2023 Reading Round Up

I decided to challenge myself in 2023 by setting my Goodreads reading goal to 100 books. I also decided to follow along with The 52 Book Club’s 2023 Reading Challenge.

It was a bit of a rollercoaster. I read some amazing books, some not so amazing books, books that made me cry and books that made me stare silently at the wall in shock. There were books that made me angry that I read them and books that made me angry I didn’t read them sooner. 

With that being said, let’s get into my 2023 reading round up. 

End of Year Statistics

I ended up on a total of 125 books. I started using Storygraph this year to use their stats feature. Tell me I’m not the only one who finds this satisfying?

I would definitely recommend using Storygraph if you like seeing a breakdown of your reading habits. You can also receive recommendations based on what you have previously read or by what mood you’re in.

My Favourite Reads

Apparently I’m hard to please as I only gave out five 5* ratings this year: 

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff (6* for the cover)

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story by John O’Dowd 

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (one of my few auto-buy authors). 

I really loved these books for different reasons. Crying at a book is rare for me, but The Reading List got me. I couldn’t stop the tears but it was really lovely. 

I was thrilled to be gifted a copy of the latest C.J. Skuse book from NetGalley and HQ to review. Thorn in My Side is the fourth instalment of the Sweetpea series and it was so good! Sweetpea is one of my favourite series and I’m so excited for the next one already. 

My Favourite Audiobooks

Two of my favourite books of the year were Strange Sally Diamond and The Bandit Queens and I read them both via audiobook. I absolutely loved them! Both narrations were excellent and I know I will listen to them both again.

I listened to The One by John Marrs (another of my auto-buy authors) and it was so good. There were so many different narrators which really brought the story to life and sucked me in. And when I tell you this had me gasping in shock at the end…100% a re-listen. 

None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell is also excellent via audio. The podcast element to the story keeps you engrossed throughout. 

Personally I prefer to listen to memoirs and biographies rather than reading them. Some of my favourites this year include Harlow in Hollywood by Darrell Rooney, The Woman in Me by Britney Spears, Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton, Overcome by Amber van de Bunt and Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by John O’Dowd

New Authors

I discovered quite a few new authors this year that I would definitely like to read more of.  

Paulette Kennedy, R.F Kuang, David Sodergren, Riley Sager, Liz Nugent, Elif Shafak, Parini Shroff, Tiffany D. Jackson and Sara Nisha Adams are the new (to me) authors that I really enjoyed. If I haven’t said it enough, Liz Nugent and Parini Shroff were responsible for my favourite reads of this year so I’m especially looking forward to more of their work. 

Controversial Opinions

I hate to say it but A Little Life does not live up to expectations. It was sad, but personally I didn’t think it was worth the hype. If I spend too long thinking about it, the more annoyed it makes me. 

I read quite a few books that had so much praise that I didn’t really enjoy or understand the hype. Some of these include A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead and Bunny by Mona Awad. 

I’m not saying any of these books are awful, they just really weren’t for me and I could’ve easily skipped over them. But reading is subjective and these could well be your favourite books. Each to their own my friends. 

Biggest Surprises

I read Verity by Colleen Hoover as part of the reading challenge for the prompt “a book everyone has read” and I was honestly surprised. I tend to resist books that are over hyped out of pure stubbornness and it was definitely a hot mess, but it was an entertaining read. 

Another book that surprised me was The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. This was another book read for the reading challenge for the prompt “high fantasy”. This was one of the last challenge books I read because I’ve never been keen on fantasy but I really enjoyed this. It was quite long and dealt with some heavy subject matter, but a very good read. 

I can’t remember what made me pick up Keeper on Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N. Holmberg as it didn’t sound like my typical read. I’m so glad I did though. It was a sweet, magical, fantastical romance and really enjoyable.

Biggest Disappointments

I’d heard so many good things about Beartown by Frederik Backman and was looking forward to getting stuck into it over the Christmas period. About 100 pages in I was patiently waiting for it to really get going but sadly it didn’t. Not for me anyway. I found myself bored and struggled to get through it. It took me about 10 days to finish, which is a lot longer than my usual reading time. Sad face. 

I snapped up a copy of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood from a charity shop expecting big things from this classic. But *sigh* another read I was bored by. It’s already been passed over to someone who I’m sure will enjoy it.

I came across Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah while looking for a book to fit the “dystopian fiction” prompt of the 52 Book Club’s Challenge. I loved the premise, the name, the cover but not so much the execution. It wasn’t a bad book at all and Adjei-Brenyah is an excellent writer, but it just fell a bit flat for me.

Reading Challenge 

Part of my personal goal this year was to complete a reading challenge and I chose The 52 Book Club’s 2023 challenge.

This included 52 different prompts for each week of the year. The prompts were very varied and had me reading genres I wouldn’t normally read. Some of these were successful while others weren’t so much.

Here is a graphic of all the prompts and the books I used to fill them.

I have decided not to do a specific reading challenge this year but if you are interested in The 52 Book Club you can look on their website for this years prompts and past challenges.

Goals for 2024

This year I’ve decided to focus on working through my TBR and only reading books that really appeal to me. 

While I enjoyed The 52 Book Club reading challenge, sometimes I felt like I was reading a book purely because of the prompt and not because I actually wanted to read it. Along with working to get through 100 books (and reading some stinkers), this sometimes left me feeling a bit burnt out. 

So my goals for 2024 are:

1. Read 60 books.
2. Make progress on my TBR before adding any more.
3. Start the Storygraph “Reading the World” challenge (reading a book written by an author from every country). There is no time limit for this so it’s a long term goal rather than wanting to complete in the next year.

To kick off the year I am listening to As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson (borrowed from the library via the Libby app) and The Mayor of Maxwell Street by Avery Cunningham which was kindly gifted by NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue.

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Have you read any of the books I’ve mentioned? What were your reading highs and lows? 

I’d love to connect with other readers on Goodreads and Storygraph so don’t be shy!

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For some summer reading inspiration, check out my post here.