I read 60 books this year.** I read 90 last year, but in fairness to me, I didn’t have a comedy habit, a significant other with a cute kitty cat, or a vested interest in Vanderpump Rules in 2022. These things take up significant chunks of time.
At some points this year, I also felt a little bit like I was reading for the sake of reading, not because it brought me joy, as opposed to the past couple of years when I rediscovered how fun being a huge nerd was and the smutty romance genre. I could attribute this to not finding as many incredible books as I did last year, or not being as invested in running my Instagram in favor of longer-form content. But, to be honest, sometimes I just didn’t feel like reading. Sometimes I just wanted to lay down and watch comedy reruns and the interpersonal repercussions of Jax Taylor’s poorly hidden cocaine use. Sometimes I was pretty fucking depressed and I couldn’t get out of bed to find my Kindle charger, let alone try to read it. Sometimes I simply couldn’t remember how much fun reading was!
I am describing, of course, the human experience. I suppose all of this is to say that you can read or do whatever you want whenever you want and try not to be too mean to yourself (though you should definitely push yourself once in a while so you don’t spend an entire night perusing the menus at TomTom). Actually, I don’t really have a point here, but luckily, as this is my personal blog, I don’t really HAVE to have a point! But I’ve greatly enjoyed working on this newsletter and have been forming a picture of what I want to do with my life (get paid to write dumb junk, as it turns out) and I am deeply grateful to all who’ve supported this endeavor. I guess the end of the year makes cornballs of us all. Onward!
** (roughly — I’m counting the few books I DNF’d but not the various manuscripts I got to speed read for publishing jobs I ultimately didn’t get. I stand by my scathing reader’s report of this one mind bogglingly stupid book about a haunted house with a djinn or something that’s also a family saga and a girl being haunted by the ghost of a twin sister, and I will put this agency on blast because they rejected me. So when this fucking genie book is published in the next year or so and you pick it up and wonder who possibly could have let this through, remember it was probably HG Literary’s work.)
best reads of the year
I don’t want to spoil any of the specific awards that will be presented at the Second Annual Readwithmith Bookstawards, so tune in for the ceremony (which I think will be a little delayed so I can plan it a bit better — sowwy UwU). BUT I’ll tell you what my favorite books of the year were anyways.
As previously mentioned, I didn’t love as many books as I did last year, but there are a few that I think are excellent and worth mentioning:
The Idiot by Elif Batuman — funny, incredibly sharp, and weirdly very specifically relatable.
The Hurting Kind by Ada Limon — ranks among the best poetry I’ve ever read.
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe — a work of narrative nonfiction so thorough and thrilling that I think about it pretty much constantly.
All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews — the saddest, hottest girl of the season.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver — this devastating retelling of a classic tale, set in the Appalachian opioid crisis, works better than it has any right to.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murrary — sad Irish author with a slick writing style exploring a miserable family? I’m in.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros — the most fun I’ve had reading a book this year.
Some books, I can understand, are not for everyone; for instance, The Idiot and All This Could Be Different appeals to a particular audience with an affinity for sparse and pretentious prose about sad hot girls, and The Bee Sting appeals to that same audience except their affinity is for depressed gay families. While I believe disliking these books reveals your poor taste, I respect your opinion.
Other selections might make you think that I’m super into book awards and stuff, but I am usually prepared to hate novels like Demon Copperhead based on the hype, the subject matter, and my general mistrust of books included in a celebrity’s book club. So, if anything, it’s probably more impressive when an award-winner makes the list because I always go in with a drastic bias.
And then there are those that feel like near-universal picks because I’ve never seen or heard a negative critique of them — in this case, Say Nothing, and, I suspect for poetry heads, The Hurting Kind.
Of course, I am prepared to go to bat for the inclusion of Fourth Wing on this list. I get that some might turn their nose up at this, and I thought I would as well prior to reading. But you know what? Reading is supposed to be fun, and as previously stated, I did not have as much fun reading this year as I’d like. But Fourth Wing brought me such deep joy that not including it here would be a betrayal to myself. Some books are not intended to be entirely original works — art, after all, is basically always derived from other art — and I think this is a fantastic homage to everyone’s favorite YA fantasy novels, and, quite frankly, written better than any of the romantasy I’ve read over the past few years.
Other books I greatly enjoyed and/or found intriguing enough to recommend include: If I Survive You, The Rabbit Hutch, The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois, All The Light We Cannot See, Happy Hour, Pageboy, Above Ground, Raw Dog, Strange Weather in Tokyo, Take What You Need, Hangman, Down the Drain, and Rifqa.
worst reads of the year
While there aren’t as many books that I loved this year in comparison to the past few excellent reading years, there were mercifully not that many books that I absolutely hated. But I don’t know if I’d recommend these:
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi — a romance with an interesting premise that very unfortunately implodes in on itself.
Babel by R.F. Kuang — probably my most unpopular opinion, but this just wasn’t for me.
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado — CMM authored one of the best books I read last year, but her short story collection was tiring.
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor — This could have been brilliant, but it’s an absolute fucking train wreck executed in epically insane fashion.
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey — This has some cool parts, but, to be honest, I took absolutely nothing away from it and it was a little bit of a waste of my time(you can check out the review I just posted for more).
I also quit on a few books at different stages of the game because I just knew I wouldn’t benefit from reading any further: This Is How You Lose The Time War, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama, Deuxmoi, and Pineapple Street. This level of self-care cannot be understated and I would recommend it to all. I may revisit any or all or none of these at a later time.
Anyways, tune in at whatever updated date I decide on to learn the winners of such prestigious awards as Book Whose Editor Should have Been Fired and Horniest Book (Good).
anticipated reads
There are several books I planned to get to this year that time’s cruel hand snatched from me and some 2024 releases I am GREATLY looking forward to.
As far as 2024 releases go, I have two very prominent ones on the brain:
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas — it’s the third book in the Crescent City series, and I don’t really care how much I usually dislike her writing, because that Sky and Breath cliffhanger was borderline illegal.
Funny Story by Emily Henry — I liked Happy Place, but it didn’t hit me the way that Book Lovers did. This next iteration, based on what it’s about, looks to be pretty excellent.
I also, of course, have a TBR that could kill a man if every book was stacked on top of each other in harcover form. I’m about to start The Bluest Eye for Grace (grace_escapes) and Scott’s (scottxbooks) 2024 Toni Morrison book club, and I’ve had a copy of Beloved for a while, so I’m excited to hopefully hold myself to the goal of reading a book of hers every month!
Looking at my shelves, my dear bookish pal Hannah got me Hijab Butch Blues earlier this year, and I’m reading that this month. And I just picked up Wellness for a half-off bargain at my new local Barnes and Noble. Plus, Kayla (wordingitright) and my former coworker and current great pal Rina have influenced me to try Portrait of a Mirror, especially after I quit on Pineapple Street.
In the near-ish future, I’m also very excited to finally read Big Swiss, which I keep borrowing on Libby and not having time to read and then re-borrowing it. I was also just reminded that Never Let Me Go has been burning a hole in my TBR for several years now. And after I’m tackling Keefe’s Empire of Pain after the amazing Say Nothing.
In general, I’d also like to read more Palestinian literature and have a couple of both fiction and nonfiction books lined up, especially after the phenomenal poetry collection that was Rifqa. I bet there are reading groups dedicated to this, and it might be good to join one. Free Palestine.
Also, if I don’t read at least five more chapters of Ulysses by the end of 2024, you can all unsubscribe and throw things at me. It’s really all your faults for not holding me accountable. <3
What were your favorite books of the year, published in 2023 or otherwise? The worst? Anything you’re foaming at the mouth to read in 2024? Please actually do comment or because I would genuinely love to know. After all, I’ve gotten plenty more excellent recommendations from friends than from the failing New York Times or (shudder) Booktok.
Thank you as always for reading both my words and the words of others. The bookstawards will happen eventually. We beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past…