100 Books of 2023

In 2009, I pledged to read 100 books over the course of 2010. Here's my list of 107 books in case you're interested.

I did it again in 2011 (why not?). Here's my list of 109 books.

The tradition continued in 2012 where I read a whopping 144 books! Here is my list from that year.

In 2013 I kept on chugging along, reading 104 books. Here is my list from that year.

In 2014 I hit my best record yet, reading 152 books. Here is my list from that year.

In 2015 I beat my record, reading 187 books. Here is my list from that year. 

In 2016, I read 166 books, focusing on books I owned but had never read. Here is my list from that year.

In 2017, I read 123 books. Here is my list from that year.

In 2018, I read only 54 books. I spent most of my year driving the kids around, haha! Here is my list from that year.

In 2019, I read 150 books. Here is my list from that year.

In 2020, I read 152 books. Here is my list from that year.

In 2021, I read 203 books. Here is my list from that year.

In 2022, I read 249 books. Here is my list from last year.

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In 2021, I joined a Facebook group called "Read What You Own". The goal for us is that we read the books we already own instead of buying new books. I saw great success with this in 2021, and I feel like 2022 was even better. 2023 I feel like I listened to more audiobooks of books I don't own, and got more from the library than usual, so I kind of strayed from this goal a bit, but I still was able to give away a lot of books in the house!

It's a running joke about how many books I own. The books that I own and have never read are in the thousands. This used to be funny to me, but at some point, a switch flipped, and it became overwhelming to me. So now my goal is not just to read as many books as possible, but to be extremely picky about what I keep after I read it. I only keep books that I will absolutely read again or will pass down to my children. I still have such a long way to go, but I do see how much progress I'm making!

I read 131 books in 2023. This is a lot less than last year, but I'm okay with that. I was more intentional this year with the books I read - I got rid of a lot of books without even opening them, which is very hard for me!

I'm very happy with this ratio of the books I kept and books I got rid of. I want to stay around this ratio of being picky with the books I'm holding onto. This is only keeping track of the books I read - not the ones I discarded without reading, which were probably between over 100 throughout the year.

This Goodreads image is missing one book that I just added, but still quite accurate.

Here's my 2023 list:

• "My Lovely Wife" by Samantha Downing (1)
• "Confess" by Colleen Hoover (2)
• "Zel" by Donna Jo Napoli (3)
• "News for Dogs" by Lois Duncan (4)
• "Helen Keller" by Margaret Davidson (5)
• "The Curse of the Blue Figurine" by John Bellairs (6)
• "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Spencer Johnson (7) (K)
• "Finding Serendipity" by Angelica Banks (8)
• "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley (9)
• "Regretting You" by Colleen Hoover (10)
• "The Explicit Gospel" by Matt Chandler (11) (K)
• "The House of Secrets" by Nina Bawden (12)
• "Furnace of the Lord" by Elisabeth Elliot (13)
• "A Three-Minute Speech" by Jennifer Armstrong (14)
• "Henry Reed's Babysitting Service" by Keith Robertson (15)
• "Finding Perfect" by Colleen Hoover (16)
• "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl (17) (K)
• "Submarine Spy" by Arnold Ytreeide (18)
• "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell (19)
• "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey (20) (K)
• "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore (21)
• "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien (22) (K)
• "The Adventures of Molly Whuppie" by Anne Shelby (23) (K)
• "Through the Gates of Splendor" by Elisabeth Elliot (24) (K)
• "Without Merit" by Colleen Hoover (25)
• "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris (26)
• "Homesick: My Own Story" by Jean Fritz (27)
• "Mad Honey" by Jodi Picoult (28)
• "November 9" by Colleen Hoover (29)
• "Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography" (30) (K)
• "Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager" by Ken Blanchard (31) (K)
• "Pollyanna" by Eleanor H. Porter (32) (K)
• "A Dog Called Kitty" by Bill Wallace (33)
• "Warriors: Dawn" by Erin Hunter (34)
• "The Sisters Grimm" by Michael Buckley (35)
• "Roller Girl" by Victoria Jamieson (36)
• "Slammed" by Colleen Hoover (37)
• "Point of Retreat" by Colleen Hoover (38)
• "Still More Stories from Grandma's Attic" by Arleta Richardson (39) (K)
• "The Shore Road Mystery" by Franklin W. Dixon (40)
• "Sugar" by Jewell Parker Rhodes (41)
• "Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself" by Judy Blume (42)
• "Maybe Someday" by Colleen Hoover (43)
• "This Girl" by Colleen Hoover (44)
• "Maybe Not" by Colleen Hoover (45)
• "Heart Bones" by Colleen Hoover (46)
• "Keys to the Deeper Life" by A.W. Tozer (47) (K)
• "Go For No" by Richard Fenton and Andrew Waltz (48) (K)
• "The One Minute Manager" by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson (49) (K)
• "Local Woman Missing" by Mary Kubica (50)
• "Strawberry Girl" by Lois Lenski (51)
• "Maybe Now" by Colleen Hoover (52)
• "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi (53)
• "Treasures from Grandma" by Arleta Richardson (54) (K)
• "Hopeless" by Colleen Hoover (55)
• "You Are Special" by Fred Rogers (56)
• "More Stories from Grandma's Attic" by Arleta Richardson (57) (K)
• "The 1% Rule" by Tommy Baker (58) (K)
• "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (59)
• "Faith-Shaped Kids" by Steve and Valerie Bell (60)
• "Good Neighbors Make Great Neighborhoods" by Tim DeTellis (61)
• "Losing Hope" by Colleen Hoover (62)
• "A Room With a View" by E.M. Forster (63)
• "Finding Cinderella" by Colleen Hoover (64)
• "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel H. Pink (65)
• "Centerburg Tales" by Robert McCloskey (66) (K)
• "Finish" by Jon Acuff (67) (K)
• "The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle" by Hugh Lofting (68)
• "Tarzan of the Apes" by Edgar Rice Burroughs (69)
• "My Father's Dragon" by Ruth Stiles Gannett (70) (K)
• "Elmer and the Dragon" by Ruth Stiles Gannett (71) (K)
• "The Dragons of Blueland" by Ruth Stiles Gannett (72) (K)
• "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George (73)
• "Traces of Guilt" by Dee Henderson (74)
• "Never Never" by Colleen Hoover (75)
• "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen (76) (K)
• "Heroes of America: George Washington" by Joshua Lanft and Rochelle Larkin (77)
• "Know Why You Believe" by Paul E. Little (78) (K)
• "Walking on Water" by Jennifer A. Miskov (79)
• "Whoppers, Tall Tales and Other Lies" by Alvin Schwartz (80) (K)
• "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E. Gerber (81) (K)
• "The Land of Stories: the Wishing Spell" by Chris Colfer (82) (K)
• "Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn (83)
• "Sometimes I Lie" by Alice Feeney (84)
• "Hostage" by Clare Mackintosh (85)
• "The Locked Door" by Freida McFadden (86)
• "Do Not Disturb" by Freida McFadden (87)
• "Never Lie" by Frieda McFadden (88)
• "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle (89) (K)
• "The Inmate" by Freida McFadden (90)
• "The Perfect Son" by Freida McFadden (91)
• "Ward D" by Freida McFadden (92)
• "Heroes of the Cross: Wilfred Grenfell" by Alec Richard Evans (93)
• "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (94) (K)
• "Behind Her Eyes" by Sarah Pinborough (95)
• "Saving Noah" by Lucinda Berry (96)
• 'What's the Difference?" by John Piper (97) (K)
• "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleischman (98)
• "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens (99) (K)
• "The Wife Upstairs" by Freida McFadden (100)
• "The Good Daughter" by Karin Slaughter (101)
• "Dead to Her" by Sarah Pinborough (102)
• "The Kind Worth Killing" by Peter Swanson (103)
• "COFA: Wilbur and Orville Wright" by Augusta Stevenson (104)
• "Insomnia" by Sarah Pinborough (105)
• "The War That Saved My Life" by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (106) (K)
• "What Happens When Woman Say Yes to God" by Lysa TerKeurst (107) (K)
• "The Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Franklin" put together by Barnes & Noble (108)
• "We Need to Talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver (109)
• "It's a Doggy Dog World" by Tommy Greenwald (110)
• "Tales from Beatrix Potter" by Beatrix Potter (111)
• "Civil War Spies: Behind Enemy Lines" by Camilla J. Wilson (112)
• "The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles" by Julie Andrews Edwards (113)
• "The Swiss Family Robinson" by Johann Wyss (114)
• "The White Knights" by W.E. Cule (115)
• "The Tenth Circle" by Jodi Picoult (116)
• "Plain Girl" by Virginia Sorenson (117)
• "Ghandi" by Amy Pastan (118)
• "A Wind in the Door" by Madeleine L'Engle (119)
• "Donkey-Donkey" by Roger Duvoisin (120)
• "Little Blog on the Prairie" by Cathleen Davitt Bell (121)
• "King Arthur and His Knights" by Howard Pyle (122)
• "Escape From the Slave Traders: David Livingstone" by Dave & Neta Jackson (123)
• "Doctor Dolittle's Puddleby Adventures" by Hugh Lofting (124)
• "Best in Children's Books: Volume 10" by Mary Macnab (125) (K)
• "Best in Children's Books: Volume 6" by Mary Macnab (126) (K)
• "More Adventures of Homer Price" by Robert McCloskey (127) (K)
• "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin (128) (K)
• "Puppy Lost in Lapland" by Peter Hallard (129)
• "The Bandit of Ashley Downs: George Muller" by Dave & Neta Jackson (130)
• "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls (131) (K) (Read with the kids)

Author most borrowed from the library in 2023: Colleen Hoover

Favorite Juvenile books: Zel, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (a re-read), Homesick: My Own Story, Pollyanna (one of my favorite movies growing up!), The Sisters Grimm: The Fairytale Detectives, The War that Saved My Life, The White Knights, The Westing Game (a re-read), The Story of King Arthur and His Knights

Favorite Nonfiction: Who Moved My Cheese?, The Radium Girls (A MUST READ!), Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager, The One Minute Manager, The 1% Rule, The E-Myth Revisted

Favorite authors: Spencer Johnson, Kenneth Blanchard, Freida McFadden, 

Favorite theology books: The Explicit Gospel, Keys to the Deeper Life

Favorite genre this year: Psychological thrillers

How did you do this year? What were some of your favorite books and authors??