2023: The Year In Books

As 2023 comes to a close, my third full year of remote working, I managed to far surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 59 books, four books more than my previous high from last year and my third consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I completed the challenge in late November and surpassed last year’s total in mid-December.  I read (or listened) to 21,394 pages, by far my highest total of all time and only the fourth time I’ve passed 10,000.

Of those books, eleven were non-fiction and, of the remaining 48 novels, only four were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with 53 e-books and two audiobooks.  I continued to take advantage of my library card, which helped me procure 44 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

Over 61% of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 22 authors that I read for the first this year were:

Selma Blair Stacy Willingham Gillian McAllister Chuck Klosterman
Gabrielle Zevin Ronan Farrow Matthew Perry Amor Towles
Jason Rekulak Emily St. John Mandel Bonnie Garmus Thomas Mullen
Naomi Hirahara Maitland Ward Busy Phillips Elliot Page
Jinwoo Chong Maureen Ryan Minka Kelly Britney Spears
Emily Henry Rebecca Makkai

Jennifer McMahon, Karin Slaughter, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Erle Stanley Gardner, Grady Hendrix, Jeffery Deaver, Laura Lippman, Ruth Ware, and Stacy Willingham were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2023.

18 of the books I read were released this year, while only five of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1934.

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Book 35 (of 52) – Rated X

Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me From Hollywood – Maitland Ward

Raised in a religious household in Long Beach, California, Maitland Ward had dreams of becoming a big star.  After getting her big break on The Bold and the Beautiful, she was added to the cast of Boy Meets World for the final two seasons.  She then starred in the Wayans Brothers hit White Chicks in 2004, and that was it.  For whatever reason, Hollywood was done with her.  Years later, she made her way back to the public eye as an internet model and cosplayer.  From there, she advanced to nude photos and videos to full on porn.

In her memoir Rated X, Ward explains her unconventional journey, finding herself and what she wanted and needed out of life.  She seems to have a photographic memory of the sexual escapades in her life, either from her personal life or, later in her career, her professional life.  Where she goes from here, as an aging starlet in both the mainstream and porn worlds, remains to be seen.