114. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
115. Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
116. Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas
117. The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
118. Take What You Need by Idra Novey
119. Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career by Kristi Coulter
120. My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson
121. Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
122. Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life by Sutton Foster
123. The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer