2023: Reading Like It’s 1986

Early in elementary school I was not much of a reader. I could read fine, but wasn’t really motivated to read a lot on my own. That changed for me when the family moved [back] to Belgium and I started fifth grade with Ms. Pamay.

Wendy Pamay is one of my favorite teachers of all time. She introduced me to Shakespeare as our class worked on “The Scottish Play”. We sewed frogs. We sewed books. We even sewed frog books. But the thing I remember most about fifth grade was reading. Every week we would fill out a 3×5 card for each book that we had read–along with basic bibliographic information we would also write a few sentences giving a summary of the book. Also, to earn an “A” we were supposed to read 350 pages per week. At first it was hard for me, but by the second half of the school year I was exceeding and sometimes doubling that amount. I had become a reader.

Despite learning to love reading, I didn’t enjoy filling out the 3×5 cards and recording what I read. So once fifth grade ended, I continued being an avid reader, but typically didn’t keep track of what I read beyond my memory.

After I created Better by December I decided that along with tracking things like pushups and situps, that I would also track the books I read. And so, here are the 48 books which I read in 2023 (and the date I finished reading each book):

01/07/23The Priory of the Orange Tree
01/12/23Jade City
01/24/23Jade War
02/02/23The Golden Apples of the Sun
02/13/23Jade Legacy
02/15/23The Reflection on Mount Vitaki
02/19/23The Dream Thief
02/20/23Clockwork Princess
02/26/23The Perfect Perfume and Other Tales
03/03/23Card Sharp Silver
03/09/23Prohibition Orcs
03/12/23Clockwork Heart
04/01/23War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches
04/08/23Shadow Warrior: The CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles
04/13/23Steampunks and Other Heavy Hitters
04/15/23Fiction River Presents: Sorcery & Steam
05/29/23A Kamigata Anthology: Literature from Japan’s Metropolitan Centers, 1600–1750
06/03/23The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England (Secret Projects 2)
06/08/23Tress of the Emerald Sea: A Cosmere Novel (Secret Projects 1)
06/19/23The Dark Forest
06/21/23Milky Way Railroad
06/28/23A Shameful Life
07/01/23Doomsday Match (The Dresden Codex Book 1)
07/04/23Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: A Cosmere Novel (Secret Projects Book 3)
07/21/23Death’s End
07/24/23The Funny Business
07/27/23Skeleton in the Closet: A Dragon Business Adventure
07/30/23Eat, Drink, and Be Wary: Satisfying Stories with a Delicious Twist
08/04/23The Nyte Patrol: Book One
08/06/23Lover’s Moon (Canadian Werewolf Book 5)
08/10/23Superhero Portal : An Action-Packed Superhero Origin Story (Dice Ford, Superhero Book 1)
08/12/23Fat Vampire
08/19/23The Magic Touch
08/21/23Behold the Ape
08/24/23The Hole
08/25/23Tales from the Wood: A Modern Fairytale
08/28/23Myths and Magic: A Humorous Fantasy Adventure (The Faerie King Trilogy)
09/04/23A Cat’s Guide to Bonding with Dragons: A Humorous Fantasy Adventure (Dragoncat Book 1)
09/04/23Deadlands: A Novel
09/09/23A Good Running Away (Misplaced Mercenaries Book 1)
09/13/23Just Another Day in Suburbia
09/14/23Nowhere Man
09/20/23Gardens of the Moon: Book One of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
10/07/23Deadhouse Gates: Book Two of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
10/22/23Memories of Ice: Book Three of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
11/11/23D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II
12/02/23House of Chains: Book Four of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
12/18/23Midnight Tides – A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen
Books read in 2023

I don’t have a goal to read any particular number of books. Some books I read have under 200 pages while several had over 1000 pages so I don’t consider the number of books to be too significant. Similarly, I do not track the number of pages since the amount and difficulty of content per page varies significantly between books.

Without recording things on betterbydecember.com, I probably would have guessed I’d read about 30 books over the course of the year, but now, as I did in fifth grade, I’m tracking each book I read. Reading is awesome and I am a reader. Thank you, Ms. Pamay.