Every Book I Read in 2023, Ranked
2023 was the year of reading, and—to a lesser extent—writing. I am on pace for 41 books read this year, after 22 in 2022, and 10 in 2021. I’ve also more than doubled my page count from last year. So, what was the key to unlocking my reading potential? Well, it boils down to three main factors: habits, motivation, and knowing what I like. I have a lot of free time in my new-ish WFH life, yes, but I was unemployed in 2022 and read almost 20 books less, so it can’t only be time.
The key, for me, was building strong habits around reading. I read nearly every night before I go to bed, usually 30-90 minutes. I used to listen to podcasts, but reading calms me and helps me sleep better. That probably made up the bulk of my reading, but I also would make a habit of taking a book outside during a nice day and reading in nature.
Motivation was another key, especially in the back half of the year. I have used books as fuel for my various ADHD hyperfixations. For instance, I’ve started getting into creative writing; I am working on a novel set in a fantastical world modeled after Polynesian Mythology and culture. So right now, I’m reading books on Hawaiian mythology and history, writing guides, and fantasy/sci fi to inspire me. I also started loosely collecting books in the back half of the year. I picked up a free IKEA bookshelf, and found some excellent used & cheap bookstores in the Denver area (thrift stores, people!). So now, whenever I’m looking for something new, I have a physical collection of books I think I’ll like that past-Ryan selected.
Finally, I’ve gotten extremely accurate at predicting my tastes based on recommendations, browsing, or researching. You can see this in my StoryGraph stats. My average rating in 2021 (where I read 10 books) was 3.42. In 2022 it rose to 3.97. And this year, so far, it is 4.06. So know what you like, and don’t be afraid to put a book down if you’re not into it.
Anyways, the time on my soapbox is done. Let’s get on to all the books I read in 2023, ranked from highest to lowest. And at the end, I’ll give a preview of what I’m most excited to read next year.
1) The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (5/5)
Of the six 5-star ratings I gave this year, the one I find myself coming back to the most is The Dispossessed. The story follows a brilliant physicist Shevek, who travels from his home on the moon of Urras to the planet which it orbits, Anarres, in hopes of reuniting the worlds behind the ideas of shared knowledge and scientific excellence. Revolutionaries settled the mining colony of Urras 200 years before the novel, and put into place a political system (or lack of system) that reflected their values. Anarres, on the other hand, is rich in resources and firmly capitalist. Upon Shevek’s arrival, he is awed by the opulence and rampant consumption that its people display proudly.
The Dispossessed explores these drastically different worlds through the lens of Shevek, who is fighting against all odds to reunite the planet and its moon after centuries of distrust and conflict. It is part socio-economic commentary, part mystery, part thriller, and tackles the Utopian archetype with admirable nuance.
2) Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (5/5)
On its surface a love story, but at its heart a story of racial identity, Open Water is about two friends-turned-lovers living in modern-day London. The protagonist is a black man, and while much happens in this short and poetic novel, his journey and exploration of his racial and gender identity is the throughline that makes this story special.
3) Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (5/5)
Cloud Cuckoo Land is an epic saga that takes place in ancient Constantinople on the brink of war, present-day Montana, and aboard a spaceship centuries in the future. It is a tale of imagination and wonder, but also deep personal growth. All of the storylines are connected, and figuring out that connection is immensely rewarding. The final act of this book is absolutely bonkers, and I can’t recommend it enough.
4) Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (5/5)
Parable of the Sower is a devastating story set in future-dystopic California that follows Lauren Olamina as she fashions a following to her spiritual philosophy that “God is Change”. There is much more to it than that, but this is an excellently written and unique take on dystopia that was intended to be a trilogy, but was sadly cut to 2 books by Octavia Butler’s death. I am working my way through the sequel, but even if you don’t want to commit to more than one book, this is a self-contained novel that is just as thrilling as it is philosophical.
5) Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (5/5)
Written in screenplay format, Interior Chinatown is a snappy but elegant story about the Asian American experience. Remarkably inventive and creative, this was the first novel I read this year, and it stuck with me all the way through until today.
6) Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (5/5)
A sci-fi classic that I just got around to reading last month. I loved Ender’s Game, all its twists and turns and wildly creative inventions for aliens. It was a highly entertaining read, but don’t let that give you the wrong impression; it had a lot to say. I will certainly be reading the sequel, Speaker for the Dead, this upcoming year, which I’ve heard is very different in tone but just as good (or better).
7) Red Rising by Pierce Brown (4.5/5)
Don’t read anything about this book. Just go in completely blind; it will blow you away. Red Rising is book 1 in a 6-part epic sci-fi saga set on Mars that I’ve heard only gets better. I put the box set on my Christmas list because I know I’m going to love the rest of it.
8) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (4.5/5)
The Bell Jar is very much a character study, but what struck me was its approach to realistically exploring our mental health institutions and how they fail to serve people—especially women—experiencing mental struggles. The fact that the story is autobiographical to some extent—as Plath was committed and administered electro-shock therapy for depression, and died of suicide before the book was officially released—makes the story all the more tragic. While mental health treatment is not as terrible today as it was when this was written, it is still one of the biggest crises facing our modern society, and thus, I think everyone should read this book.
9) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (4.5/5)
Le Guin crafted a fascinating world with this sci-fi classic, in which people on the planet Winter are androgynous and gender-fluid. The Left Hand of Darkness explores what a world in which sex and gender have no meaning might be like. As such, the main character, a male ambassador from space, has to navigate all the extreme cultural differences that result from this one major change.
10) A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (4.5/5)
Game of Thrones (the TV series) is a phenomenal 6-season fantasy epic about the pursuit of power, and all its poisoning influence. I watched it in its entirety a long while ago, and have since rewatched it several times. I love the interweaving stories, the fleshed-out cultures and sub-cultures and sub-sub-cultures. It is a miraculous worldbuilding achievement almost on par with Dune, but I have always been waiting for the series to be finished before starting the books.
Well, it’s 2023, soon to be 2024, and the last book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, was released in 2011. And George RR Martin is 75 and ummm…not in the best shape. Considering there are still 2 books left in the series, the likelihood of them being completed within his lifetime is growing slimmer by the day. I decided, hell, I can still appreciate the 6-season TV series despite it having no ending; why can’t I do the same with the books? Plus, as I’ve heard, the stories diverge quite a lot in later books, so that sounds like fun.
The first book was stellar, with excellent writing and more detail into characters’ minds that you can’t get with the TV format. However, the first season of the show was an incredibly faithful adaptation of the books, and I didn’t feel that I got much out of the book that I didn’t already have from the show.
11) The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (4.5/5) *re-read
12) The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf (4.5/5)
Ladies and gentlemen, Her.
13) Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola (4.5/5)
14) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (4.5/5)
15) Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney (4.5/5)
16) Nothing to Envy, Ordinary Lives in North Korea (4.25/5)
17) The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See (4.25/5)
18) The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert (4.25/5)
19) Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (4.25/5)
20) Last Summer on State Street by Tonya Wolfe (4.25/5)
21) The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health by David R. Montgomery & Anne Biklé (4.25/5)
22) The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate by Peter Wohlleben (4.25/5)
23) It by Stephen King (4/5)
24) The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West (4/5)
25) In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson (4/5)
26) Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami (4/5)
27) Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (3.75/5)
28) The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life by David Brooks (3.75/5)
29) The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez (3.5/5)
30) Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (3.5/5
31) This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar (3.5/5)
32) The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery (3.25/5)
33) Nowhere for Very Long: The Unexpected Road to an Unconventional Life by Brianna Madia (3.25/5)
34) Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (3/5)
35) NW by Zadie Smith (3/5)
36) Ten Planets by Yuri Herrera (2/5)
37) Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (2/5)
What I’m stoked to read in 2023
Sci Fi and Fantasy
Dune (re-read) and Dune Saga by Frank Herbert: I read Dune years ago and I quite enjoyed it, but I think many of the themes went straight over my head. After watching the 2021 film (which is only half the book), I was reminded of the richness of this story and its characters. Not to mention, this is god-tier worldbuilding and something to aspire towards when building my own world (which is much the opposite of Arrakis in that it is mostly water). I’ve been watching video essays about Dune and have developed a greater appreciation for all that Frank Herbert did with philosophy, ecology, and politics. I also never read the sequels, so I plan on doing that after finishing the first novel.
Red Rising Saga Books 2-6 by Pierce Brown
A Song of Ice And Fire Books 2-5 George RR Martin
Discworld books by Terry Pratchett
Anything by Ursula K Le Guin, including Earthsea series: she is simply an icon and we all must bow before her.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Speaker for the Dead (Ender’s Game Sequel) by Orson Scott Card
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy + The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Classics
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Wolff
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Pride and Prejudice and/or Emma by Jane Austen
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Essays + Short Stories
The Will to Change by Bell Hooks
Women of Wonder: The Classic Years of Science Fiction by Various
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Non-fiction
Pele: Goddess of Hawaii’s Volcanoes and Ancient Hawaii by Herb Kawainui Kane
Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson (currently reading)
Hawaiian Antiques by David Malo
Hawaiian Mythology by Martha Warren Beckwith
Supernatural by Graham Hancock
Contemporary Fiction
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Pachinko by Min Jin-Lee
Babel by RF Kuang
The Promise by Damon Galgut
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
A Man Called Ove by Frederick Backman
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
