Grab the Lapels

2023: Let’s Wrap It Up

THE BASIC MEASUREMENTS

In 2023 I kept track of different data compared to previous years. I grew tired of trying to determine an author’s race, gender, nationality, etc. Though I was trying to be more inclusive of trans and nonbinary writers, let’s be honest, most people still are not stating their identity, nor should they have to. Also, many authors were born in one country, grew up in another, and now live somewhere else entirely. It just didn’t make sense. So, I switched to some data that felt important to me. Below, I’ve give context for each chart and what I’ve gathered from it. Also, if you are reading on your tablet or phone, consider switching to a computer for an easier time reading the graphs.

Did i own the book or borrow it?

While I’ve tried to keep reading my own books so the pile doesn’t get out of control, this year I found too many books at the friends of the library sale. If your town does these, you’ll know you can get books in great shape, usually under $2. I did try my own challenge of going to the library and pretending it’s a book store. Honestly, it worked great! I took home a pile of books that I may not read, but that I didn’t pay a dime for. Whether I’m buying or borrowing, books end up sitting there, unread, so why not have the same “take it home” thrill for free? This is a recent idea, though.

I read my own books at slightly more than I borrowed, which is great! I’m trying to read, enjoy, and pass along books as much as possible.

would i want to keep a copy of the book i just finished?

I have no qualms about letting go of most books because I don’t want them sitting around, collecting dust, and being read by no one. An unread book is untapped potential. If I have a hunch I will read it again, use it as a reference, or teach from it in the future, I keep the book. That’s a small percentage.

I’ve got a couple of books I’m finishing up that I’m not sure about. Might keep, might pass on.

with whom did i read?

I’m constantly reading with other people. Somehow, books became less of an introverted escape and more of a community experience as time has gone on. Here are the people I read with regularly:

Huntsville Horror is my spooky movie club, but late 2022 I started a book club with them. We meet monthly. I read about 20 pages per night to Nick, and Biscuit and I meet regularly to talk about books. I’m amazed that out of the 110 books I engaged with this year, 50% I read alone. That is some seriously social reading.

what does “engage with” mean?

What I really mean is a book that I picked up, tried to read, and gave up on after a while. Sometimes I read the first page or two of a book and quit; that’s not what I mean. Here’s how I fared in 2023:

I honestly think having other people reading with me keeps from DNF-ing (that’s “did not finish,” which we book nerds turn into a verb by adding -ing) so many books because other people’s comments about a story can make a muddled book make sense.

how readable was that book, anyway?

I decided on three categories. If the book was “low readability,” it was likely dense or slower reading. I couldn’t be distracted or make my eyes race ahead and follow along. “Medium” is more like not that hard, but what I’m reading isn’t a speedy page turner. “High readability” tended to be novels that have loads of dialogue. You’re constantly flipping pages, and no one is saying or thinking anything in a complex fashion that I had to sit and consider. TBD refers to the couple of books I’m still finishing.

how did i feel when the book was done?

I tried not to get too complicated with this, sticking to a few emotions that fit most of the books I read. I’m surprised by how many times I closed a book and didn’t feel like I’d lived through an experience. On the other hand, the number of times I wrote that the book was just too wild was surprising, too. Either the book was truly “out there” or I felt like I’d been transported into the novel.

Next year, I may want to choose some emotions first before throwing them out there willy nilly. “Educated” and “saccharine” aren’t really feelings.

why did i read it?

So, we know how I felt when I finished my books, but why did I pick them up in the first place? The reasons a varied, but I found some trends included in the chart below.

what do these people even do?

This was the oddest bit of data I collected, but I realized that Americans are obsessed with work. When we meet someone, the first thing we tell them is what we “do.” I once asked someone I had just met in a meditation class, “What brings you joy?” He could not answer. In fact, he replied that he had the “What do you do?” answer down pat and was ready with it. But what do the characters in my books do? Some of them were hard to pin down, and part of that was characters who had no formal employment but who still did . . . something.

That might be a bit hard to read, but if you click the image, you can zoom in. All the occupations that have that lowest bar mean only one book I read all year had someone with the job listed. Oddly, I had tons of characters that were students or writers. Is it just easier to write about being in school or writing about writing? The biggest category is N/A, meaning the book did not have one main character — short story collections, books with several main characters, etc. Perhaps next year I will try to keep track of this differently, or maybe I’ll mark down any time someone mentions a hobby just for contrast. What are your thoughts on the types of occupations listed here?

best books of the year

After reading a post post on Whispering Gums by Sue, I decided to ask the people I read with what they thought about the books we read together. I created a poll with all the books I read with that person/group and asked them to rank their top three favorite picks and give a reason why they chose number one. Here’s what they said:

  • Biscuit’s Picks
    • #3 The Private Life of Mrs Sharma by Ratika Kapur (my review)
    • #2 The Hole by Hye-young Pyun (my review)
    • #1 Love by Roddy Doyle
      • “I enjoyed Love by Roddy Doyle for its honesty and character development. The humor and humanity touched me. The theme of ongoing love of friends and family and the nostalgia of lost loves and friendships.”
  • Nick’s Picks
    • #3 Manstealing for Fat Girls by Michelle Embree (my review)
    • #2 Man, Fuck This House by Brian Asman
    • #1 A Nun in the Closet by Dorothy Gilman (my review)
      • “I enjoyed the characters most of all, as they had enough personality to support a distinctive voice. The plot was aged, but in a fun way-almost like a retro made-for-TV movie that was fun enough that I wish there was a sequel.”
  • Huntsville Horror Picks — 6 voters
    • #3 It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan (my review) — picked by 40% of respondents
    • #2 a tie between Jawbone by Monica Ojeda (my review) and Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon — both picked by 33.3% of respondents
    • #1 FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven — picked by 66.7% of respondents
      • Note: the following comments are why each person picked their #1 book. Not everyone picked FantasticLand.
      • “FantasticLand is something that could truly happen! People who are desperate can do horrible things, and with this book’s setting, it makes this idea even scarier!”
      • “It was interactive for the reader by doing a slow reveal from different POVs that sometimes contradicted each other. Lots of room for speculation. The horror continuously builds and has many different elements (body gore, psychological, survival)”
      • “I love multi character interview/reflection books”
      • “It was a unique writing approach by having the story told in interview form. Also loved that we had multiple types of horror sprinkled in.”
      • “This was my first time reading Brian Evenson, and although the first story was a complete miss for me, the rest fell into varying ranges of good to excellent. He had some great fusions between horror and sci-fi/fantasy, and his ideas came across as very original.”

most memorable books of the year

Looking back and choosing a favorite is something I can’t seem to do, but I can tell you which books stuck with me for a long time. 2023 was an odd year; I looked at my complete list and was surprised some of these books were actually read in 2023. I’m also intrigued by how many books I marked as being enjoyable that I don’t remember at all (at least not just by looking at the title). But here are the ones that kept coming back to my mind:

I see a couple of trends in which books stuck with me. They tend to be audiobooks (perhaps all my interpreting training is starting to really get in my head and make me focus on voices) and there’s a lot of horror on there.

KODAK Digital Still Camera

PLANS FOR 2024

I have no grand plans other than to keep reading a community activity, try to read my own books, try not to buy books, and keep track of the characters’ hobbies (if I can). Is there any data you’d like to see? Let me know your thoughts in the comment. It’s almost the end of the year, so I’ll be catching up on reading blogs, doing homework, and heading on one last trip to see friends before ringing in the new year. This is the last blog post in 2023, so see you in 2024!

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Published by Grab the Lapels

I'm a graduate of the MFA fiction writing program at the University of Notre Dame, which inspired me to follow along with trends in teaching, publishing, and reviewing. I also have an MA and BS from Central Michigan University. I used to teach composition, creative writing, and literature in higher education, then did a brief stint at a civic theater, followed by two years at a references desk at a public library. I'm now working toward my ASL Interpreter license.

48 comments

  1. Love your categories for your wrap-up (especially ‘would I want to own a copy’ – I sometimes buy a copy of a book I’ve borrowed, and I nearly always give books away once I’ve finished reading them).

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    • If the book is in nice condition, I’m a fan of gifting it to someone, too! I’ve found that too many possessions can be a burden to me, and if a book isn’t being read, that’s a book that could be enlightening or entertaining another human out there.

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  2. I agree about tracking LGBT+ writers – it’s why I don’t include stats for LGBT+ writers on my end of year round-up, though I note trans/non-binary writers in my summary of the gender split of the books I’ve read. (I know I’ve got this wrong at least once this year though – assumed one writer identified as NB when she doesn’t, and vice versa!)

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    • True! I think I want to make sure I read a variety of voices, and if anything, I do that somewhat naturally. I’m interesting in reading books that are unfamiliar to me — I don’t want to hear the same story again and again — so if there is a novel about a woman and her son set in a large city in India, I’ll pick it up because I don’t know much about large cities in India, as opposed to thinking, “Oh, I should read more non-Western literature.”

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  3. Oh those were fun stats! I switched to treating the library like a bookstore a number of years ago and I’m quite pleased with how well it works. Sometimes I have to wait a long time for my turn for a popular book to come round, but that’s ok.

    Love the occupation chart! I think my favorite on he chart is outlaw 🙂

    Happy New Year!

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    • Why didn’t you tell me about treating the library like a book store?! I could have saved so much money, LOL. When I did it the one time, I was not looking for a particular book; I was wandering and reading titles, much like I do at a used book store.

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      • LOL sorry! My library branch is so small that wandering around it like a used bookstore doesn’t work very well. But I regularly “order” piles of books to browse and only end up reading some of them. Saves me money, and keeps the piles of books in my house much smaller and there is zero guilt for not reading everything I borrow 🙂

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        • Does your library system have several branches other than the main one? I literally did not know about library branches until I was an adult, which is so bizarre. When the main branch in my county closed for a two-year renovation project, the community was distraught and came to the neighboring library (where I was working). I showed them on Google maps how there is literally a branch within a mile of their home, in most cases, and they didn’t understand, so I could relate. They kept saying “their” library was closed though it was only the main one.

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  4. I was gonna say outlaw too – and chip van!

    What an unusual year end roundup! Very thoughtful. I especially liked the “how did I feel after reading” bit. I was prepared for your “that was wild!” category to be bigger, as I feel like I’ve read a lot of reviews of yours this year where I think the same thing, LOL!

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    • The chip van, LOL. That job is from a Roddy Doyle book. Maybe in 2024 I’ll expand to any jobs mentioned instead of main character. See what’s really out there.

      Some of the books were wild in places, but I may have ended with a “meh” feeling overall, or simply “satisfied.” I need to look at the list of emotions my therapist gave me so I actually pick emotions.

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  5. I’ve mostly given up on tracking entirely, other than simply recording what books I read, sorting them into categories etc. seems like a waste of my time at this point haha

    I love that you’re doing so much social reading, it’s such a wonderful way to read books! As I get older I’d like to do this more. I’m also trying to attend more social book events in the city so I can get out more and meet more readers 🙂

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  6. The big difference between you and me is that I like owning books – borrowing is just not the same. And I don’t care that I might never reread them, I am surrounded by infinite choice.

    Love your graph, why I chose this book – main reason, ‘craving for horror’: another big difference between us!

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    • But how do you take care of all your books so they’re not just collecting dust? Nick and I once went to an old used bookstore, and the whole place stank. I think he got too much moisture in at some point, and the books were literally rotting. Isn’t Australia all wet from time to time? Or, how do you not run out of space? My understanding is that your home is not huge — big enough for one fella. If your books are still at your mom’s house, how are you surrounded by them? These comments are not meant to be argumentative. I’m genuinely curious! My granny also buys every book. She never seems to borrow despite me pointing out that she pays taxes to use the library.

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  7. My books are at my place, mostly, some move between Milly’s and my daughter’s. A couple of walls are all bookshelves, my study is all bookshelves. Perth is dry. Yes, there is lots of dust.

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    • I think I mentioned this before, but I would still love to see a post of what your book set up looks like (photos of your shelves, piles, etc.) and a journal about why you keep books, where they come from, etc.

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  11. Hi:)
    We don’t have much in common when it comes to reading choices, but I did enjoy reading this. (I came here via Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best.)
    Yeah, I used to do stats at this time of the year with fancy graphs and all and then I just couldn’t be bothered. I’d started doing it because I wanted to be transparent about trying to be more inclusive, and I think it was a good thing to do when I began, but I think most of us have got the memo now and don’t need to prove it to ourselves or anybody else. Besides, people who read my blog regularly know whether I’m being inclusive or not…
    Also, during the year, I read None of the Above by Travis Abanza and I decided that I did not want to be classifying people by gender because gender is not a binary thing.
    Your way is a much more fun way of reflecting on your reading.

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    • Hi, LIsa. Thanks for stopping by and the kind compliments about my wrap up. I have a simple spreadsheet I use that is easy to access on my phone, so I keep track of stats throughout the year. I used to try and compile information at the end of the year, but it was too much. My husband is an IT person, and he showed me how simple it is to put a couple of numbers in an Excel sheet (Google has something similar for free) and just click chart or pie or bar graph, or whatever you want. I think one reader said she was interested in the jobs characters have, but I’m not sure other readers were interested. What are your thoughts?

      I do like your comment about most of us having the memo now. I think the only reason to try and do diversity stats would be to show other people, and I don’t feel the need to do that. Plus, I once read a blog post that said we’re often using the word diversity wrong. For example, if we read one book by a Mexican author, we are not reading diversely. To read diversely, we would need to read several books by Mexican authors, not one and done. I get what this blogger was say, and I also understand that for me to read many books from around the world is diverse, but the blogger’s comment stuck in my head, too. Do diversity stats really just “show off” or is it a way of “diversity signaling” instead of actually engaging with other cultures? I have no answers. Anyway, I’ve rattled on too long. Happy New Year!

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      • I had a reader once who asked me if I knew of a book set somewhere in particular in Australia, and so we had a bit of a convo about settings, and she said she’d love it if I tagged the books by settings…
        Now, if you’ve ever looked at the RHS menu of my blog and clicked on Select Category, you will that I have an insane list of categories and I am fairly confident that only the nerdiest use it as I do. But anyway, I was fond of this reader (who also writes books that I like) so I decided to do it, and went back to my earliest posts, and it took aaaaaaaages!
        So no, not Occupations. But when I come across recurring themes I sometimes add to what I’ve already got. I have just tagged ‘workplace deaths and injury’ because it kept recurring in a writer’s oeuvre, and then I realised that there had only been a few books about this issue in more recent times and yet it’s still a social problem. (Remember The Triangle by Katharine Weber? But where are the novels about the awful working conditions in Asian sweatshops, eh?) Anyway I’m going to move the tag to my Issues and Themes category where it is more visible. Tags only work if you know what to search for…
        I do think we need to be just a little bit wary of doing the jobs of researchers and academics for them. An ordinary reader who’s interested in occupations can simply record them in a reading journal, or tag ’em at Goodreads. A researcher, one who, e.g. wants to gather data about occupations that are represented in fiction, would love it if we had that info on tap for them.
        But while I’m happy to help if I have that info already, I’m not here for that. I’m just here to share my reading for ordinary readers, and everything I do is to suit them and myself.

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  12. I’m stealing your idea for tracking character occupations / hobbies / etc! So much more fun than “Is the author male or female?” Don’t know and who cares?????

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  14. Always enjoy your categories, and love your spin on my favourite pics post. I hope your horror club enjoyed making their choices.

    Re the number of books about writers, well, you know writers are always told to write what they know and what do they know best? Did you start keeping this info from the beginning of the year, or did you have to go back to check?

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  15. Happy new year! I like seeing your graphs and how you’ve focused on different things than a lot of other bloggers. I definitely take a lot of advantage of the friends of the library book sales near me too!

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    • When the cost of fiction jumped from 50 cents to $1, some people got rather upset. I found it a little amusing because they can walk 200 feet and get the books free at the library. Also, some of the books get removed from the system less than a year after purchase (maybe something big comes out, like a new James Patterson, so 40 copies are needed immediately but not 8 months later), so people were getting basically brand-new books for $1.

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  16. This is a level of organization that I cannot aspire to. Lol. I’m over like, let me get semi-organized and I will call that a win. 😛
    I hope for nothing but the best for you and Nick in 2024!! ❤

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    • I have a spreadsheet that I created many years ago that I just keep adding to and deleting old info, so it’s not hard to do. Then, Nick showed me how to click a button and turn info into pie charts. Google sheets makes it weirdly easy, so I look more pro than matches the effort. I used to add up stats at the end of the year, and it nearly broke me, which is why I started the spreadsheet. Each time I finish a book, I fill in the little categories.

      I hope you and Rob are doing well and sticking to your goal (resolution?) of spending more time together! If nothing works, see if you can both do get a misdemeanor and be assigned to pick up freeway trash together. It would be bonding time 😀

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      • Haha! So far, so good. After work one night this week, we hung out at the dining room table, and he built a Lego piranha plant that the Moths got him, and I filled out my newly arrived 2024 planner and we just chatted while we did so. It was nice. We plan to bake dog treats together in the future but I need our current biscuits supply to dwindle (without Ridley stealing everything) before it makes sense to make some. I’ve started a little note on my phone with ideas. Getting misdemeanors and picking up freeway trash was not on the list. YET. 😛

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  17. Wow, I love how you have come up with valuable categories and ranking!! i’m definitely inspired by the pie: how do you feel upon finishing. Saccharine is not bad, I sort of see the feeling of too much sugar that some books leave you with. Best (belated) wishes for the new year!

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    • That was such a hard category! Some of my responses aren’t even feelings. Plus, if I have too many different feelings, the pie chart loses all meaning. It should just be a list, or something like that. I’m trying new categories for 2024, just to see what that looks like at the end of the year.

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