Hi and welcome to my 2023 wrap-up!
2023 was a fantastic bookish year! I read so many fab books and selecting only a few to highlight today was a complete nightmare! I read the most books I’ve read since I started using Goodreads, and my spreadsheet tells me I read about 5,000 pages less than in 2022, but I listened for about 70 hours more.
I didn’t set myself any “official” bookish goals or challenges, and I must admit I’m a little disappointed at the number of Stephen King books I read (only 2 🙈) and that I read only 10 Spanish books, while I actually wanted to read one each month, but I did read lots of non-fiction books, so I clearly managed to carry over that habit from my 2022 challenge. I’m not sure yet if I’ll be setting myself goals and challenges this year.
In 2023, I still used audiobooks to quiet my racing mind and I was still very much a very fickle reader: I got bored easily, at which point I’d pick up another book, so while I’ve always been a one-book-at-a-time kind of reader, I now usually have multiple books on the go.
In numbers 2023 looks like this:
2023
I read 73,517 pages across 250 novels, novellas and short stories
I listened for 747 hours to 143 audiobooks
But out of 393 books, what were my favourites, what are the books that kept me glued to their pages and made me forget all else?
Let’s start with a shout-out to a brilliant crime series I binged in the summer of 2023: the Aidan Waits series by Joseph Knox. Pitch-black, nail-bitingly tense and super addictive, I ordered book 2 and 3 as soon as I turned the final page of book 1, this is one of the series that marked my bookish year. With special thanks to Eva @ Novel Deelights for putting this series on my radar.
These fantastic reads are my 23 of 2023, an eclectic mix from an eclectic reader. It’s clear that 2023 was a bumper year for gothic fiction and that I’m a sucker for gothic fiction 😄
One last shout-out to one of my favourite books of 2023 that will be published in 2024:
Thanks for joining me today! Seen any of your favourites among mine? I wish you all a fabulous 2024 and here’s to a whole new year of book love 🥂
Thrilled to see the Knox series. Man, I have good taste 😏😂
You do, but you’re also detrimental to my book-buying budget 😅
Pot, kettle …
My husband love the Aidan Waits series as well, so great to see it here! 😀
He has great taste 😉
That’s some impressive reading and listening totals you notched up Kelly. I need your skills to reduce my the mountain. Hope 2024 is as productive for you.
Unfortunately, my reading skills still can’t quite compete with my buying skills 😂 I hope so too, and for you too!
OK I vow to read my copy of Sirens (which I received from the author!) In 2024! I see a few on your fave lists that I still want to read too: Square of Sevens and Laura Purcell.. Happy reading in 2024 Kelly!
I’ll hold you to that, Inge 😂 Happy reading!
The Drift was an excellent read! Great choices!
Thanks Tessa!
Holy smokes, 393 books?! That is mindblowing. I spotted a lot of shared favorites as well! Beautiful Shining People, The Space Between Us, The Bone Shard War, Remarkably Bright Creatures, The Great Alone… And quite a few more I can’t wait to read in 2024 and that I already know are going to be favorites. <3
I have no idea what happened but it will probably never happen again 😂 I read Remarkably Bright Creatures because of your review, so thank you!
Yay! <3 <3