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What I Read in 2023

An extremely belated post

In 2023, I bought myself an e-reader which really helped me get back into reading every day. Huge shout-out to the Edinburgh Library - since May 2023 I've borrowed over 100 books for free. I have therefore managed to justify the initial expense of purchasing the e-reader since I've spent almost no money on books. The e-reader has made it a lot easier to read when commuting, travelling, and late at night in bed; I've even taken it camping. I really can't think of anything cosier than being in the middle of nowhere in a tent, snuggled up in my sleeping bag with my trusty Kobo propped up next to me.

However, as a consequence of reading (mostly) e-books I feel like I don't have any tangible evidence of the books I've read. When reading a printed book, it's not just the book itself I remember, it's the size, shape, weight, font, cover, artwork, chocolate stains etc. that form a memory - not to mention that if it's not a library book, it's permanently on my bookshelf. While I'm not ruling out buying physical copies of some of the books I've really enjoyed, I thought it'd be nice to have a record of everything I've read. I started keeping track of my reading progress in a spreadsheet:

The spreadsheet tracks details such as the time taken to read the book as well as my rating of the book. And what's the point of collecting data if you then can't have some fun with it? Let's see how things break down.

Total books read in 2023: 44
Average time per book: 7.34 days
Quickest read: 2 days (I'm Glad my Mom Died)
Longest read: 32 days (The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read)
Average rating out of 5: 3.95

Another interesting fact is that 32 of the 44 books I read were Terry Pratchett books (or 72.72%), as I had challenged myself to read the entire Discworld series. I fell just short of my goal to finish in 2023 (I'll blame the wait times at the library!), but (spoiler alert) I finished in February 2024.

However, this data is still not a visual record. Therefore, earlier this year, I thought it'd be fun to do a little illustration of each book. How long could it possibly take me to do 44 little thumbnail sketches? 11 months, it turns out.

I suppose in the grand scheme of things the time taken doesn't matter - what counts is that I've read these books! - but still, it is a little ridiculous just how long it's taken me to complete these drawings. I also have to say I'm a tiny bit embarrassed to reveal to the public exactly what I read... I wish I could unveil a list of scholarly and literary tomes and appear impressively well-read. I fear that I won't impress the internet with what I've read, but hopefully you'll enjoy the rainbow gradient I've implemented in my drawings (I had to use maths for this - impressive, no?).