In Summation | 2023 Reading Reflection

My 2023 reading lessons, plus ins and outs for 2024

Hey, readers!

Tomorrow I’m sharing more about what I read in 2023 with my “no frills top 10” list. I love superlatives, I love genre awards, I love splitting up best front- and backlist, but this year I wanted to challenge myself by curating a true top ten, just the ten best books I read this year.

Before I get to that, I wanted to reflect more on how I read this year. In Summation posts are typically an exclusive perk for paid subscribers, but today I’m sharing my special end-of-year reflection with everyone. If you like this type of reflective writing and want more of my reading life musings in your inbox, consider upgrading your subscription. If you sign up before January 6th, you can save 25% on an annual subscription.

Reading lessons

1. Slow reading is good reading. This year I emerged from the worst of the sleep-deprived baby fog (says the mom whose child has literally never slept through the night 😩😂) and felt like I found myself as a reader again. Inspired by this podcast, I began the year focusing on slowing down my reading life, and that really worked to my benefit. I didn’t read every book slowly, but concentrating on that especially at the onset of the year set me up to read what and how I wanted this year. While consciously working to slow down my reading, I rediscovered that when I read more deliberately, I enjoy my books more and get a lot more out of them. And because of that, I read more! I found myself eager to pick up a book rather than watched TV or listen to a podcast because my slow reading allowed me to truly immerse myself in the worlds of my books.

2. Big books reigned supreme. Starting my reading year slowly also lead me to picking up longer books. Even though I tried to practice reading short books more slowly too, my slow reading simply manifested in me reaching for some epic tomes. Lucky for me, my Year of Big Books coincided with a lot of fantastic long books being published. I read and loved Birnam Wood, Wellness, The Fraud, The Bee Sting, Lies & Sorcery, and Collected Works. As for backlist titles, The Luminaries, Free Food for Millionaires, Fellowship Point, Wolf Hall, and The Parisian were very satisfying reads. I just really love getting to know characters deeply and being with them through the course of their lives. I also learned that I don’t mind it when these books feel slow. I don’t need a Big Book to earn its page count by keeping me enraptured the whole way through, and I’m more than okay with tangents and mundane details. I wrote more about that in a Reading in Public essay earlier this year and am thrilled to have discovered this for myself. Bring on more Big Books in the new year, please!

3. I don’t read for plot. Okay this isn’t entirely true. Most of my favorite books this year and always have great stories to tell in addition to fantastic writing, clever structures, and nuanced themes. But this year I discovered about myself that if I’m just reading to find out what happened, I end up kind of hating the book. It’s not that reading to discover the trajectory of the narrative always feels wrong, but if I realize while reading that I would be just as satisfied if someone told me the outcome rather than feeling curious about how the author is going to get there, I should probably put the book down and Google spoilers because it’s not going to be a satisfying reading experience.

4. Print reading preferred. I love audiobooks. I could never read as much as I want to without them and there are sublime occasions when an audiobook significantly enhances the entire experience (The Vulnerables and Wellness to name a few). But when I looked at my favorite books of the year, I read a majority of them in print. 10 out of my 12 favorite new reads and 15 of my 20 backlist titles were ones I read in print. Because my total split between audio and print books is almost even, I have to think that part of what made these favorites is the way I consumed them. Next year I’m going to pause an audiobook if I notice myself tuning out or if I know I’d like it more on print. I don’t want to miss out on loving books because I’m just trying to get through them.

My 12 favorite new releases of 2023.

Ins and Outs

I didn’t hop on the ins and outs train last year, but I love the simplicity of it and the exercise of considering what I’d like more and less of in my life. Here are some of my 2024 reading ins and outs…let’s see how I do!

In:

• Rereading

• Paper books

• Annotating, close reading, and interpreting

• Reading the biggest and buzziest books because I want to see what the fuss is all about

• No plot, all vibes

• Engaging in true criticism with long form reviews

• Bringing light-heartedness and fun to book discourse

• Being okay with saying “I don’t like this”

• Classics, even beyond the ones we cover on Novel Pairings

• Reading multiple books by beloved authors

• TBR lists with room for spontaneity

Out:

• Requesting every book that catches my eye on NetGalley

• Speed listening to audiobooks

• Rushing into the next book as soon as I finish one

• Reading the biggest and buzziest books because I think I need to offer an opinion on it

• All plot, no vibes

• Comparing my reading life to others

• Thinking everyone reads for the same reasons I do

• Keeping books I’m never going to read

I’d love to know what you learned about yourself as a reader this year and if you have any of your own reading life ins and outs. Tell me in the comments below!

My favorite backlist reads of 2023.

OF NOTE. Monthly favorites and the little things that fueled me this month.

• This month I started a new, very simple TBR system. I write down 5 or 6 books I want to prioritize in my reading journal. When I finish a book I use the list to remind me of what I want to read, but if something else catches my attention, I pick that up instead. If and when I start looking at the remaining and feeling no excitement, I simply make a new list. This helps me remember what I hope to read (a big issue for me these days!) without feeling like I must stick to a prescribed list.

• Speaking of my reading journal, I’m loving my new Papier journal.

• Louise has gotten really into baking and, while it’s messy, she can actually help now. It’s so much fun to have a little baking buddy.

• I finally watched Downton Abbey: A New Era and delighted in the beautiful scenery and low-stakes drama.

• It’s hard to choose a favorite book of this month, but I want to highlight Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries because it was so delightful (I didn’t read a lot of delightful stories this year) and Run Towards the Danger as a truly exceptional memoir.

• The best purchase of the month was this dollhouse. We’ve gotten more independent play out of Louise in the last week than I ever thought possible.

• Reading The Custom of the Country for Novel Pairings has be an utter delight. The book is so stinking good! And getting to discuss it with a Wharton aficionado like

  Chelsey Feder
  is such a joy.

• We made mulled wine for New Year’s Eve. I used to make it all the time through the depth of pandemic winters but it’s been quite awhile. I’m bringing it back in 2024.

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Happy reading!

Sara