2023 in Books

I read 175 books this year!

Every year I compile a bunch of book stats, and like last year, I’m sharing some of them with you! Below, I’ve listed some interesting numbers, my book superlatives for the year, my top 30 books, and my top 10 short stories for 2023.

You can see everything I read (and check off what you’ve read too!) here.

Interesting Stats

Of my 175 books read…

12 were rereads
23 were 2023 releases
28 were more than 10 years old
I gave out 65 five star ratings! That’s 11 more than last year.
BUT my average rating stayed exactly the same, at a 4.2
I gave 77 four stars, 24 three stars, 4 two stars, and didn’t rate 5 books. I gave no one stars.
I read the most in September (24 books) and the least in February (7 books). I averaged 14.5 books/month, or one book every 2.09 days.
My most-read genre was Fantasy, as always (101)
Science Fiction and Historical are basically tied for second, at 45 and 42 respectively
I also read 33 Horror, 27 Contemporary, 23 Mystery, 6 Classics, and 4 Nonfiction. Don’t worry about the math, lots of books count for multiple genres.
The bulk of my reading is regular-ass novels, but I did read a good chunk of novellas (31) and short fiction collections/anthologies (29), as well as a few graphic novels (5) and a smidge of poetry (3)
I track a few kinds of representation in my reading. Keeping in mind that what I decide “counts” as rep is super subjective and arbitrary, I read 20 Jewish books and 96 queer books this year.
I also read 16 Sherlock Holmes retellings, 13 books about spooky houses, and 7 books that inexplicably feature one character kissing another’s palm.
11 of the books I read were for my sff novella book club. There were 12 meetings but I missed one!
I mostly read physical books (131), but also a decent chunk of audiobooks (40) and a few eBooks (4)
I read 14 books under 100 pages and 7 books over 500 pages. The rest were, like, normal page counts.
68 of my books had been on my Goodreads tbr for over a year. 42 I added in 2022, and 65 either I added this year or they were just never on my tbr (not counting rereads)
40% of my books were from authors I’d read from before, and 60% were from new-to-me authors. This is almost exactly the opposite of last year!
My most-read author demographic is white women. This is always true, but I did read 72 books by non-white authors, more than ever before!
109 of the books I read were from the Big 5 publishers. That breaks down to 40 from Macmillan, 32 from Penguin Random House, 19 from Simon and Schuster, 11 from Harper Collins, and 7 from Hachette.
49 were from mid-size and indie publishers, 14 were self-published, and 2 were in the public domain.

Superlatives

adapted from BooksandLala

Longest: Priory of the Orange Tree at 848 pages
Shortest: The Fox at 13 pages
Most Widely-Read: Sense and Sensibility at 1,170,435 readers
Most Obscure: Power to Yield at 6 readers (but it isn’t technically out yet)
Favorite 2023 release: When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sasha Lamb
Favorite older title (5+ years): Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
Lived up to the hype: In the fucking Dream House deserves every good thing anyone’s ever said about it
Didn’t live up to the hype: Blanca & Roja :/
Biggest reading accomplishment: Priory of the Orange Tree!!!! I was so scared of that book
Fav couple/ship: Guinevere/Lancelot, the Camelot Rising versions specifically
Fav character: Miscellaneous “Laney” Stones from Saint Death’s Daughter
Least fav character: Dracula from Reluctant Immortals specifically
Most surprising moment: In The First Sister, when we realize that [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] are [REDACTED] (iykyk)
Best prose: Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
Book you’ll be recommending: The Sleepless by Victor Manibo
Fav newly discovered author: Sam J. Miller
Fav cover: When the Angels Left the Old County by Sasha Lamb. I want to eat it. Art by Will Staehle.
Fav sequel: The Case for Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro (Charlotte Holmes #3)
Made you cry: Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour
Made you laugh: Princess Floralinda and the Fifty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir
Fav reread: A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
Most surprising 5 star: Naomi Teitelbaum Ends the World (I don’t generally think of myself as loving middle grade)
Least fav overall: I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid
Cool Reading Moments
- Reading 20 books in 10 days for Reads of Awe
- Announcing Bogi Takács’s new book cover
- Finishing Priory after four full months
- Saying out loud “If Guinevere and Lancelot don’t end up together I riot” and suddenly being viscerally connected to dozens of generations of readers
- Every review of That Inevitable Victorian Thing being SO negative but being sure I’d like it anyway and then reading it and BEING RIGHT

TOP 30

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily C. Danforth
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour
Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy By Sam J. Miller
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sasha Lamb
Camelot Rising Series by Kiersen White
Saint Death’s Daughter by CSE Cooney
Ravensong by Cayla Fay
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
The Honeys by Ryan LaSala
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older
Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker
The Ghosts of Rose Hill by RM Romero
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoradia Córdova
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
The Sleepless by Victor Manibo
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
That Inevitable Victorian Thing by
Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
The Martian by Andy Weir
Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak by Charlie Jane Anders
Naomi Teitelbaum Ends the World by Samara Shanker
Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
Big Machine by Victor LaValle
Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue

Interesting Stats

Superlatives

TOP 30

Top 10 Short Stories

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