My 2023 Reading List
I don’t know about you but I find reading an actual book, cover to cover, a lot more fulfilling than watching random shit on TV. Perhaps you agree? As a book lover, I’ve always felt like there’s so much to read and such little time, so at the start of 2022, I set a goal to finish 50 books. Where did I land?
What can I say, relaxing on the lounge in front of the TV most nights got the better of me. As a result, books collected dust on my bedside table and remained untouched on my book shelf. But, later in the year, I quit social media and I suddenly had a lot more time on my hands. With no more mindless scrolling, I began to take my book reading more seriously and started dedicating my time to doing more of what I love. In 2022 I finished 26 books (18 audiobooks and 8 physical books). You can check out my 2022 reading list here.
Despite not hitting my target, I was happy with my effort, but found it sad that only 3 out of the 26 books were fictions. I realised that I’d become addicted to self-help and personal development books, and suddenly I had a desire to read more novels, simply for pure enjoyment.
So, at the beginning of 2023, I set the same goal as 2022: to finish 50 books in total, including both fiction and non fiction, but I wanted to aim to read more novels. I’m proud to say that I ended the year having finished 52 books, which works out to be an average of one per week. This number includes listening to 42 audiobooks and reading 10 physical books. 17 were fiction and 35 were non fiction, which includes 10 memoirs.
What can I say, I still tend to favour non fiction, but I did get a lot of enjoyment out of reading several romances and a few thrillers. I’ll also mention that I undertook a writing course later in the year, and my teacher Rose exposed me to a variety of different genres, reading styles and Authors, that I wouldn’t have read without her recommendation. These books include: The Lover by Marguerite Duras, Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, Five Bells by Gail Jones, Manifesto by Berndardine Evaristo, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
KEY:
Headphone emoji 🎧 = Audiobook
Book emoji 📖 = Books I physically read
F = Fiction
M = Memoir
NF = Non Fiction
Bold = My favourites or ones that had a heartfelt impact on me
Here’s the full list of the books I finished in 2023 (in chronological order of reading):
Seven Days in June - Tia Williams 🎧 F
Self Source-ery- Lisa Lister 🎧 NF
Presence - Lisa Lister 🎧 NF
Almost French - Sarah Turnbull 📖 M
The Human Element - Brianna Wiest 🎧 NF
Spirit Babies - Walter Makichen 🎧 (RE-READ) NF
Good, Great, Perfect - Dr Rebecca Ray 🎧 NF
100 things we’ve lost to the internet - Pamela Paul 🎧 NF
The 6 Habits of Growth - Brendan Burchard 🎧 NF
Stranger in the Woods - Anni Taylor 🎧 F
Honeymoon for One - Portia MacIntosh 🎧 F
Bloom - Bronnie Ware 🎧 M
Guide Star - Joy Ellis 🎧 F
One Last Time - Corinne Michaels 🎧 F
Paris Letters - Janice MacLeod 🎧 M
Change your questions, change your life - Marilee Adams 🎧 NF
Maiden to Mother - Sarah Durham Wilson 🎧 NF
You Are The Guru - Gabrielle Bernstein 🎧 NF
The Artist’s Way - Julia Cameron 📖 (READ TWICE) NF
The Secret to Happiness - Jessica Redland 🎧 F
Love for Life - Saman Shad 🎧 F
The List that Changed my Life - Olivia Beirne 🎧 F
Atlas of the Heart - Brené Brown 📖 NF
The Year of Less - Cait Flanders 🎧 M
Cleanse to Heal - Anthony Williams 📖 NF
If we’re not Married by Thirty - Anna Bell 🎧 F
Spirited - Candice Kumai 🎧 NF
The Surrender Experiment - Michael A. Singer 🎧 (RE-LISTEN) M
Ask and it’s Given - Esther & Jerry Hicks 📖 (RE-READ) NF
How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body - David R Hamilton 🎧 NF
Wild Creative - Tami Lynn Kent 🎧 NF
Writing Down the Bones - Natalie Goldberg 📖 NF
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky - Emma Carey 🎧 M
Weekends with the Sunshine Gardening Society - Sophie Green 🎧 F
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself - Dr Joe Dispenza 🎧 NF
The Jetsetters - Amanda Eyre Ward 🎧 F
You Are the Placebo - Dr Joe Dispenza 🎧 NF
Becoming Supernatural - Dr Joe Dispenza 🎧 NF
The Lover - Marguerite Duras 📖 M
The Salt Path - Raynor Winn 🎧 M
The House that Joy Built - Holly Ringland 🎧 NF
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin 📖 F
The Book Lovers’ Retreat - Heidi Swain 🎧 F
Cloudstreet - Tim Winton 🎧 F
The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding - Holly Ringland 📖 F
101 Essays that will change how you think - Brianna Wiest 🎧 NF
This One Wild and Precious Life - Sarah Wilson 🎧 NF
Five Bells - Gail Jones 📖 F
Shoe Dog - Phil Knight 🎧 M
When You’re Ready This is How You Heal - Brianna Wiest 🎧 NF
Manifesto - Berndardine Evaristo 🎧 M
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 🎧 F
If you’re wanting to read / listen to more books this year, here are a few tips:
Set a realistic goal. If you typically read one or two books per year, set your goal higher than that but also be realistic. I find it’s easier to exceed your target when you aim low. It’s also more satisfying to meet and / or exceed your goal, rather than to miss your target completely and feel like a failure.
Use a checklist. Once I set my goal I created a checklist in the notes app on my phone. I used numbers to list out some of the books I wanted to read. Having them listed in a checklist where I could tick each one off when I completed it, gave me a dopamine hit and encouraged me to read the next one, so I could tick another one off the list. I copied and pasted the list (above) directly from the notes on my phone.
Make reading a part of your bedtime routine. If you’re guilty of hopping into bed, reading one page then falling asleep, decide to go to bed either 1 hr, 45 mins or 30 mins earlier to enough allow time to read. Beware - this may mean cutting your evening TV time short. It may even be helpful to set an alarm on your phone as a reminder.
Speed it up. If you enjoy listening to books, play around with the playback speed for each book. I usually speed up the playback speed from somewhere between 1.2x - 1.4x, depending on the speed of the narrator. Some narrators are slower than others and speeding up the playback can save you 1-3 hours in listening time per book.
Multitask. I’ve been able to get through so many books this year because I listened while I was driving, walking, cleaning, getting ready for the day, hanging washing, putting clothes away, doing a puzzle and cooking etc.
Save money. The price of books can add up quickly, so don’t forget to utilise libraries, secondhand bookstores and street library boxes. If you have a bunch of books sitting around that you no longer want/need, I suggest organising a book swap party. I hosted one last year with a small group of friends. It was great fun. We all came with a stack of books we no longer wanted and left with a pile of new gems to read. Donate any leftovers.
Move on. If you’re not enjoying a book but you keep pushing on because think you should or need to finish it, don’t. I used to try to push through to the end, but one day realised that life’s too short and there are plenty of other books, more enjoyable books, out there to read. If you’re not into a book, I recommend gifting or donating it, or popping it in your local street library and moving onto the next one. Don’t waste your precious time reading something you don’t enjoy.
Are you a fellow book lover? What did you read in 2023? Send me an email to hello@jaynemartin.com and let me know your favourites.