2023 - A Year in books
Overview
Wow! 2023 flew by! I started the year wanting to write more about the books I was reading but that didn’t end up happening. I set myself the goal of reading 52 books in 2023 and I thought I would fail like I did in 2022. I ended up reading 56! I wanted to try to read more actual books but 54% of the books I consumed were via Audiobook. I found that I could use BorrowBox to listen to books for free via my library subscription. 27% of books that I read were physical books, mainly paperbacks and 20% were digital, I am partial to buying Kindle books for 99p on Amazon.
Pie Chart from my StoryGraph Reading Challenge page
Book Apps
I used 3 different Apps to track my reading, they all have different features that I love. I use GoodReads because I can easily find what I have read. I can also score books on Kindle and it goes directly to GoodReads. Lastly, a lot of my friends are there so I can see what other people are reading and how they are getting on with their Reading Challenges. I use StoryGraph because I can see statistics on what I am reading, the type of book I am consuming and it's easier to find the edition of the book that you are actually reading. Lastly I use Bookmory, it has a calendar feature so that you can easily see what you have read each month. I also find it the easiest app to use to make notes that I can review.
Apps I use to read include BorrowBox and Libby which are included in my Essex County Library Subscription. I have Audible but I have only started a subscription again since December. I have a lot of books that I have not read on my account so I have been listening to those outside of the subscription. I only started Audible again because I have listened to all the Bridgerton Series that the Library has on BorrowBox so now I am buying them monthly with my credits. I found that because I started the series via AudioBook I struggle to read a physical version on it! Lastly I have a Kindle so I use the Kindle App, I only use my Kindle rather than the phone app. I have a Paperwhite and it's easier to read with my eyes than on the phone app.
My favourite 2023 Reads
I don’t think I can narrow it down to just one favourite book but I will give you a list of a few I really enjoyed.
Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky - I read this in paperback format, it was a recommendation from a staff member in Waterstones in Colchester. I read it from 20/01/23 to 04/02/23. It is probably one of the thickest books I have ever read and this is where I wish I had it in digital format because it actually made my tendonitis flare up! It was a great book, very addicting, I couldn’t put it down. It is told through the eyes of a 7 year old child although you forget that he is so young but when you reflect on his age what is happening to him is even more horrifying. It is very dark with plenty of twists and turns.
The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola - This book I borrowed from the Library in paperback format. I read it from 19/03/23 to 23/03/23. It is set on the Isle of Skye where the lead character is collecting word-of-mouth folk tales from the communities around the island. She discovers the body of a girl on a beach and begins to unravel a hidden mystery that has been wrapped in the folklore of Skye. I really loved this book. It was the first Anna Mazzola book that I have read. I am a massive folklore fan so that was what sold this book to me but Anna Mazzola’s writing style is just beautiful.
Weyward by Emilia Hart - This book I read on my Kindle from 22/04/23 to 12/05/23. I love a book that is told from different perspectives over time. This book is set in the modern day with the character of Kate who is escaping a toxic relationship and moving to a cottage that she has inherited from her great-aunt. She discovers her history through papers she found in the house explaining the life of her great-aunt Violet in the 1940s and how these stories are mirroring that of their ancestor Altha in the 1600s. It weaves the stories of three women from the same family over five centuries, through superstition, female resilience and the natural world.
The House of Whispers by Anna Mazzola - Another amazing book by Anna Mazzola! This was a hardback from the library read from 21/06/23 to 01/07/23. I read some amazing books in July and this was the start. I studied the Third Reich for my A Levels, BA degree and MA degree focusing on the Documentation Centres in Germany for my degrees. I never really knew much about the connection to Fascist Italy. This book is beautifully tragic, following Eva whis was a Slav forced to become an Italian when Italy claimed their land. Her best friend was Jewish and fled Italy before she was forced out by the Fascists. Eva was alone in Rome and fell in love with a true Italian gentleman, or was he!? I was on the edge of my seat for most of this book. I love how Anna Mazzola immerses herself in history. This book is historical, with a pinch of mystery and thriller.
The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis - This was a digital book that I read on my Kindle from 16/05/23 to 05/07/23. I started this book and put it down for a while to read books from the library that had been recalled. This is another book where we flit between characters from the past and present. I wrote about this book in more detail in my blog “Books With Themes - Psychometry”.
Sing, Wild Bird, Sing by Jacqueline O’Mahony - This was another digital book on Kindle read between 14/07/23 and 25/07/23. Wow! This was a powerful book! It started in Ireland in 1849 during the Irish Famine. It focuses on Honora and how she loses everything in a tragedy, this leads to her walking across Ireland to board a boat to America to start a new life. Misery follows her and she struggles to survive with pure determination and resilience. She becomes the wife of a homesteader but her daily life is just her existence until she meets a Native and she can bond with his displacement. I loved this story so much and I always make a point of reading the acknowledgements at the end of the book. Here Jacqueline O’Mahony says that she found a link, after writing the book, connecting the people of Honora’s homeland in Ireland to the Native Tribes in America.
A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamil - This was a paperback library book. I went to stay with friends in Norwich at the start of October and I noticed that my friend had it on her TBR pile too. This spurred me to make it my next read. I read it from 15/10/23 to 29/10/23. This was a weird book, like Imaginary Friend it was a nod to Stephen King. It follows the main character Noah from childhood into adulthood and his experience with his monster. His father had an obsession with monsters and this rubbed off on his family, being the youngest he does not really remember his father, so he is left out when his family creates the haunted house attraction that his father had created during his demise. It is at this time when he is left alone that he meets his monster. His connection with his monster takes a darker turn the older he becomes and there are many twists and turns. The monster used to give him comfort but he has to make the choice between a life with her or saving his family from this monster's world.
2024 Reading Challenge
I have set my 2024 Reading Challenge at 60, I think it is a doable number. I always want to try to read less AudioBooks and more physical books but I know in reality this is not going to happen. I am a doer so I need to listen to things on the go. I have drastically reduced my podcast following to focus more on books so I feel that 2024 will have an AudioBook majority. I do have a lot of physical books to read as my local charity shop does 3 for £1 so I find it hard to resist whenever I go into Brightlingsea. I did wrap the majority of them up at the end of 2023 so I can make some blind reading choices. In 2024 I am also going to make an effort to pre-order books. I have already pre-ordered The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza and as one of my favourite series is The All Souls Trilogy, I have pre-ordered The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness. It should be an amazing year! I intend to make monthly posts about what I have read that much and do reviews that way, so my wrap-up of 2024 will not be so long.
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