2023 Reading Wrap-Up

With the start of 2024, I’m looking back on my reading year. It was a great reading year, 2023. I exceeded my reading goal, read amazing books and was introduced to new authors and genres. Here are my 2023 reading stats (thanks to StoryGraph).

I read 72 books, when my goal was 30. I read 26.257 pages. The first book of the year was The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. A book picked by my dad as my first read of the year. Was a bit disappointed in it. My last book of the year also ended up being my favorite read of 2023: The Only One Left by Riley Sager.

I read most books and pages in July, which was the month of the Summerween Readathon. Which also happened to be the first Readathon I ever participated in. Even though I choose shorter books for this Readathon, I eventually ended up reading 9 books that month, 5 for the Readathon. In December I read the least amount of pages, end of the year struggles I guess. In January, March and November I read the least amount of books. It was 5 each, which is still a good amount for me.

To no surprise, thriller was my most read genre this year. It’s my most beloved genre and the one I lean towards most often. Second was mystery. This is often paired with thriller. I tried out horror, crime and literary as well this year. Next year thriller and mystery will still be my main focus, but I want to read more horror, science fiction, non-fiction and historical fiction. 

“Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott was my longest read, and also my only reread of the year. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson was the shortest book I read. I loved both. 

I spend an average of 8 days on each book and the average amount of pages of the books I read was 358. “Night of the Mannequins” was the quickest read, I listened to this audiobook in a few hours in one day. “The Deep” by Nick Cutter took me the longest. This book I brought on my vacation to Italy/ Sicily this year, where I didn’t read that much. I eventually did finish it on my trip.

My most read authors were Peter Swanson, Grady Hendrix and Holly Jackson. From Jackson I had read before, Hendrix and Swanson were new-to-me-authors (and with that new favorites as well). There were a bunch of new authors I explored this year, such as Freida McFadden, Lisa Jewell, Simone St. James, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Nick Cutter and Paul Cleave, among many others. I also revisited some authors:  John Marrs, Riley Sager, Alice Feeney, Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Ruth Ware, Alex Michaelides, M.J. Arlidge and Richard Osman.

Of all the books I read, the average rating was a 3,9, which is a pretty good average. I didn’t have a lot of 2 stars or lower, which proofs it was a good reading year for me. My most given rating was 4 stars. And I rated 16 books with 5 stars. Among them was the one reread I had.

Even though March was one of the months with the least amount of books, it had the highest average rating, with a 4,4. All books I read that month were a 4 star or higher. My year started off with an average of 3,4 in January, the only month I didn’t have a 5 star read. And in July I read the most pages, since it was the month with the Summerween Readathon and I ended up reading 9 books in total for that month.

Based on popularity on StoryGraph, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid, is the book that is shelved the most. This also happens to be the highest rated book, overall, by the users on StoryGraph. “Whatever It Takes” by Paul Cleave is the least shelved book. I enjoyed both books.

Based on moods and genre, “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott stood out, since it’s very different to what I normally read. Other ‘odd ones out’ were “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville, “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller, “Daisy Jones & the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid, “The Push” by Ashley Audrain and “Heroine” by Mindy McGinnis. Not all were a success, but the majority of these ended up being books I loved. I do want to read more of Taylor Jenkins Reid books and dive into more classics like “Moby Dick” in 2024.

I’m not a big series reader, but I apparently did read 15 books that were part of a series. The series I read this year, that I will not be continuing were the Fawkes & Baxter series (“Ragdoll” by Daniel Cole), the Hampton Murder Mysteries series (“Death on Windmill Way” by Carrie Doyle) and The Family Upstairs series (“The Family Upstairs” by Lisa Jewell). I finished the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series by Holly Jackson this year. I read “Good Girl, Bad Blood”, “As Good As Dead” and the prequel “Kill Joy” in the series. The first book I read last year. The series I want to continue in are The Marlow Murder Club series (“The Marlow Murder Club” by Robert Thorogood), The Henry Kimball & Lily Kintner series (“The Kind Worth Killing” and “The Kind Worth Saving” by Peter Swanson), the Helen Grace series (“The Doll’s House” by M.J. Arlidge), The Housemaid series (“The Housemaid” by Freida McFadden), the Whispering Pines series (“Whispering Pines” by Heidi Lang & Kati Bartkowski), the Robert Grimm series (“Hex” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt) and The Thursday Murder Club series (“The Bullet That Missed” by Richard Osman). “Little Women” is also a first in a series, or duology actually, which I didn’t know. I’m not sure if I want to read the second book.

I only DNF’ed two books this year: “Aunti Poldi and the Sicilian Lions” by Mario Giordano, which is part of the Aunti Poldi book series, and “Killers of a Certain Age” by Deanna Raybourne. I wasn’t invested in either one of the books and didn’t want to continue on reading them. I have no interest in ever picking them up again or giving them another try.