My Reading Year in Review - 2023
ODDS AND ENDS
I set a goal of reading 52 books this year, and I ended up reading 58! Here are are my top reads of the year, in no particular order:
1. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn: I love ergodic literature, that is books that play around with the nature of what a book is. This clever little number is written with a steadily decreasing number of letters, and is absolutely brilliant. Its also epistolary, which I also am quite fond of when it's done well, as this is.
2. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman: I don't know if I have read a series that is more fun...ever. Seriously, there is no other way to describe these books than fun. I binged every book that was out (six) in about a week and half of book gorging. But what most suprised me was the depth that begins to unfurl. This was just supposed to be a simpleforay into litrpg for me, but now I am hyper invested.
3. The House Witch by Delemhach: I'm getting older, and cozy fantasy grows ever more appealing. These are better than the exceptional Legends and Lattes, which I had thought was peak cozy.
4. The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo: I love these because they are unapologetically novellas. I mean don't get me wrong, they are fantastic reads. But as a guy who writes a lot of novellas, I love it when folks embrace the medium like Nghi Vo has.
5. Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch: I write a lot of UF and I am trying to slowly work my way around the genre to some of the bigger names. This has been the first one that I have really wanted to go all in on reading the rest of the series.
6. Cold Run by Rachel A. Brune: I love werewolves, but hate werewolf books usually. This is the very, very rare exception, and if you like books that don't shy away from the horror of being a supernatural critter, then this is the book for you.
7. ImPerfect Magic by C.N. Rowan: If you are reading my blog, then no doubt you will have heard of C.N. Rowan and his ImPerfect series. If you are one of the few who hasn't given it a go yet, do yourself a favor and dive in. Gritty French UF (written in English), with a pun loving 800 year old protagonist. What's not to love?
