MY BOOKISH STATS FOR 2023

The end of the year is here and it’s once again time to get an overall view of my reading stats: the detail that immediately comes to my attention is that I’ve read and reviewed a few books less than usual, just 46 – while the main reason for this slight decrease stands in the five weeks I spent away from home in the summer, when I paid more attention to the friends I was vacationing with rather than to my reading material, I’m happy to notice that none of the books that made it to my reviews was a DNF. Of course there were a few titles that fell into that category, but all of them were abandoned before the 20% mark, which means that none of the books I actually reviewed proved to be a disappointment. I will take that as a win ;-) and here is the display of the volumes that kept me company during 2023:

If, like me, you’re curious to learn what genres made it into my reading, here is a “visual aid” that sees Science Fiction getting the lion’s share, closely followed by Fantasy: these two genres remain the main staple of my choices, while Crime/Thriller and Horror lag a little behind on equal footing; Historical Fiction and Mystery get an honorable mention…

The ratings for the books I read somehow mirror my luck in picking up books, since the majority of my choices fell into the range between 4 and 5 stars (or rather owls, my preferred avatar). As usual I have to thank my “book vibes” that generally manage to point me toward those stories that are bound to meet my tastes – always trust the vibes, Luke! :-D

And now we come to my favorite part of the year’s stats, which means listing the books I most enjoyed in the two main categories: it was not easy to pick only four examples, since there were so many more! – so here we go with some of the best in Fantasy

and then move to some of the best in Science Fiction

I try to avoid any kind of good intentions for the coming year, because I’m keenly aware of how much real life tends to interfere in those programs, so I will simply hope I will be able to pick more winners than flops. That should do quite nicely as a program for the New Year…

And here are my wishes to you all for a wonderful 2024!