Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today is my final post of 2022, and so I’m wrapping up the year, and looking to 2023.
As many of you may know, I’ve talked openly across this last year about our housing situation, and how we spent a year homeless in emergency accommodation. Not only did this have a huge practical impact on my reading – nearly all my books were in storage – but it also had a huge mental impact. All of us struggled with severe depression throughout the time period, and so there was a big dip across my reading. I read absolutely nothing for a couple of months, and then when I did start reading again, it was a slow uphill journey to get myself back on track.
That said, one of the things I’m really proud of is how I did manage to start picking books back up again, even when I was struggling, and how things ended up overall. It was a huge achievement, all things considered.
Let’s go into some Q&A.
Did you hit your reading target?
No. My reading target for the year was 200, and I finished 158 books. As I’ve said, considering I barely picked up a book for a few months this year, I’m really quite proud of that, even though it’s nowhere near my goal. I think I could have hit my reading goal if we hadn’t been going through everything.
How did your reading break down, and what thoughts do you have about it?
Physical: 48
Graphic Novel: 10
Audio: 33
eBook: 67
I was really surprised when I tallied these up. I do use my kindle, but used it a lot more this year. Part of this, again, was out of practicality, but I also used my Kindle Unlimited subscription a lot more this year for the same reason. It did mean that the variety of what I read was a bit more mixed, and I took recommendations from a selection of sources to really make the most of it too. I found some absolute gems that I would never have heard of otherwise, so I’m really glad I did. I am surprised by how few physical books I read, and most of them were ARCs, so I really do need to make a dent in my physical TBR in the coming year!
What have been your top reads been this year?
This year I’ve read some absolutely brilliant books, but there are some that have really wedged themselves in my mind. In no particular order:
- Gallant – Review here
- The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels (Review upcoming for a blog tour)
- A Pocketful of Stars
- The Point of No Return (For mature readers)
- Murder Isn’t Easy – Review here
- Sixteen Souls – Review here, author interview here
- Mina and the Slayers (Mina #2) – Review here, author interview here
- Mysteries of Thorn Mannor (Sorcery of Thorns #2) – Review to come
- Tutankhamun: Pharaoh, Icon, Enigma – Review to come
- The Other Ones – Review here, author interview here
- One Dark Window – Review to come
- Nothing More To Tell – Review here
What is your 2023 reading goal?
I’m aiming for 200 again. As I’ve said, if things had been different this year, I think I could have hit it. So I think it’s plausible! And if not, I’ll still give it my best shot. I’m also hoping to manage to keep up with updating Good Reads as I kind of gave up when I stopped reading in the middle of the year earlier on. Writing this post, I really wish I had the facts that the wrap up of the year on there helps you with as I find them so interesting.
What are your other book related goals for 2023?
As well as aiming for the 200 books, I want to really tackle my physical TBR pile, and the backlog of Audible books that I’ve gathered in excitement, and then forgotten about. Between my need to rest and my craft time, listening to audiobooks is something that I do really enjoy relaxing with.
I’m also aiming to enter my current WIP in a publishing competition, so I’ll be working away on that of an evening to get it ready for when that time rolls around. To help that, I’ll be reading some books connected to the theme of my book, so we’ll see how that goes.
Along with this, I’m aiming to listen to some more podcasts when I’ve got the mental and physical time to do so, as I’ve listened to some really interesting ones in just the last few weeks, including ones about history, ghosts and feminism, to name a few.
So there we go, there’s my end of year wrap up and goals for the year to come. Thank you for all the support this year, especially through all my troubles; it really has been appreciated. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next year has to bring, after ending this year on a high with our house move.
Wishing you all a happy new year; may 2023 be very kind to you.
And On She Reads 
I’m glad to see you’ve had a house move, presumably out of the emergency accommodation, and wish you all the best as you settle in and have access to your books again. I have been bad with blog reading this year, am trying to catch up with the year-end posts at least. I’m glad you had some good reads – I posted mine on my blog at the end of the year, too.
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