All these things left unsaid

Combining my usual end-of-year book recap with one found on tumblr.

end-of-year book recap

How many books did you read this year?
156

Did you reread anything? What?
Only 6 rereads: Totally Captivated, And Then There Were None, Small Gods, Thief of Time, The Only Gold, I Want to Go Home!

What were your top five books of the year?
Shubeik Lubeik - Deena Mohamed
The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett
The English Understand Wool - Helen DeWitt
Gastro Obscura by Cecily Wong, Dylan Thuras
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories - Ken Liu

( And more! )

What reading goals do you have for next year?
I want to reread more of the books I own. I want to tackle my pile of unread books I own. I'd also like to read more classic lit/books from before 1900. And I vaguely want to not add new books to my existing TBR, which I am permitted only to access via library (or if I already own it). In which case, I'd better add any 2025 releases I want to my TBR now...

Total books read this year: 125
Books read posts: Just review this tag.

Cnovels I read this year:

• Bite Your Fingertips by Su Jingxian, my favorite non-esports cnovel!


• Thinking of Deer Fei Fei by Mo Li, an entertainment world cnovel that was only...fine. I don't remember anything except the love interest being very tall!


• I Ship My Adversary X Me by PEPA, a reread. (I also read the manhua, and it was adorable and beautiful.) Also a favorite.

Webtoons I read this year:

• After School Lessons for Unripe Apples by Soonkki. An ongoing slice-of-life m/f romance between childhood acquaintances turned high school friends and then a slow burn romance.


• Killer Crush by Eresemo. Ongoing silly m/m webtoon about a secret assassin who works in a convenience store and the famous actor he falls in love with.

( My 2023 in reading. )

General thoughts:
I'm glad I reread a few things this year: I want to revisit more books that I love in 2024! Fewer cnovels/webtoons, but I do feel like I tried more genres I don't usually: sci-fi, anyway, some more literary fiction, different mystery setups. Still had my historical mysteries, interesting memoirs, and fairy tale adaptations. Fewer romances and fantasy stories on the whole, plus more non-memoir nonfiction (self-help essays/philosophy?). It's interesting how a lot of the nonfiction I read intersects and helps inform my thoughts on the others.

Next year I'd like to tackle more classics/older novels, continue the series I'm reading (Singing Hills Cycle, Murderbot, etc.), and read more authors translated from countries I haven't read before. And of course, as always, tackle my owned books...