It’s time for the wrap-up post of all wrap-up posts: my 2023 book blog in review! Like last year, this post covers whether I accomplished my goals as well as blog and reading statistics. I tried to keep it to the point and not so word-y since it covers a lot of topics. So, hopefully this is relatively easy to read through.

In summary, though, 2023 was a great year in terms of viewership. I really hit new heights here. My reading statistics in terms of ratings could’ve been better, but it is what it is. I’m picky about my five star ratings, but I still enjoyed quite a lot of books. Anyway, here’s my 2023 book blog in review!

Bookish Goals for 2023 Wrap-Up

I listed my 2023 bookish goals in this New Year’s Book Tag and in a dedicated post. Here’s how I did on them:

• Read 52 books: COMPLETED. I read 104 books in 2023. I didn’t expect to read double my goal, but audiobooks and novellas really helped me achieve that.
• Track my reading: COMPLETED. I used Kal’s spreadsheet the entire year.
• #BeatTheBacklog: FAILED. I largely failed with this. End of story. There are just too many good books out there!
• Request less ARCS: COMPLETED. Off the top of my head I don’t know if I technically requested less ARCs in 2023 compared to 2022. However, I was more strategic about what I requested for when. This made reading ARCs much more manageable.
• Increase blog followers: COMPLETED. I don’t know whether I posted about this, but I wanted to get to 150 blog followers by the end of the year. Currently I have 163, which is awesome!
• Improve SEO: COMPLETED. I started working on this in late 2022 and kept up with it. The results were worth it.
• Priority reads: FAILED. I only read one of the five priority reads I listed in the tag linked above. That book is HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD by Sarah J. Maas. Arguably, it’s one of the more “important” to me on that list because book 3 comes out at the end of January. And we all know it’s hard to avoid spoilers for popular new releases, much to my chagrin.

Challenges

Technically I joined a few challenges, but frankly I don’t feel like going in-depth into how I did. I joined them more for fun than motivation, so they’re not a critical driver for my reading habits. I joined the Nonfiction Reader Challenge, Project Backlist Challenge, and the TBR Tackle Challenge.

I definitely added more nonfiction books to my reading. Audiobooks really helped me with this. I’m not great about multitasking, but since the world building in nonfiction is minimal relative to fantasy, I have an easier time following along.

I did not do so great with respect to the Project Backlist Challenge. For me, “backlist” meant books I physically own. I definitely bought more books than I read from my own collection. However, anecdotally I think I did better with the TBR Tackle Challenge, which I applied more broadly.

Blog Statistics for 2023

Summary Statistics

Those of us who use Google Analytics were kicked to something newer called Google Analytics 4 in the middle of the year. As a result, I can’t compare GA and WordPress very well side by side like I did last year. So, I’ll just include WordPress statistics from 2021 to 2023. I like to show these numbers to bring expectations into perspective. Keep in mind that I have had this blog for nearly three years (in March), so my statistics might look different than a blog that’s only a year old.

In short, I’m stunned at my growth this year. I attribute the bulk of it to working on my search engine optimization (SEO) and blog hopping. (Learn more about SEO here.) To put it into perspective, I received about four times as many total views and seven times as many visitors in 2023 compared to 2022.

Statistic	2021	2022	2023
Total Posts	73	196	184
Total Views	1,005	8,836	35,842
Visitors	400	3,398	22,768
Likes	116	1,426	2,416
Comments	26	468	1,297

Traffic Sources

The sources from which my blog (also from WP stats) receives traffic also changed over time. As you can see, in 2023 SEO made a huge difference in discoverability of my content. Also, a shout out to John at Tales From Absurdia, whose site directs readers here, presumably because of this post. Despite Twitter changing its algorithm, I somehow still improved on that front. My best guess is it’s because I retweet others (and receive RT in return) and I thank those who RT me, which boosts my own tweet.

Traffic Source	2021	2022	2023
Search Engines	30	417	18,183
Twitter	269	1,800	2,748
WordPress.com Reader	63	1,099	1,596
talesfromabsurdia.com	—	—	614
WordPress Android app	—	6	311

Most Read Posts

In 2023 my top five most-read posts, according to WP stats, are:

1. Arthurian Retellings Reading List: 2,788 views
2. Book Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: 2,253 views
3. Book Review: Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Maehrer: 1,769 views
4. Book Review: Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer Armentrout: 1,705 views
5. ARC Book Review Etiquette: 1,203 views

Reading Statistics for 2023

Annual Summary

If you don’t want to read a more in-depth review of my 2023 reading habits, then this section is for you. After this I dive a little deeper into my 2023 reading via The StoryGraph graphics.

The StoryGraph did a “wrapped” this year and above is the summary graphic from that. What’s hard to tell here is that I read more nonfiction than the “memoir” genre indicates. Memoir and nonfiction combined accounted for nearly 25% of my reading.

Also here is my year in terms of number of books and pages read per month. The total number should say 104 books, but the ACOTAR GraphicAudio books are split into multiple entries per book. I had a dip in reading during the summer, which isn’t unusual for me. When the weather gets nice and the sun is out, I do more gardening and traveling, which leaves less time for reading.

Reading Format and Book Length

I had a more even split this year with respect to format: 38% print, 40% digital, and 22% audio. With respect to book length, 45% were 300-400 pages, 44% were less than 300 pages, and 10% were 500+ pages.

Genres and Moods

Unsurprisingly, my most read genre was fantasy (54) followed by romance (33), LGBTQIA+ (18), memoir (16), and contemporary (11).

My mood pie chart is very similar to last year. The exceptions are I read more books classified as “funny” and less “reflective” and “mysterious” books.

Ratings

I thought I had less five-star ratings this year than in 2022, but that’s not the case. However, I read double the number of books. So, arguably, one might expect me to have double the number of five-star ratings. Instead, I had 9 in 2023 compared to 8 in 2022, which to me means 2022 was a better year in terms of five-star reads. (I know the graphs says 11 in 2023. But ACOMAF is listed 3 times because of re-reading formats.) The graph pattern, though, is very similar to that of 2022, which means I’m at least relatively consistent with how I rate things.

My five-star reads in 2023 were:

• HAPPY PLACE by Emily Henry
• PERILOUS TIMES by Thomas D. Lee
• WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• FALL OF RUIN AND WRATH by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• THE WOMAN THEY COULD NOT SILENCE by Kate Moore
• A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Maas
• FUNNY FEELINGS by Tarah DeWitt
• CICADA SYMPHONY by Sue Fliess (children’s book)
• TANQUERAY by Brandon Stanton and Stephanie Johnson

If you’re curious about any more of my stats, let me know! And if you have a 2023 year in review post, feel free to link it in the comments. That’s it for my 2023 book blog in review!