My 2023 in Books + Top 10 Reads of the Year & 2024 Bookish Resolutions

Oh 2023, what a year you have been! A lot of things happened in my life that I felt like reading kind of took a back seat for a while there. But, luckily, I was still able to finish a couple of books. I can’t believe I now have a teenager: 2023 is the 13th year that I joined Goodreads and officially started tracking my readings. ✨ And it’s been a real journey so far.

Tracking the books I read and analysing my yearly reading habits has been a therapeutic thing ever since I started doing it. It’s a fun and unique way of looking back to the year that passed. Most of the time, my reading patterns reflect the experiences I had or wanted to have (longings) in a given year. I think this year is no different.

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2023 Reading, in Numbers

Here are my quick reading stats for 2023:

In bullets, these are a couple of patterns and observations I had this year:

• I’ve read really few non-fiction this year, relative to my numbers in the past few years.
• Although cozy mystery is not really something new to me (because of Tita Rosie’s Kitchens Mystery that I’ve read before), I really got into my groove of following these serials this year. I especially liked Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mystery, which accompanied me in various walks as well as informed me of coffee-related facts and yummy cafe recipes. It was really nice! I love the food-themed mysteries that are popping up lately. Keep ’em coming!
• My average book rating didn’t change from last year: 4.2, which I think is surprisingly high. Life’s too short to be hating on books. Usually, if I don’t like it, I just don’t finish it or store it for a time until I am ready to come back. Take for example, Normal People, which I tabled for a bit when I initially started it. And then when I actually was able to finish it, I really loved it. Sometimes, the right time and mood is needed to enjoy a good book.
• I’m not sure if it is actually true but I have this thought in my head that I read a lot of break-up books this year. I know this is informed by my recent experience, but when I counted it, it really wasn’t a lot. Maybe they were sort of just magnified in my head.
• I’ve only read 3 (!!!) fantasy books this year. And this is really surprising and alarming to me! Is my fantasy-girlie era done? I refuse to believe so. I hope I could get back to reading more fantasy this year!
• Contemporary fiction by women still dominates my reading list. And I don’t think that would change anytime soon.

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Books Read

There are all the books I’ve read this 2023 (and linked those which I’ve written short/full length reviews across platforms):

Homicide and Halo-Halo | Embracing yourself with Self-Compassion | The Wedding Crasher | Counterfeit | A Very English Murder | Butts: A Backstory | Normal People | The Miranda Obsession | Mysteries of Thorn Manor | Sandman, Act III | 33 Unplayed Voicemails | Lessons in Chemistry | Daisy Jones & the Six | Young Rich Widows | Love at First Psych | Seatmate | Booked for Murder | Yours Truly | Read Between the Lines | On What Grounds | Through the Grinder | Tart of Darkness | Leave no Scone Unturned | Latte Trouble | Murder Most Frothy | Notes on Heartbreak | Decaffeinated Corpse | Sorrow and Bliss | French Pressed | Heartburn | It’s Attachment | Medium Raw | The Midnight Library | How to Fall in Love With Anyone | Small Things Like These | Espresso Shot | Good Material | A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind | Really, Good Actually | A Merry Little Meet Cute

I generated my reading vibe this year and I got: ECLECTIC. A result I pretty much agree with. The kind of books that I read are really varied and I always find happiness in the realization that I am not bound by certain expected favourites. It changes from year to year, and that is really exciting for me. The things that I like in 2023 might be different from the things that I will enjoy and discover in 2024. I’m excited!

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2024 Reading Resolutions

Just to keep the tradition going, here are my 2024 reading resolutions:

• Read more non fiction books
• Get back to reading Fantasy books again
• Maintain an actual Book Journal
• Try to read more books in my physical TBR stack

I’d also take this opportunity to do a bit of a view of my 2023 resolutions, as follows:

• Read more physical books: ACHIEVED – I read more physical books in 2023 than in 2022. And forcing myself to do this also made me more comfortable to do this more often and made me enjoy carrying a physical book around. Nothing beats it, honestly.
• Try to post more real-time reading updates: SOMEWHAT ACHIEVED – I did try to post the books I was reading and corresponding rating once I finish it in real-time at the beginning of the year but kinda waned a bit in the middle because ~life happened~. By the end of last year, I was trying to get back in the groove. I hope I continue doing it this 2024.
• Quality of quantity of books read: SOMEWHAT ACHIEVED – Though I finished 40 books, I believe I still didn’t pressure myself that much in 2023. There are a lot of instances though where I was mindlessly selecting books I can listen to just to fill up my time and quiet my mind, which was contrary to the “mindful reading” I was trying to achieve.
• Be more active and revive the blog: ACHIEVED – If there’s something I was glad of restarting again last year, it’s to revive this blog. I even managed to change the theme, which made me really happy and fulfilled. And though I do still have a lot of back logs, I think I can still count it as an achievement.

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My Top Reads of the Year

• Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen – This was my first 5-star read of the year and it remained as one of my favourite reads for 2023. I don’t know if it’s the timing of when I read it, I was probably bored out of my mind, but I think this is one of the most engrossing thing I’ve read in a while. Love the POV-shift that also made the tone suddenly shift in the book. It’s always cool when this kind of thing happens. [REVIEW]
• Normal People by Sally Rooney – The flagship book of the sad millennial. 😅 I also wanted to finally finish it before starting the TV show, which I’ve heard raves about. I know I was going to like it even if it took me a while to actually read it. But it was deliciously written – and I yearned for novels like this after reading it. [READING DIARY]
• The Miranda Obsession (Podcast) – This is one of the most inventive and delicious podcast/audiobook I’ve listened to in recent memory. I’m not sure if this can even be considered fiction as this is based on an actual Hollywood scandal involving some very big names. This fictionalized version of the story, told mostly via a series of phone calls, involved an A-list cast headed by Rachel Brosnahan as Miranda. I think, if not for the brilliant voice acting, this would’ve been average – but they were all brilliant and I really liked the dramatization of it! It sent me into a Google rabbit hole after I finished it. 😅
• The Sandman Act III by Neil Gaiman and Dirk Maggs – The third instalment came unexpectedly for me; I didn’t know they’ll be releasing it this soon. But it was beautiful and and amazing as always! Production is still top tier.
• Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid – I admit that I only read it because the Amazon TV adaptation looks really cool and I wanted to watch it. I’m glad it did not disappoint because Daisy! Billy! Camila! I think this is one of the fastest book I’ve read this year because it just hooks you in. But to be honest, I think the whole thing lends itself more beautifully in TV format than it is in a book. The book was still a win though!
• The Coffeehouse Mystery (particularly Latte Trouble) by Cleo Coyle -Safe to say that a chunk of my year was dominated by this cozy mystery. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series this year (I’m only at Book 8 and Book 20 just got published last year lol 😂). [REVIEW]
• Notes on Heartbreak by Annie Lord – I still have some lingering trauma about this book – not because of the book per se but because of the exact moment I read this. To this day, I still can’t open this book and relive those days. But trust me when I say that this is one of the most realistic portrayal of the roller coaster you go through during a heartbreak. It made me feel less alone.
• Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason -Don’t believe the promotional blurbs of this book saying that this is “funny”. This is one of the most heart-breaking books I’ve ever read. The mundanity of loneliness = this book, basically; and how this rings so accurate feels painful at the same time. Review of this is still in my drafts and I WILL finish it because I need this in my blog.
• Heartburn by Nora Ephron – My first Nora Ephron book – the patron saint of romantic comedies herself! I absolutely loved her writing voice. And I can see how she inspired a lot of future generation of writers with her works. Safe to say this won’t be my last Ephron. [REVIEW]
• Good Material by Dolly Alderton – A new Dolly Alderton book after a while! And while I admitedly loved her first novel, Ghosts, more than this, Good Material is still the perfect successor. As Dolly said in her interview, she wanted to explore the ‘Anatomy of a Breakup’ and she definitely did. It was great fun and I want a Jen POV book! Those delicious few pages were so good!

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That’s was quite a winded post but I’m glad to finally breathe it out. I don’t wanna make the same mistake of not documenting these things because I really find happiness whenever I look back at these year-in-review posts. So pardon me for this tired entry haha! As usual, I am looking forward to a fun reading year this 2024! ✨

Note: Stats and reading vibes analysis care of Goodreads and myyearinbooks.com (respectively).

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HOW WAS YOUR 2023 READING YEAR? WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE READS THIS 2023? LINK UP YOUR WRAP-UPS IF YOU HAVE ANY! COMMENT UP AND LET’S TALK!

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