2023: Reflecting On My Year In Reading

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Whew! What a reading year 2023 was!

Like the overachiever I am, I overshot my reading goal for 2023, which was 80. Mind you, I offer the usual disclaimers that among these titles, some were graphic novels and short stories. Also, I used the cover thumbnails as Goodreads presented me in “My Year in Books.” Apologies for the scaling. With that out of the way, let the dissection begin!









Whew! What a reading year 2023 was! 

Like the overachiever I am, I overshot my reading goal for 2023, which was 80. Mind you, I offer the usual disclaimers that among these titles, some were graphic novels and short stories. Also, I used the cover thumbnails as Goodreads presented me in “My Year in Books.” Apologies for the scaling. With that out of the way, let the dissection begin! 

1. I did some branching out of my comfort zone this year. That being the dipping of my proverbial toes into the deep end that is the romance genre. I chose to start with the friendlier shallows of Ali Hazelwood, whose protagonists are women in the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) fields. Meaning that I can often see myself in the main characters’ nerdiness and references to sci-fi pop culture, like Star Trek. Again, I barely dipped my feet in, as I read Hazelwood’s most popular title, The Love Hypothesis, and her more recent young adult title, Check & Mate. (Love Hypothesis featured a scientist wanting to develop more effective tests to catch the more deadly cancers earlier, while we follow a teenage chess prodigy in Check & Mate, a la The Queen’s Gambit.)

While I consider myself romantic, I’m more on the asexual side, so the steaminess of Love Hypothesis was a bit overwhelming. Like I said, I’m gradually dipping my toes into the romance genre. I have more work to do, and hopefully I will find similar STEAM-inspired titles. 

2. I continued to explore the lore in two of my favorite animes: My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer. And I continued to find both universes fascinating and the characters compelling, despite them both being geared towards young adults. As someone a few years from 30, I don’t know if I can consider myself a “young” adult anymore. (In any case, I will point you to my 2022 reading reflection where I make my case for some graphic novels being serious reading, forcing readers to grapple with heavy themes, despite the undeserving reputation as being mere picture books.)  

Joke’s on you people, that dump on graphic novels—you're missing out on some fantastic art that help bring the world and its characters vividly to life and make you root for fictional characters in a fictional world to win a fictional battle against some evil force. And cry along with said fictional characters when they face setbacks and cheer with them when they overcome a personal obstacle. 

3. I think my favorite read of this year—even though that is incredibly hard to pick—is Brandon Sanderson’s standalone Cosmere novel, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. The Cosmere continues to be one of my favorite literary universes out there, and Sanderson’s no slouch when it comes to the characters and worldbuilding. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is by all accounts fantasy, but I found myself thinking about similar sci-fi works exploring some variation of the simulation theory idea. I don’t know why I’m drawn to that concept, which can give me a strong case of existential angst, but I digress. It’s just a fascinating idea to play with in stories.  

Another thing I enjoyed about this was the slow-burn romance between the two main characters, Yumi and Painter, which told a larger story about tolerance and coexistence of peoples of all sorts of backgrounds. Inspired by Ancient Korean and modern Japanese culture, this adventure was a veritable feast for the standalone it was. I think this is as good as any book to jump into Sanderson’s vast Cosmere.  

All in all, 2023 was quite the year for me, although I largely stuck to the books and genres I usually read, such as science fiction and fantasy. It is my goal to continue to push my boundaries and get into other genres that I may not have touched in the past, such as romance and biography/memoir-type nonfiction.  

Happy reading, and here’s to 2024! 

--BookOwl 




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