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 48 (of 52) – Zero Days

Zero Days – Ruth Ware

After a run-in with the police, a penetration tester returns home to find her husband murdered.  When the police have a hard time rationalizing her timeline, they look at her as the prime suspect, causing her to go on the run.  With limited resources, can she stay off the grid long enough to find out who is really responsible for her husband’s death and convince the police of her innocence?

Zero Days, the latest from Ruth Ware, is a bit of a change of pace from her other work, leaning more towards a techno-thriller.  There isn’t much of a twist here, the big bad was patently obvious, but the ride was more about the path our protagonist took to figure out the baddie and how she stayed ahead of her pursuers.  I’ll be sure to keep Ware and her work on my radar.

Prolific Authors – 2 Books

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, since I’ve far surpassed my reading output of any year on record, I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through October. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 118 books, so there could be some movement over the past two years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  Today, we start things off with the now 41 authors I’ve read twice, an increase of six over two years ago.

Max Barry

An Australian author, I’ve enjoyed the two novels of his I’ve read, Jennifer Government and Company.

Laura Caldwell

I have no idea how I came across the work of this local author, but I must have enjoyed it enough to go back for seconds.  Unfortunately, she passed away in 2020.

Michael Chabon

Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the most recent of the two works of his I’ve read.  I have another, Wonder Boys, waiting in the to read pile, so he rise up some day.

Fate Of The Union – Max Allan Collins with Matthew V. Clemens

Matthew V. Clemens

The co-author, with Max Allan Collins, of the final two chapters of the Reeder and Rogers trilogy.

Ernest Cline

The man responsible for both Ready Player One and Ready Player Two.

Bill Clinton

The former president has co-written two novels with James Patterson.

Felicia Day

The first author here that I’ve happened to meet in person.

Cameron Dokey

She makes the list based on two entries in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.

Diane Duane

Living in Ireland, she is responsible for a Star Trek: The Next Generation book and a Spider-Man novel, of all things.

Warren Ellis

The comic writer, currently in exile after being called out for abusing women, makes the list thanks to two prose novels.

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Book 5 (of 52) – The IT Girl

The IT Girl – Ruth Ware

When the man convicted of killing her college roommate dies in prison, a pregnant woman starts to question whether things happened as she thought they did years ago.  She starts reaching out to old friends and returns to her old stomping grounds in an effort to prove, one way or the other, what really happened that night.  The only question is can she do so while keeping herself and her family safe?

I was a little down on Ruth Ware’s latest, The It Girl, in the early going.  The big bad seemed patently obvious, and I had a hard time getting in to the story.  Eventually, though, I got through it and became engrossed as the story progressed.  The obvious big bad ended up being a red herring, but there was some shaky, out of character behavior that was never explained to point arrows in his direction.  If you’re going to make someone act like the bad guy to throw the reader a curveball, you should circle back and explain why he acted that way when he turns out not to be the bad guy.  Aside from that, this turned out to be another enjoyable work from Ware.

2021: The Year In Books

As we wrap up 2021, my first full year remote working, I managed to read a whopping 54 books, an increase of 31 books over last year and my first year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I surpassed last year’s total in mid-June, passed my best years, 2015 and 2016, in late August, and completed book 52 with two weeks left in the year.  I read (or listened) to 18,670 pages, by far my highest total of all time and only the second time I’ve passed 10,000.

Of those books, 16 were non-fiction and, of the 36 novels, 10 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 43 e-books and 4 audiobooks.  For the first time since I was a kid, I got myself a library card, which helped me procure 14 of the books.

Just less than half of the books I read this year were by authors I have read before. The 31 authors that I read for the first this year were:

  • Tegan Quin
  • Sara Quin
  • Lucy Foley
  • Jenna Fischer
  • Matt Haig
  • Eric Nusbaum
  • Jon Taffer
  • Charlotte Douglas
  • Susan Kearney
  • Fredrik Backman
  • Jeff Pearlman
  • Minka Kent
  • Alan Cumming
  • Megan Goldin
  • Molly Bloom
  • Barack Obama
  • Ali Wong
  • Timothy Ferriss
  • Issa Rae
  • Walter Tevis
  • Tess Gerritson
  • Gary Braver
  • Andy Weir
  • Matthew Walker
  • James Clear
  • Grady Hendrix
  • Simon Sinek
  • Jason Fung
  • Julia Spiro
  • Jon Pessah
  • Ruth Ware

Erle Stanley Gardner, Mary Kubica, Jeffery Deaver, Andy Weir and Karin Slaughter were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2021.

6 of the books I read were released this year, while 5 of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1933.

Finally, the breakdown by month, which was fairly consistent across the entire year.

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Book 54 (of 52) – The Turn Of The Key

The Turn of the Key – Ruth Ware

A nanny leaves London behind and moves to Scotland for an unbelievable new job with a staggeringly high salary.  But, things are not as great as they appear to be.  The children see her as an enemy and strange noises and occurrences in the house start to drive her crazy.  Can she get to the bottom of things before losing her mind?  The framing device, that she’s telling the story to a solicitor from her jail cell, indicates the answer is no.

The Turn of the Key was my first experience with the work of Ruth Ware.  I’m not quite sure how I acquired it, but, as the third-place finisher for Best Mystery & Thriller in the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards, it was a solid read.  The Scottish setting was a nice surprise and helped the spooky feel come to life.  I’m not sure what else Ware has done, but I’ll be on the lookout for her work in the future.