The Year in Reading 2023

2023 was a very good year in reading. After a drop-off the previous year I managed to finish reading thirty books for the first time in a few years, and I think this was the first year in some time I eschewed reading on a kindle. I just don't like reading longform text on tablets or phones and have found that the best method for a good night's sleep is thirty minutes' reading before bed. 

If I lived in the US I would certainly have a library card and be borrowing books of recently published fiction or essay collections all the time. I live in Japan so instead of a surplus wealth of unread fiction available I have reliably affordable health and dental care (which is preferable for me). I recently catalogued and indexed my personal library here in Kyoto and there are about 600 books, about three novels for every two books of nonfiction, which feels not insignificant.

And I've come to really embrace the satisfaction of the reread, especially fiction. This year 26 of the 30 books read were novels or short story collections and of those 26 books, 17 of them were rereads. For the first time in about 20+ years I reread Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime, and James Baldwin's Another Country and I was overwhelmed by these books' awesomeness. I can reread F Scott's Tender Is the Night, Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust, and Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio every few years-- they are that good and through multiple readings I feel the books become that much more a part of me, as if my love for them makes my life that much more wondrous and meaningful. 

Of the books I read for the first time this year, I was struck how powerful Flannery O'Connor's short stories were. They had so much pathos, action, drama, comedy, and tragedy. How in the world did it take me this long to read it? Jonathan Franzen's Crossroads was a classic character- and plot-driven family novel that felt like a return to form that made The Corrections so special. Claire Ohshetsky's Chouette, a story about a woman who gives birth to an owl-child was a very strange, absolutely unique work of art. 

The books marked with an * designate a reread.

Crossroads Jonathan Franzen

Tender is the Night F Scott Fitzgerald*

Disgrace J M Coetzee*

Look at Me Anita Brookner

Chouette Claire Ohshetsky

Life and Times of Michael K J M Coetzee

The Stranger Albert Camus*

A Visit from the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan*

The Collected Stories  Roald Dahl*

The Mosquito Coast Paul Theroux*

The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck*

Ask the Dust John Fante*

A Room With a View E. M. Forster*

A Disorder Peculiar to the Country Ken Kalfus*

On Writing Stephen King

A Pale View of Hills Kazuo Ishiguro

The Complete Stories Flannery O'Connor

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera*

Blue Highways William Least Heat Moon

A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh*

Desert Solitaire Edward Abbey

What Makes Sammy Run Budd Schulberg*

Making Movies Sidney Lumet

Go Tell It on the Mountain James Baldwin

Giovanni's Room James Baldwin

Another Country James Baldwin*

Going to Meet the Man James Baldwin

Reflections in a Golden Eye Carson McCullers*

Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson*

Ragtime E. L. Doctorow*