january-march 2023 quarterly reading wrap up
I started this blog post thinking I'd do a cute little quarterly reading wrap-up like everyone else everywhere, and ended it rethinking every single one of my reading habits. To summarize the following formatting, I will first give my general reading statistics, then rank every book I read from worst to best, and finally list some books I want to read before the next quarter ends [before July, essentially].
Basically from January through March of 2023, I read 23 books and one incredibly short set of bonus chapters that is somehow considered a fully fledged book on Goodreads. Speaking of Goodreads, according to the platform and basic math, I am one book behind this quarter regarding my reading goal of 100 books in 2023. So far, I have read a total of 7,414 pages and listened to 16.5 hours of audiobooks. Two of the 24 [8.3%] books were rereads, both of which were read in January. Regarding each of the three months, I read four books in January [16.7%], nine in February [37.5%], and eleven in March [45.8%]. I read four physical books [16.7%], listened to two audiobooks [8.3%], and read eighteen [75%] books online [I'm nothing if not an environmentalist]. Taking note that I'm not 100% sure what the following categories actually define, of the books I consumed I read twelve young adult books [50%], ten adult books [41.7%], two middle grade books [8.3%], and zero children’s or new adult books. 19 novels were standalones [79.2%], while three were part of a series [12.5%] and two I considered companion novels [8.3%]. Out of five stars, I gave three books one star [12.5%], two books three stars [8.3%], one book 3.5 stars [4.2%], six books four stars [25%], two books 4.5 stars [8.3%], and a whole eight books five stars [33.3%]. I left two books unrated [8.3%]. I read nine romance [37.5%], four fantasy novels [16.7%], four nonfiction [16.7%], two paranormal [8.3%], two contemporary [8.3%], one classic [4.2%], and one historical [4.2%], as well as one poetry collection [4.2%]. Twelve of the 24 books I read were published in 2022 [50%], five were published in 2023 [20.8%], and two were published in 2021 [8.3%]. I read one novel [4.2%] published in each of the following years: 1925, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2019. I read three books for school [12.5%], eight for a blog post [33.3%], and thirteen for fun [54.2%].
Before I get into my worst-to-best list, I'm not including the two novels I reread [What's Not to Love - Emily Wibberley + Austin Siegemund-Broka and The Only Thing Worse That Me Is You - Lily Anderson]. I'm also not including The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald and Open Borders by Bryan Caplan + Zach Weinersmith because I just didn't know what to rate them, and you won't see I'm Glad My Mom Died - Jennette McCurdy or The Escape Artist - Jonathan Freedland because they chronicle real-life experiences that I don't feel right pitting against some fictitious young adult novel. Neither will you see Better Than the Prom - Lynn Painter because it was literally three pages long and barely provided any new content for me to judge.
Now that we're done with the hefty list of disclaimers I felt the need to clarify for some reason, the Very Official List:
17. Every Summer After - Carley Fortune
I don't even want to talk about how out of left field this horrendous plot twist was so my past review is here: https://www.waititsjustme.com/reviews/reading-novels-from-the-goodreads-choice-awards-part-three
16. I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali
To be completely honest, I am not at all surprised by my dislike for this book, considering it's the literary equivalent of a candy cigarette.
15. The Christmas Clash - Suzanne Park
14. Everyone Hates Kelsie Miller - Meredith Ireland
13. A Taste for Poison - Neil Bradbury
Full Review: https://www.waititsjustme.com/reviews/reading-novels-from-the-goodreads-choice-awards-part-two
12. Prepped - Bethany Mangle
This is definitely one of the more unique books I've read—even though it's not the best book, I would still recommend it.
11. Do I Know You? - Emily Wibberley + Austin Siegemund-Broka
10. Time Is a Mother - Ocean Vuong
Full Review: https://www.waititsjustme.com/reviews/reading-novels-from-the-goodreads-choice-awards-part-four
9. The Whispering Skull - Jonathan Stroud
8. This Time It's Real - Ann Liang
7. Kaikeyi - Vaishnavi Patel
Full Review: https://www.waititsjustme.com/reviews/reading-novels-from-the-goodreads-choice-awards-part-three
6. Last Violent Call - Chloe Gong
5. The Stolen Heir - Holly Black
4. The Screaming Staircase - Jonathan Stroud
Unrelated, but this is possibly the first time I'm reading the original books after watching the TV adaptation, and the books are really good so far. I do like the adaptation better, which begs the question of whether people really do always like the book better than the movie, or whether they just like the one they read/saw first.
3. Black Cake - Charmaine Wilkerson
Full Review: https://www.waititsjustme.com/reviews/reading-novels-from-the-goodreads-choice-awards-part-four
2. Babel - R.F. Kuang
Full Review: https://www.waititsjustme.com/reviews/reading-novels-from-the-goodreads-choice-awards-part-three
1. Seven Percent of Ro Devereux - Ellen O'Clover
I can feel that this is going to be not only a 2023 favorite, but probably an all-time favorite YA novel. I'm pretty sure I raved about this on multiple platforms, but the build-up, the stakes, the writing, everything in general was perfect. I only had minute problems with some plot points but all in all such a well-done book. The fact that this book is so high up here can easily be disputed even though I thought about these rankings for a long time, but what ultimately did it for me was my enjoyment while reading, which for this novel was incredibly high. Trust me, I was having the time of my life.
As promised the books I want to finish before the end of the next quarter are Holes by Louis Sachar, 11/22/63 by Stephen King, and Bluets by Maggie Nelson. When I set out to find books for this I thought they were going to be books I haven't even touched yet, but as I was looking through my Goodreads I realized that at some point in the past year I started these three novels, fully finished at least half of each, and just simply never picked them up again. So until the end of June, those are high up on my to-read list!