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2023 End of Year Book Survey + Reading Stats

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on January 6, 2024 | 0 Comments

The end of year survey was created by Jamie @ The Perpetual Page-Turner

Past surveys

(It’s crazy that I’ve been doing this survey every year for my whole blogging career!)

2023 Reading stats

Number of books read (total): 147
Number of re-reads: 25
Number of DNFs: 32
Number of audiobooks: 109
Most read genre: High Fantasy (every single year, lol)
Average rating: 3.7

Best in Books

As always, I’m excluding re-reads!

1. Best book you read all year?
Empire of the Damned

2. Book you were excited about & thought you were going to love more but didn’t?
Five Survive. I loved AGGGTM so much, and I actually hated this book.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?
Good: Fourth Wing, because this is absolutely the kind of book I usually end up hating – chock full of tropes and overhyped/popular – but I loved it! For once I get to be one of the cool kids, haha!
Bad: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – I loved the Hunger Games, but I outright despised this book :(

4. Book you “pushed” the most people to read?
Always the Lotus War trilogy by Jay Kristoff! This answer will never change!

5. Best series you started? Best sequel of the year? Best series ender?
Series: Fourth Wing
Sequel: Empire of the Damned (Lightbringer gets runner up)
Series ender: I don’t really have one for this, sadly.

6. Favorite new author you discovered?
Emma Törz, Rebecca Yarros

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
Remarkably Bright Creatures

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
Ink Blood Sister Scribe

9. Book you read that you are most likely to re-read in the next year?
Empire of the Damned for the audio!

*side note: I said Iron Widow last year (and that it would be an early ’23 read) and never did, oops

10. Favorite cover of a book you read this year?
The Coven by Harper L Woods

11. Most memorable character of the year?
Tairn from Fourth Wing! Marcellus from Remarkably Bright Creatures gets honorable mention

12. Most beautifully written book you read?
Ink Blood Sister Scribe. BEAUTIFUL imagery!!

13. Most thought-provoking / life-changing book you read?
This is always hard for me, as I don’t usually read those kinds of books. I guess the closest to that would be Gory Details, there are a lot of things I can’t unlearn from that book haha

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL this year to finally read?
Halfway to the Grave

15. Favorite passage/quote from a book you read?
I was terrible this year and didn’t save any quotes >.<

16. Shortest & longest book you read?
Shortest: Sons of Ares vol. 1 (29 pages)
Longest: Empire of the Vampire (739 pages)

17. Book that shocked you the most?
Sea of Tranquility because THAT ENDING!!
The Good Morning, Midnight ending was pretty shocking, too!

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
My favorite pairing is unfortunately spoilery, but it’s in Empire of the Damned! Didn’t see it coming and I need more *puppy eyes*

19. Favorite non-romantic relationship of the year?
Tairn/Andarna/Violet!

20. Favorite book you read from an author you’ve read previously?
Empire of the Damned

21. Best book you read that you read based SOLELY on a recommendation from somebody else/peer pressure/bookstagram:
Remarkably Bright Creatures. It was a book club pick and I probably never would have picked it up otherwise!

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read?
Bambleby from Emily Wilde

23. Best 2023 debut you read?
Ink Blood Sister Scribe

24. Best worldbuilding/most vivid setting you read?
Empire of the Damned or Starling House

25. Book that put a smile on your face/was the most fun to read?
Little Thieves and Fourth Wing

26. Book(s) that made you cry (or nearly cry)?
Empire of the Damned, Light Bringer, Remarkably Bright Creatures, Fourth Wing and Iron Flame

27. Hidden gem of the year?
Little Thieves

28. Book that crushed your soul?
Light Bringer

29. Most unique book you read?
Ink Blood Sister Scribe, Find Him Where You Left Him Dead, Starling House

30. Book that made you the most angry (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes or We Were Liars. Both were terrible and rage inducing and I despised them

Blogging & bookish life

1. New favorite book blog you discovered?
I didn’t look at any blogs this year :(

2. Favorite review that you wrote?
Probably my Six Crimson Cranes rant review

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?
Fourth Wing Theories (CONTAINS SPOILERS!)

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?
YALLfest, as always!

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life?
MEETING PIERCE BROWN!!

7. Most popular post on your blog (whether it be by comments or views)?
I’m pretty sure I didn’t top like 1-2 comments on anything this year. I don’t ever have engagement anymore because I haven’t been putting the effort into it.

8. Post you wished got a little more love?
Fourth Wing Theories (CONTAINS SPOILERS!)
I really thought this would be more popular, but I guess no one cares XD

9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?
Stuff Your Kindle Day and decorating my Kindle with a clear case and stickers underneath

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of the year?
I did!! My original goal was 100 books and I made it! I ended up bumping my Goodreads challenge up to 150, and I hit 156 – it’s not counted in my tally in this post because on GR I count books I DNF after 50%

Looking ahead

1. One book you didn’t get to last year but will be your #1 priority this year?
Heartless Hunter

2. Book release you are most anticipating (non-debut)?
Tempest of Tea

3. 2024 debut you are most anticipating?
Where the Dark Stands Still

4. Series ending/sequel you are most anticipating?
Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow)

5. One thing you hope to accomplish or do in your reading/blogging life?
I really want to have zero books on my review shelves on Netgalley and Edelweiss! I only have a few left!

6. A 2024 release you’ve already read & recommend to everyone:
Empire of the Damned!

A closer look at my 2024 stats

Pie charts made with Canva!

Rating stats

Just like last year, I had tons of DNFs!! I think this year it actually helped me out, because I had quite a bit less 1 & 2 star books. Last year it was split right down the middle with < 3 stars and > 3 stars before I put the DNFs in (i.e. half of the books I read last year were 3 stars or less). This year I’m happy to say that more than half were above 3 stars! Yay! My 3 star slice was quite a bit larger though, it jumped from 6% to 17.6%, dang. But my 2 stars went from 11.5% down to 4.5%, so I’ll take it lol.

Genre stats

I am SO PROUD of how much I branched out this year!! Sci-fi and fantasy only accounted for about 70% of what I read (it’s usually like 80+) and I’m shocked that fantasy was only half. Fantasy usually dominates my pie chart!

For some reason the labels didn’t all make it. The tiny dark blue slivers between manga & mystery are magical realism (0.6%) and historical (1.8%), and the indigo sliver between mystery and fantasy is non-fiction (1.2%).

Format stats

Sooo many audiobooks! There were even more than last year! Audio is the bulk of my reading now, because I listen daily at work and can get through 2-3 books a week because I listen at 1.7x-2x speed. I don’t have much time or focus to spare for physical reading anymore, sadly. I’m still doing really well at not accepting many review obligations so my ARCs/eARCs were fairly low. All of the paper ARCs were from YALLfest except Light Bringer and Empire of the Damned. It’s freeing not to have as many obligations and to just be able to read what I want to!

The little pink slice is paperback, not sure why Canva didn’t label it.

Series stats

Just like last year, I didn’t read any anthologies this year; and only two novellas and one prequel. Sequels are still fairly low, too, because I suck at series >.<

Year published stats

This one was actually surprising for me this year. I usually have a pretty good mix of new and old, but this year about 75% of the books I read were released within the last few years. I’m shocked at how many books I read that were more than a decade old! The chunk for books released this year was high, too, which isn’t normal for me. I tend to hype myself up for new releases and then put off reading them for years XD

Pages stats

I read a whopping number of books under 300 pages! Last year it was only 6 percent. No wonder I was able to hit 150! I will say that I also had more books over 500 pages than I usually do, so I guess it evened out a little.