That's Noteworthy! (vol. 12)

2023 reading stats (plus some reviews & current reads, of course)

Happy 2024! As I said in my last Timing is Everything post, I seem to have been stuck in that Christmas-break-fog of barely knowing what day of the week it is. But what a lovely break from the regular responsibilities of life it’s been. I love my job, but getting up without a schedule and enjoying slow mornings has been good for my soul. Also, not having to deal with kids having homework has been a gift.

📚. Books I recently read…

• Mexikid by Pedro Martín :: I thoroughly enjoyed this middle grade graphic novel. This book was hilarious, well-crafted, clever, and quite moving. At various times it made me laugh out loud, cover my eyes (ew!!!), and feel a little pinch of tenderness in my heart. I have one spoilery content warning for sensitive readers over on the StoryGraph. My son also liked this one, and as I mentioned before, I gifted it to my nephews for Christmas.
  5⭐️s

• The Christmas Clash by Suzanne Park :: This was a cute YA rom-com with an enemies-to-more/family rivals story, as two teens try to save the mall and their respective family businesses. I like this as a rom-com for teens because it’s fairly light on the spice (just kissing), though it does have some language, fyi. It also features good friendship and family themes and a MC trying to figure out her future and be confident in her strengths.
  4⭐️s

• Greenglass House by Kate Milford :: My daughter Gigi recommended this to me years ago, and I finally got to it (it was the last book I read of 2023). A well-plotted, creative middle grade mystery, set at Christmas at a unique inn, it has delightful characters (thought one bugged me a bit, but it all made sense at the end) and a very clever story-within-the story. It also features role-playing games as a plot device & thread throughout the story which was fun. As an adoptive mom, I also really loved the careful and tender inclusion of an adoption backstory, including correct language mentioned in the story relating to this (don’t miss the author’s note). There is a whole online world created related to this book, along with several other books. I ended up listing to most of this (while puzzling up a storm!) and both audio and paper formats are great.
  4.75⭐️s

🤓. In the library…

I haven’t forgotten about sharing the most popular books in my school library for the first half of the school year; that post is still coming soon! In the meantime my husband sent me this interesting post from NPR reporting the most borrowed books in 2023 at public libraries.

I also joined a fun Bookstagram “challenge” for 2024 all about embracing libraries (which will obviously be right in my wheelhouse, as you’ll see from my stats below, and the fact that I work in one, LOL).

📖. What my kids are reading…

• Gigi (16) is still reading Anna K: A Love Story, along with Heiress Apparently by Diana Ma. More for my own YA TBR!

• Brody (13) is rereading The Hunger Games series (he’s on Mockingjay now). He recently also read National Book Award winner, A First Time for Everything, by Dan Santat.

• Hallee (12) is reading Golden Girl by Reem Faruqi, which she picked up at the library based on the cover. 😉

🥰. Things bringing me joy right now…

• getting back into journaling about my reading (delicious drinks= bonus)

• lots of family time— movies, games, puzzles, etc!

• cozy reading

• my down comforter

• my new mouthguard bringing me jaw pain relief!

• all the good food and treats

• reading stats on The StoryGraph… see below!

📚. Featured reading stats from 2023…

I thought it would be fun to cap off this newsletter with some reading stats. I had a great year of reading; not only did I read a lot (134—my most ever since I started tracking), but I really feel like I read a ton of books to my own taste (hence the high number of 5-star reads). Quality and quantity is a win for avid reader. Hopefully I will get around to figuring out what were my favorites soon, too, but for today, here are some category and genre notes…

Age Category

• I read 13 YAs— this is a low percentage for me compared to usual. I’ve been itching to read some more YA so maybe it will go up in 2024.

• I read 60 middle grade books! This is my most ever and greatly influenced I’m sure by now working in a school library. I’m around shelves of middle grade books every day and talk to kids about them constantly, so unsurprisingly, my love of middle grade grew even more this year. Most of these were on audio as well.

• I’m honestly surprised I read as many adult books as I did! I feel like this is a good split for me with 73 YA/MG and the rest adult.

Genre

• I read 15 nonfiction books, with 9 memoirs (not counting graphic novels though some of these were memoirs). I love memoirs so I’d like to up this in ‘24.

• Romance: 47 (including YA)— honestly I thought I’d have more of these since I love romance so much, but this is still a pretty big chunk of my reading.

• Mystery: 30 (across age categories)— my love of mysteries is a recent find. Middle grade mysteries or genre mashups here (like a romance/mystery) are my favorite. I’d like to keep reading more mysteries and go a bit broader here in the future.

• Graphic Novels: 8 (another category I’d like to beef up since they are so popular at school).

Format

• Audio: 58— my biggest year ever in audio. I used to stick to memoir/nonfiction on audio, but have added in MG in the last couple of years. I still tend to only read adult fiction on audio if it’s for book club (since I’m often in a time crunch). In 2024, I want to listen to more YA titles. I didn’t do all 58 completely on audio, as a few books I read were a combo of formats.

• Kindle: 37— another surprise. I read on my Kindle almost every single night in bed, so I’m surprised I only read 37, but maybe I read some books slower if they’re primarily my “bedtime reading?” Either way, I love my Kindle.

• It’s nice to see I’m still reading a good chunk of hard copy books. I truly love reading in all forms; each one has its pros! I’m almost always reading in all three formats at once.

My final stat is my favorite and the one I’m most proud of. I read at least part¹ of 120 out of my 134 books from the library! This includes from two local public library systems (and sometimes Circuit/Link+ to access other libraries), the school library where I work (I sometimes borrow new books before I put them out on the shelf or over the weekend after all kids have done their weekly checkouts), and using Libby (and a bit of Hoopla) with my three library cards.

It’s no joke that I love the library and I’m so happy that my reading stats support that. I could never afford to read 134 books if I had to buy them all (even if they were second-hand!). The library is a great gift, and I’m so thankful to have access to so many wonderful libraries.

I’d love to hear if any of my stats, or your own, surprise you! It’s fun to look back at our reading years; I’m glad I sat down to analyze my stats… but now I’m ready to put the stats away and crack open a book. 😉

Happy Friday and happy reading!

xo,
Nicole

I always use affiliate links with Bookshop.org when I link to books. If you purchase through my links you support me a tiny bit, and more importantly, you support indie bookstores. Thanks!

1. Sometimes when I own a paper copy I end up reading part of it on audio or Kindle via Libby, so that’s what I mean by “at least part” (if you’re wanting to get acclimated to audio, maybe it would help to read along on paper or switch off between the two).