Hosted by Jamie @ Perpetual Page Turner, I like how this survey delves into the specifics of books read and gives me a chance to review all I read and wrote this year. I have completed this survey every year since I started book blogging full time (2014). I removed some questions for which I didn’t have an answer. So, be sure to visit the original post if you’d like to complete the survey. Links to reviews where applicable. My annual overview (in which I recap my goals progress and set new ones) will go live on January 3rd.

2023 Reading Stats

• Number of books read – 61. Bit of a dip after 2022, but given the upheaval I experienced in the first half of the year, I’m satisfied with this number.
• Number of re-reads – 3 (Middlegame, White is for Witching, The Haunting of Hill House). I think 2024 is due for a reread of The Lord of the Rings…
• Genre you read the most from – I don’t track genres but it’s pretty much always going to be speculative fiction. This fun little tool “My Year in Books” (which generates a a Spotify inspired “Goodreads wrapped”) says I read 34 fantasy, 24 middle grade (I dispute middle grade being a genre) and 15 horror. (The graphic does not include my last read of 2023, the MG novel Jude Saves the World.)

Best in Books

• Favourite book read in 2023 – It’s gotta be the first book I read this year: Babel by RF Kuang. Honourable mentions include:
  • His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (adult historical fantasy)
  • The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill (MG fantasy)
  • Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore (YA historical)
  • Don’t Want to Be Your Monster by Deke Moulton (MG supernatural)
  • Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (adult fantasy)
• Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t – Hamra and the Jungle of Memories by Hanna Alkaf. I loved her debut MG novel The Girl and the Ghost but this book had a completely different tone and plot which didn’t work for me it at all.
• Book you ‘pushed’ the most people to read – I haven’t been super active in the book community this year. However, I have recommended Anna-Marie McLemore’s Self-Made Boys to a few people IRL!
• Best series started/ended/continued – Temeraire by Naomi Novik! I’d been putting this series off because, while I loved Uprooted and Spinning Silver, I wasn’t convinced I’d enjoy an alternate history series featuring dragons. But I read His Majesty’s Dragon after it won the vote for “I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read That Yet” and I quickly read the next two books in the series. I might make it through the entire series! I finished book four a few days ago.
• Favourite new author discovered –  T. Kingfisher
• Favourite cover – Oddly enough, there weren’t many covers that jumped out at me from my 2023 reads. I’ll go with Lavender House, Babel, and The Bellwoods Game.

• Most beautifully written – She is a Haunting by Thanh Trang Tran is beautiful in a rotting sort of way
• Most thought-provoking/life changing – Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living by Dimitirs Xygalatas
• Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2023 to finally read – Poppy and Ereth by Avi, which I added to my TBR in 2013
• Shortest book – Let’s Talk about Race in Storytimes by Jessica Anne Bratt (112 pages)
• Longest book – Babel by RF Kuang (544 pages)
• Book that shocked you the most – Devotion by Hannah Kent (EVEN THOUGH I knew what I was getting in to, haha)
• Favourite non-romantic relationship – Áine and Ned in The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill
• Favourite book by an author you’ve read previously – The Theory of Crows by David A. Robertson
• Best debut – Tie between The Song of Us by Kate Fussner and Don’t Want to be Your Monster by Deke Moulton
• Best world-building – I try not to repeat answers here in this survey, but it has to be Babel or His Majesty’s Dragon
• Most fun to read – …ditto above (His Majesty’s Dragon)
• Made you cry – No tears this year
• Hidden gem – Shout out to these great 2023 middle grade releases which all have less than 150 Goodreads reatings: Speculation by Nisi Shawl, The Takeout by Tracey Badua, The House that Whispers by Lin Thompson, and A Season Most Unfair by J. Anderson Coats (check out my reviews of the latter two here). Perhaps I will write a post in the New Year to boost these titles…
• Most unique – Possibly Devotion by Hannah Kent? I didn’t read anything this year that jumped out as unique to me, but Devotion stands out as unique from what I usually read – it’s historical fiction about a queer teen girl and her Old Lutheran family migrating from Prussia to Australia in the 1830s, which a twist halfway through.
• Made you the most mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it!) – I wanted to hurl The Song of Us across the gazebo at one point.

Your Bookish Life

• New favourite book blog discovered – Gosh, I wasn’t so active in the blogosphere this year. Can I recall any new-to-me blogs? I am fairly certain I started following Lashaan @ Roars and Echoes (spec fic in various mediums) this year.
• Favourite review  – Taking Up Space by Alyson Gerber
• Favourite non-review post – An Invitation to Bluesky
• Favourite bookish photo – I didn’t take many this year! So I will go with this photo I took one cozy fall evening, which includes my favourite childhood Halloween books.

• Best moment of bookish/blogging life – The response to my post about blog stats! So many folks left wonderful thoughtful comments, and a few even wrote their own posts on the topic (see Annemieke @ A Dance with Dragons and Kal @ Reader Voracious). Then my work life promptly went off the rails in February and I didn’t reply to any of them 😅 But I’m glad the post resonated with so many!
• Most challenging thing about blogging/reading life – While I improved somewhat on this front in 2023, the balance between reading and reviewing remains my greatest challenge. I’ve been doing well at reviewing books I’ve read this month. Hopefully I can carry through these habits in 2024!
• Most viewed post – Would You Rather: Book Edition (1,843 views) was published in Sept 2020. Most viewed post which was published this year (in January) is 10 Books on the Shikoku Pilgrimage (469 views).
• Post you wished got a little more love – I feel like all my posts this year have been well-received 😊 Thank-you everyone who has read, liked, and/or commented! I suppose I could say my review of Don’t Want to be Your Monster, which only went up on Dec 24 so fair enough that it hasn’t garnered much of a response yet, haha.
• Best bookish discovery – Okay, believe it or not… I just realized the purpose of book sleeves… those fabric pockets you put a book in when you’re carrying it around? (here is an example) I haven’t acquired one yet, but I think I could benefit from one lol as I often fret about my books when I have them in my purse, backpack, work laptop bag, etc.
• Completion of challenges/goals – To be discussed in my “wrapping up, looking forward post” on January 3rd.

Looking Ahead

• Most anticipated debut – My TBR is woefully short on 2024 releases. I don’t have any debuts which I’m highly anticipating.
• Most anticipated sequel – Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #4) by Jessica Townsend. Do you think this will be the last year I put Silverborn as the answer for this question? It’s been the same answer for three years in a row now 😔
• Most anticipated non-debut – The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo
• One book you didn’t get to in 2023 but will make a priority in 2024 – The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo. Peat @ Peat Long’s Blog has convinced me to finally pick this up, after a couple years of saying I would. I would like to make it my New Year’s Day read, but I’m not sure my hold will make it in time.
• One goal for your reading/blogging life – I haven’t decided yet!

And that’s a wrap on 2023! Let me know if you completed this survey.
Happy New Year! 🎉 See you on the other side 😄