2023 should’ve been a great reading year—a new book club, lots of walking for audiobooks, and major surgery that decreased mobility. And yet… I only barely hit my goal of 45 books based on the technicality of half-listening to a lot of audiobooks (which also kept my 23 minutes for 2023 streak alive). And my enjoyment was also way down.
Let’s look back on 2023, wave farewell, and try to plan for a better 2024.
Reading in 2023
Here are my goals and accomplishments:
1. Read 45 books:
After far exceeding my goal of 36 books for the prior two years, I set a goal of 45 books. I finished it, but as I said above, it wasn’t my best work.
I listened to a lot of celebrity memoirs, not because I’m super into them but because they were available from the library when I needed my next download. Some were great. Some were entirely unnecessary. As in—they probably don’t need to exist, and my life was not enriched by listening to them.
Goodreads made a summary page of my reading challenge, and I added all of my books to my Instagram stories (view Highlight).
2. Decrease my TBR:
I began the year with 64 physical / 23 Kindle and ended with 64/20. I can’t remember buying a single physical book this year (though I received a few gifts), but I also didn’t read many.
3. Read 6 short story collections/anthologies
I sure didn’t do this! By July, it looks like I had read 3 but nothing after that. I officially gave up in November.
4. Read 23 minutes per day
I started this back in 2021. Technically, my streak is still alive at Day 837, but I was more attentive to my audiobooks some days vs others. The last day I missed completely was Sept 15, 2021).
How Many Stars?
- 5 stars: 2 books
- 4 stars: 14 books
- 3 stars: 19 books
- 2 stars: 7 books
- 1 star: 2 books
- 0 stars: 0 books
- Abandoned: 6+ books (likely more if I’d kept better track of audiobooks I’ve sampled)
- Not rated: 1 book
Formats Read:
- Audiobooks: 19
- Kindle: 24
- Physical books: 2
Pages Read:
- January – 1779
- February – 1682
- March – 1358
- April – 1459
- May – 1421
- June – 817
- July – 1131
- Aug – 1452
- Sept – 614
- Oct – 1301
- Nov – 1020
- Dec – 583
- Total – 14, 617
This number includes the corresponding pages in the Kindle version of any audiobooks. 17,855, according to my math. Goodreads says 17,950. Close enough. That’s a few hundred more than 2021.
Hours Listened:
- January – 18h 56m
- February – 20h 1m
- March – 11h 18m
- April – 8h 38m
- May – 1h 9m
- June – 7h 55m
- July – 7h 31m
- Aug – 6h 43m
- Sept – 5h 51m
- Oct – 17h 20m
- Nov – 12h 59m
- Dec – 7h 50m
- Total – 126h 11m
126 hours 11 minutes over 19 audiobooks! That’s more than 5 1/4 days of listening. That’s down slightly from 2022, but so is everything else.
2024 Plans:
1. Read 36 books
45 was a struggle in 2023, so I’m backing it down to 36 books. It looks like another topsy-turvy year, and I want to know I can succeed at something.
2. Decrease my TBR
Once again… But this year, I’ll be purging some physical books. I’m starting with 64 unread physical books and 20 unread Kindle books.
3. Read 24 minutes per day
I’m adding another minute to the daily goal.
