Ten Favorite Reads from 2023 (in no particular order):

Phoebe’s Diary by Phoebe Wahl (YA)Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (adult)Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (adult/audiobook)Thank You for Listening (adult/audiobook)The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh (MG)Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow (MG)Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson (adult)The Museum of Lost and Found by Leila Sales (MG)Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin (adult)Nothing Else But Miracles by Kate Albus (MG)A First Time For Everything by Dan Santat (MG/GN)

I’ve read 172 books this year, which is wild to write down because as 2023 comes to a close, I feel like there are so many more books that I wanted to read. Certainly a first world problem if there ever were one, and a byproduct of both forming so many relationships in the publishing industry and being aware of, well, *all* of the books?!

Exactly one year ago, I wrote that I hoped to read more adult books in 2023, and as I parse through my records of this year’s reading, I was surprised to discover that even though it felt like I didn’t, I think I actually I did (69 grownup books – might be a record for me?). Still, I wish I read more. (I will always wish I read more.)

Built into my desire to finish a thing and the satisfaction I find in crossing something off a list is that the shorter books, well, they hold appeal. Too often, I find myself selecting the book I know I can finish quickly instead of the one I *most* want to read at the moment. Anyone else?

My hope, heading into the new year, is that by tackling some of the lengthy tomes in my TBR that I desperately want to read, I can begin to break myself of that bad habit. Logically, of course, I know that I don’t need to read X many books and that reading a truly satisfying one over several days or a week or — gasp — weekssss might be equally or more fulfilling.

Perhaps it’s my bad habit of placing library holds on every title that strikes my fancy (my library is *the best* and has *everything*) and the accompanying fear of dying under said pile of books, and hence, feeling heavily motivated to finish and *return* some of them, any of them, please, before you pick up more, Jenn, that’s getting in my way.

Maybe things will change in 2024?

We’ll see.

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