Thus Concludes 2023

Another reading year "in the books." This post recaps the year and presents what I consider the best of the bunch.

I read 50 books this year, totaling 13,067 pages—about 36 pages a day. My average rating was 90.7/100.

Of the 50 books, 0 were audiobooks, 1 was an eBook, and 15 were borrowed from the library or friends. By genre, I read 7 fantasy books, 9 on religion, 3 graphic novels, 16 literature, 4 history, 2 humor, and a smattering of others.

I formed a 200-book American Reading List (presented in three parts: here, here, here) and read 16 titles on those lists. I dabbled in humor (here and here), though I didn't study it as thoroughly as I intended. And I read down my 'owned but unread' pile, getting that down to about a dozen books (before Christmas swelled that back into the twenties).

Here are my top ten reads from this year:

J.L. Carr: A Month in the Country

Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird

Michael Palin: Erebus

Peter Beagle: The Last Unicorn

Robert McKenzie: We the Fallen People

Anthony Doerr: All the Light We Cannot See

Dane Ortlund: Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners

Thomas Harris: The Silence of the Lambs

Brandon Sanderson: The Hero of Ages

K.A. Kitchen: On the Reliability of the Old Testament

On the whole, this was a good reading year. May 2024 bring further works of excellence. Happy reading!