Goodreads recently released their annual Your Year in Books review, and I read 23 books over the course of 2023! Ever since I started tracking my reading a few years ago, I’ve steadily increased the number of books I read each year:
2020: 7 books
2021: 14 books
2022: 18 books
2023: 23 books
I acknowledge that number of books read is a flawed metric (I’ve read some super short books and some really looong ones, and that doesn’t even touch on content), but it’s a good-enough indicator. I’m pretty happy with these numbers — I was an avid reader in grade school, but saw a severe drop-off during college. Back then my life was a whirlwind, and a rigorous course load and demanding social life left little time for much else. I would occasionally finish a book over winter or summer breaks, but otherwise I was an infrequent reader. These days I’m reading at home, on the subway, at cafes, while waiting for appointments, among other places.
Truthfully, most of this resurgence in my reading is due to my Kindle. I acquired mine in 2020 on the recommendation of a good friend of mine, and I’ve grown to love it. By checking out e-books from the New York Public Library I’m able to read almost anything for free, which makes me feel like I have the breadth of human knowledge at my fingertips.
As for genres, I read a mix of fiction and non-fiction books, with my book choices in the former heavily skewing towards all types of science fiction. I definitely fall on the sci-fi end of the sci-fi versus fantasy spectrum. As for non-fiction, I lean towards reading lots of historical non-fiction, focusing on time periods that fascinate me. These include 20th-century political history, the origins of computing, early human history, etc. I’ll often throw in a a book about urbanism or science here or there.
I’m really excited to have been able to build back the habit over the last couple of years. My only regret, as any voracious reader would say, is that I am captivated by so many topics I realistically won’t be able to read all the books I would like to over my lifetime. I can do my best, though.