2023 Reading Recap

2023 READING RECAP

Before 2024 is too far along, I wanted to do a little recap of my 2023 reading. I read 139 books in 2023, about 30 more than usual. You can find the list of all the books I read last year here. Below are some thoughts on my year of reading. 

FAVORITES

Picking favorite books is like being asked to pick a favorite grandchild! With that in mind, I have five grandkids, so here are five favorites from last year:

• Decline & Fall by Evelyn Waugh
• Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
• Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
• The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury
• Mating by Norman Rush

OVERVIEW 

I mostly read fiction, but I thought I read more nonfiction in 2023 than I actually did. I have nonfiction books stacked on my floor because I have no room for them on my shelves. So I better make an effort to read more of them!

• 113 fiction
• 24 nonfiction
• two poetry
• 74 audiobooks
• 65 book books

GENRES

There's crossover here:

• 68 literary fiction 
• 47 classics
• 46 mysteries
• 22 historical fiction
• seven food books
• seven memoir
• three campus novels

MORE DETAILS

• 15 (major) prize winners
• nine rereads
• five translations
• 73 by men
• 68 by women

PUBLICATION DATES

• one from pre-1800s
• nine from the 1800s
• 26 from 1900-1950
• 33 from 1950-2000
• 64 since 2000 (before 2023)
• six new in 2023

CHALLENGES

I love reading challenges but only did three last year. 

• TBR 23 in '23: I finished the 23 books on my list. 
• European Reading Challenge. I read books from 12 different European countries.
• Mt. TBR: I read 63 books off my TBR shelves, in addition to my TBR 23 in '23 books, for a total of 86 books off my TBR shelves -- my best year ever! The main reason is that I concentrated on audiobooks that were already on my shelves as paper books so I could clear some space.

BUDDY READS

I really got into buddy reads on bookstagram for the first time. 

• eight Daphne du Maurier books with a Du Maurier Deep Dive group
• four Evelyn Waugh novels in a Waugh Together Now group
• four Somerset Maugham novels
• Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne as a Classic Buddy Read
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte for Victober
• War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy as a yearlong readalong with the Whisky & Perseverance group

BIGGEST SURPRISE

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. I highly disliked Fates and Furies so almost skipped, especially when I saw a sea monster. Glad I didn’t!

FAVORITE NEW-TO-ME-AUTHOR

Laurie Colwin. I loved Home Cooking and More Home Cooking and now want to read her fiction.

FAVORITE BY A FAVORITE

Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman. This was a delightful rom com with a lawyer theme.

SERIES FINISHED

I have dozens of mystery series I want to read so made an effort in 2023 to finish series I've already started. I need to make room in my brain before I start any others. 

• John Banville/Benjamin Black’s Quirke: I read the last two.
• Colin Bateman’s Mystery Man: I finished the last one.
• E.F. Benson’s Mapp & Lucia: Not a mystery series. I read the final three.
• Anthony Horowitz's Hawthorne: I read the fourth one and am caught up until/unless he writes another.
• Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole: I didn't finish reading all of them, but they got increasingly more gruesome and scary. I read The Snowman last year and it was past the scary limit for me, so I am done with this series.
• Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club: I read all four.
• Louise Penny’s Three Pines: I read eight and caught up until she writes a new one.
• Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey: I finished the novels a couple of years back and finally read all the short stories.

SERIES CONTINUED

• Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlow: I read The Long Good-Bye last year and have read several others. I love them but want to wrap up the series.
• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot: I only read one last year, The Big Four, and have a long way to go. 
• Elizabeth George's Lynley/Havers: These are chunksters! I read six in 2023 and have nine to go before I'm caught up. 
• Susan Howatch's Starbridge: A series about the Church of England in the first half (or so) of the 20th Century. I read the fifth of six, Mystical Paths.
• Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther: Even though I don't read many WWII stories, I read the third one and plan to continue now that the stories are past the war and into the Cold War.
• Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti: I am not reading these in order, which is highly unusual for me. I read Aqua Alta last year, my ninth, and there are 23 others in the series so I don't plan to read them all. 
• Ian Rankin's John Rebus: This is a favorite, but I am ready to move on. I read seven last year and have three to go. 

SERIES BEGUN

• Anthony Horowitz's Magpie Murders: I will definitely read the second one, Moonflower Murders, this year and hope he writes more. 
• Blythe Baker's 1940s Cotswolds: I read the first, A Simple Country Murder, and liked it but have no plans to read more unless I find the next one in the wild. 
• Benjamin Black's Detective Inspector Strafford: I read Snow, a spin off of his Quirke series, and will continue if there are more books. 
• Alexander Campion's Capucine Culinary Mysteries: Despite the appealing premise, I didn't care for the first one, The Grave Gourmet, and won't continue.
• Nita Prose's Molly the Maid: I read The Maid for book club and plan to read the second one soon. 

That's a wrap! On to 2024! 

What bookish thing are you most looking forward to?

Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me on Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. Feel free to share from a book that captured your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Midway through the journey of my life, I found myself in the woods of eastern Ontario, living in a remote Catholic religious community called Madonna House.

-- from Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz. I just finished this and loved it. Hitz examines the joys of intellectual pursuits, how “leisure” differs from “recreation,” and why our regular jobs are not (usually) intellectually fulfilling. This was on my TBR 24 in '24 nonfiction stack.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so we can find each other.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Lost in Thought:

When we cultivate an inner life, we set aside concerns for social ease or advancement. We forget, if only temporarily, the anxious press of necessities.

What a lovely thought!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In an overloaded, superficial, technological world, in which almost everything and everybody is judged by its usefulness, where can we turn for escape, lasting pleasure, contemplation, or connection to others? While many forms of leisure meet these needs, Zena Hitz writes, few experiences are so fulfilling as the inner life, whether that of a bookworm, an amateur astronomer, a birdwatcher, or someone who takes a deep interest in one of countless other subjects. Drawing on inspiring examples, from Socrates and Augustine to Malcolm X and Elena Ferrante, and from films to Hitz's own experiences as someone who walked away from elite university life in search of greater fulfillment, Lost in Thought is a passionate and timely reminder that a rich life is a life rich in thought.

Book List: Books Read in 2023

BOOKS READ IN 2023

Every year, usually in January, I post a list of the books I read the prior year. My master list of the books I read on LibraryThing.

Here's the list of the 139 books I read in 2023, in the order I read them. Usually, I read 100 - 110 books in a year. I don't know how I finished 30+ more in 2023.

Notes about my rating system are below the list.

1. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
2. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (abridged*) 
3. Mystical Paths by Susan Howatch 🌹🌹🌹🌹
4. Know Your Style: Mix It, Match It, Love It by Alyson Walsh 🌹🌹🌹
5. The Big Four by Agatha Christie 🌹🌹🌹🌹
6. The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹
7. Slightly Foxed: String is My Foible, Vol. 76 by Gail Pirkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
8. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
9. Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
10. A German Requiem by Philip Kerr 🌹🌹🌹🌹
11. The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy 🌹🌹🌹🌹
12. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
13. Waverley by Sir Walter Scott 🌹🌹🌹
14. The King's General by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
15. Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
16. The Waste Land & Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
17. The Maid by Nita Prose 🌹🌹🌹🌹
18. The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
19. Hill House Living: The Art of Creating a Joyful Life by Paula Sutton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
20. The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark 🌹🌹🌹1/2
21. The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Grof 🌹🌹🌹🌹
22. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
23. Oregon Confetti by Lee Oser 🌹🌹🌹
24. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister 🌹🌹🌹1/2
25. The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
26. Mrs. Ted Bliss by Stanley Elkin 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
27. Rule Britannia by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
28. The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
29. Even the Dead by Benjamin Black 🌹🌹🌹🌹
30. The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
31. The Snowman by Jo Nesbo 🌹🌹
32. Winston Churchill: Painting on the French Riviera by Paul Rafferty 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
33. A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
34. Slightly Foxed, A Date With Iris, Vol. 25 by Gail Pirkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
35. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne 🌹🌹🌹1/2
36. Trailing: A Memoir by Kristin Louise Duncombe 🌹🌹🌹🌹
37. April in Spain by John Banville 🌹🌹🌹1/2
38. Five Flights Up: Sex, Love, and Family, from Paris to Lyon by Kristin Louise Duncombe 🌹🌹🌹🌹
39. The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade 🌹🌹🌹1/2
40. A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
41. Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher 🌹🌹🌹1/2
42. The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
43. The Holy Bible, King James Version 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 (duh)
44. On Cussing: Bad Words and Creative Cursing by Katherine Dunn 🌹🌹🌹
45. In the Presence of the Enemy by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
46. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
47. Dragons & Pagodas: A Celebration of Chinoiserie by Aldous Bertram 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
48. Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
49. So Big by Edna Ferber 🌹🌹🌹🌹
50. The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud 🌹🌹🌹🌹
51. A Cordiall Water: A Garland of Odd and Old Receipts to Assuage the Ills of Man and Beast by M.F.K. Fisher 🌹🌹🌹1/2
52. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz 🌹🌹🌹
53. Glass Houses by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
54. Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
55. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry 🌹🌹🌹🌹
56. Mapp & Lucia by E. F. Benson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
57. The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
58. Black Dogs by Ian McEwan 🌹🌹🌹1/2
59. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane 🌹🌹🌹🌹
60. Slightly Foxed: Beside the Seaside, Vol. 75 by Gail Perkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
61. More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
62. Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
63. Horse by Geraldine Brooks 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
64. Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
65. Lucia's Progress by E. F. Benson 🌹🌹🌹🌹
66. Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
67. Trouble for Lucia by E. F. Benson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
68. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
69. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
70. Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
71. The Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion 🌹🌹
72. Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes 🌹🌹🌹🌹
73. A Simple Country Murder by Blythe Baker 🌹🌹🌹🌹
74. In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
75. Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks 🌹🌹🌹🌹
76. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh  🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
77. The Sellout by Paul Beatty 🌹🌹🌹
78. A Better Man by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
79. French Ways and Their Meaning by Edith Wharton 🌹🌹🌹
80. Slightly Foxed: Laughter in the Library, Vol. 77 by Gail Pirkis (Ed.) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
81. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu 🌹🌹🌹🌹
82. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
83. S. by John Updike 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
84. Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
85. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel 🌹🌹🌹
86. Three Fires by Denise Mina 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
87. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 
88. Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter 🌹🌹
89. The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
90. Prisoner of Brenda: Curses, Nurses, and a Ticket to Bedlam by Colin Bateman 🌹🌹🌹🌹 
91. Snow by John Banville 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
92. Blood From a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam S. McHugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹
93. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders 🌹🌹🌹🌹
94. After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley 🌹🌹🌹🌹
95. All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
96. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
97. The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron 🌹🌹🌹🌹
98. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
99. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham 🌹🌹
100. He Said He Would Be Late by Justine Sullivan 🌹🌹🌹1/2
101. A Traitor to Memory by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
102. Tom Lake by Ann Patchet 🌹🌹🌹🌹1/2
103. Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery by Wendy Lesser 🌹🌹🌹
104. Venice Observed by Mary McCarthy 🌹🌹🌹1/2
105. Exit Music by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
106. Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Mugham 🌹🌹🌹
107. One More Seat at the Rounds Table by Susan Dormady Eisenberg 🌹🌹🌹1/2
108. Mating by Norman Rush 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
109. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
110. The Chosen by Chaim Potok 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
111. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
112. The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
113. Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier 🌹🌹🌹🌹
114. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens 🌹🌹🌹🌹
115. The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean 🌹🌹🌹🌹
116. The Collected Poems by W. B. Yeats 🌹🌹🌹🌹
117. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
118. The Long Good-Bye by Raymond Chandler 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
119. The Man with Two Left Feet by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹🌹
120. Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh 🌹🌹🌹🌹
121. Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
122. In Search of a Character: Two African Journals by Graham Greene 🌹🌹🌹
123. A Place of Hiding by Elizabeth George 🌹🌹🌹🌹
124. A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny 🌹🌹🌹🌹
125. The Prince and Betty by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2
126. Innocent Blood by P. D. James 🌹🌹🌹🌹
127. Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
128. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang 🌹🌹🌹🌹
129. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman 🌹🌹🌹🌹
130. The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor 🌹🌹🌹
131. Straight Man by Richard Russo 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
132. Piccadilly Jim by P. G. Wodehouse 🌹🌹🌹1/2
133. The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham 🌹🌹🌹🌹
134. Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin 🌹🌹🌹🌹
135. The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy L. Sayers 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
136. Aqua Alta by Donna Leon 🌹🌹🌹🌹
137. The Spring by Megan Weiler 🌹🌹🌹1/2
138. The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer 🌹🌹🌹🌹
139. War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

* I didn't realize that my very old (like 1890) edition of Our Mutual Friend was abridged until I got to the end of it. I loved the story, but thought it was herky jerky and that I had missed big parts. It was herky jerky and I did miss big -- and little -- parts. So I can't rate it now. I plan to read the complete version again and know I will love it.  

MY RATING SYSTEM

I switched to using roses for my rating system, since this is Rose City Reader. My rating system is my own and evolving. Whatever five stars might mean on amazon, goodreads, or Netflix, a five-rose rating probably doesn't mean that here. My system is a mix of how a book subjectively appeals to me, its technical merits, and whether I would recommend it to other people.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Five roses for books I loved, or would recommend to anyone, or I think are worthy of classic "must read" status." Examples would be Lucky Jim (personal favorite), A Gentleman in Moscow (universal recommendation), and Great Expectations (must read).

🌹🌹🌹🌹 Four roses for books I really enjoyed and/or would recommend to people who enjoy that type of book. So I give a lot of four roses because I might really like a book, but it didn't knock my socks off. And while I'd recommend it to someone who likes that genre -- mystery, historical fiction, food writing, whatever -- I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who asked me for a "good book."

🌹🌹🌹 Three roses for books I was lukewarm on or maybe was glad I read but wouldn't recommend.

🌹🌹 Two roses if I didn't like it. Lessons in Chemistry is an example, which proves how subjective my system is because lots of people loved that book. I found it cartoonish and intolerant.

🌹 One rose if I really didn't like it. I don't know if I've ever rated a book this low. The Magus might be my only example and I read it before I started keeping my lists.

I use half roses if a book falls between categories. I can't explain what that half rose might mean, it's just a feeling.

Here is a link to the star rating system I used for years. I include it because the stars I used in years past meant something different than these roses, so if you look at my lists from past years, the ratings won't mean quite the same thing.

Book Beginnings on Fridays on Rose City Reader

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thanks for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the first sentences (or so) of the books they are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your eye, even if you are not reading it this week.

The day got away from me, so I have just enough time to put up this week's post. I will have to come back tomorrow to add my own book beginning. In the meantime, please share yours in the Linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbegninnings. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

Quentins by Maeve Binchy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me on Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. Feel free to share from a book that captured your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

When Ella Brady was six she went to Quentins.

-- from Quentins by Maeve Binchy. 

Years back, I went on a Maeve Binchy tear and read a lot of her books, including several involving many of the same characters in Quentins, including Tara Road and The Scarlet Feather. 

Quentins focuses on the fictional Dublin restaurant of that name, tying together the characters with the history of the restaurant. I love being back in Binchy World. All her novels involve many characters facing ordinary problems that all get resolved in a tidy way. They are the emotional equivalent of cleaning out a messy closet and leave me with the same sense of satisfaction.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so we can find each other.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Quentins:

In their first year at the university, Ella and Deirdre had made a new friend, Nuala, who was from the country and had her own flat. Right in the center of the city.

TBR 24 in '24 and Mt. TBR Challenges -- My Sign Up Post

 

THE TBR 24 IN '24 CHALLENGE

My Sign Up Post

This is my sign up post for the TBR 24 in '24 Challenge. The simple idea is to read 24 books off your TBR shelves between January 1 and December 31, 2024. If you want to join me (and I hope you do), go to the main challenge page here to sign up. You can participate through your blog, social media, or just in the comments on the challenge pages.

You do not have to pick all your TBR 24 in '24 books ahead of time. I like to, so I do. You can pick them now. Or you can pick some now and some as you go. You can pick them all at whim. Or you can pick now and then change your mind. The only real rule is that you read books that you already owned before January 1, 2024. Find all the rules on the challenge page.

MY TBR 23 IN '23 BOOKS

I like to pick my books ahead of time and keep them stacked by my bedside to motivate me through the year. This year, I picked 12 fiction and 12 nonfiction. I plan to alternate fiction/nonfiction as I read through the stack in alphabetical order by author name. In years past, I read my challenge picks as my mood struck. But I always ended up in December with the least appealing books and that was no fun. 

Here's a list of what is in the picture. Do any look good to you?

FICTION

Quentins by Maeve Binchy. I went on a Binchy jag years ago and read most of her books, including several that involve the fictional Dublin restaurant Quentins. But this one slipped past me. 

Rates of Exchange by Malcolm Bradbury. I loved Eating People is Wrong and The History Man so look forward to reading more of Bradbury's books. 

The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. This one is on Anthony Burgess's list of his 99 favorite novels, one of my favorite lists. 

The King of the Rainy Country by Nicolas Freeling, an Edgar Award winner.

 

A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable, looks like fun!

J by Howard Jacobson. I like his books but this one is speculative, dystopian fiction, not my favorite genre. We'll see how it goes. 

Out of the Shelter by David Lodge. He is one of my favorite authors. 

The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch. So is she!

The New Men by C. P. Snow. I've been plodding my way through his Strangers and Brothers series and am determine to get through the whole thing. 

A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler. As with Binchy, I went on an Anne Tyler tear several years ago. Then I just stopped. I want to get back and read the ones I missed. 

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware, This is probably the most random novel I have on my TBR shelf so I decided to dust it off. 

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, which will also count as my Austria book for the 2024 European Reading Challenge. 

NONFICTION

My Almost Cashmere Life by Margy Adams. I already ripped through this memoir. FINISHED 

Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription: Notes & Asides from National Review by William F. Buckley, Jr. This is one of my favorite titles ever. I grew up reading his Notes & Asides column and look forward to revisiting the columns in this collection. 

Political Woman: The Big Little Life of Jeane Kirkpatrick by Peter Collier. My husband gave this to me several years ago and it's time I read it. 

An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David. I love food writing but have never read this classic.

Menagerie Manor by Gerald Durrell. I've read Lawrence Durrell books but never Gerald's. I love the TV show, The Durrells of Corfu, so want to try his books.  

Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz. I bought this on a whim when it came out and don't want it to languish on my shelves. 

Songbook by Nick Hornby. Another favorite author, but I missed this one. 

The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis. I'm chipping away at reading all his books. 

Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo. I found this at a library book sale and it looks terrific!

The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas by Paul Theroux. This classic book of travel writing has waited too long for me to read it. 

Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull. I missed this when it came out and love ex-pat memoirs. 

I'll Take the Back Road by Marguerite Hurrey Wolf, a 1975 memoir about living on a farm in Vermont. 

THE MT. TBR CHALLENGE

This TBR 24 in '24 Challenge dovetails nicely with the Mt TBR Challenge that Bev at My Reader's Block hosts every year. Like I've done for the past couple of years, I am signing up for the "Mt. Kilimanjaro" Level in 2024 to read a total of 60 books off my TBR shelves. That means 37 books in addition to those listed above.

MY MT. TBR BOOKS

I will try to remember to list my Mt. TBR books here as I read them, although I completely forgot this last year.

Need Blind Ambition by Kevin Myers FINISHED

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome to the first Book Beginnings of the new year! Please share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, or just a book that caught your fancy.

Hopefully my late post this week does not set the course for the rest of the year! My New Year's resolution is to get Book Beginnings up and running by Thursday at 5:00 pm Pacific Time. Let's see if I can keep it.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

All day the heat had been barely supportable but at evening a breeze arose in the west, blowing from the heart of the setting sun and from the ocean, which lay unseen, unheard behind the scrubby foothills. 

-- from The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh.

Evelyn Waugh went to Hollywood in the 1940s to consult with movie studios about a movie version of his famous novel, Brideshead Revisited. The movie deal fell through, but the trip inspired his novel, The Loved One (1948), a satire about Hollywood and the funeral business in America. 

The Loved One is very funny, in a dark and often harsh way. Waugh is one of my favorite authors because he is so snarky and irreverent. I just finished this book and thought it was hilarious, but it is not for the faint of heart. I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I had not recently read After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (1939) by Aldous Huxley, which also pillories the funeral industry and is even more outrageous.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so we can find each other.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Loved One:

A young lady rose from a group of her fellows to welcome him, one of that new race of exquisite, amiable, efficient young ladies whom he had met everywhere in the United States. She wore a white smock and over her sharply supported left breast was embroidered the words, Mortuary Hostess.