The Irresponsible Reader in 2023: Thoughts, Thanks, and Stats

Programming Note: As is my custom, over the next week I’ll be looking back over the year that was—but I’ll try to come up with some new material, too. Many/most others have already done their best-of/year-end wrap-up posts, but I’m a stickler—I can’t start doing this kind of thing ’til the year is over. My brain doesn’t allow me to work that way (I just hate projecting things in general—and some years ago when I just read irresponsibly but hadn’t adopted the name, the last novel of the year was so far beyond the rest that I can’t start looking back until 12/31 at the earliest).

As we kick off 2024, I wanted to take a glance back at 2023—304 books finished (plus comics, picture books, short stories, and the like that I don’t know how to count)—my mind is thoroughly boggled! I exceeded my goal (nothing like exceeding an arbitrary number to boost the ol’ ego), too; finishing over 82,481 pages (too many audio-only things, to get an accurate count); with an average rating of 3.68 Stars (exactly the same as last year…how’s that for consistency).

On the blog front, I put up 626 posts—an all-time high for me!! Thanks have to be given for all the contributors I had to a couple of series of posts this year that made that possible (I’ll get to this below). I had another year of strong gains in traffic—views and visitors—I’m not big-time (never going to be), but those numbers consistently weird me out (which is why I only look every 6-12 months). My follower count (here and on social media sites) is encouraging and humbling, I really feel like I ought to do more to earn them. Maybe there’s a book on how to be more interesting as a person that I should grab.

This was a year for series for me (which is partially why I’m so far behind on my To-Write-About pile). I (yet again) didn’t get back to my Classic Spenser series (which is grating), and I got too caught up in other stuff and abandoned my monthly Highlights: Lines Worth Repeating series (it’ll be back soon). But on the positive side, my Literary Locals series really took off and I launched my Grandpappy’s Corner, a true labor of love. My contribution to Self-Published Author Appreciation Week, The Inside Scoop—Self-Published Authors Talk About Self-Publishing turned out to be far bigger than I expected—and far better than I hoped. Lastly, there was the Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books series of guest posts, which I particularly enjoyed.

I, like many readers, am an introvert. But this year, I went out of my way to attend some in-person events, and hope to do some more of that. There were a couple of individual signings and readings, some other events at Rediscovered Books, the Nampa Library’s Treasure Valley Indie Book Fair, the Boise Library’s Comic Arts Fest and their Book Faire, and a meeting of IdaHope. It was great to interact with fellow readers and some authors apart from the screen. I started to list the authors I met, and then realized I’d forget at least one and would feel horrible. So…you know who you are, if you’re reading this, I really enjoyed interacting with you. I should probably list recording an episode of Let Me Tell You a Story as meeting an author (and her husband), but that was for Internet consumption, so it feels strange including it with all this offline stuff (but oh man…such a fun thing to do!).

As is my habit, here’s my breakdown of books by genre—I tweaked the table a bit, so it actually fits on the screen (or should). Genre labeling continues to be more difficult as I’m reading a lot of hybrids (most of us are, they’re being produced more), but I tend to go with the overarching genre. Once again, for someone who doesn’t plan too thoroughly, the percentages stay remarkably consistent from year to year—my tastes (and the series I follow) apparently stay the same. I was surprised by the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller drop, and am bothered by the Theology drop (although a lot of those took enough work/time that it I can assuage my conscience). I expected the increase in Children’s lit—but those are so short that I can’t attribute any changes between it and the other moves.

Thanks to the nifty spreadsheet made by the Voracious Reader, a few more stats were prepped for me (if I did better at using the tool, I could have more). I find them interesting, and maybe you will, too.
Huh…that’s a 2% drop in re-reads. I’d have guessed I went up by 5-10%.
Thanks to a comment from Allyson Johnson last year, I broke things down a bit to differentiate between borrowed (from a person) and borrowed from a Library. Combined, that number went down, which would trouble me a bit, but the percentage of review copies went up to almost balance it out.
The percentage of eBooks went up as did paperbacks (oddly). Hardcovers took the hit there. There’s probably a link between that and the review copies mentioned above.

Enough about me. Now we get to my favorite part—I want to talk about you, who keep me going and show an interest in what I’m doing here, and give some thanks to people for their impact on The Irresponsible Reader (the blog and the person) in 2023:

• Thanks to everyone for your comments/feedback—texts, emails, comments here/Goodreads, tweets/Twitter-replacement posts, FB comments, even the occasional Face-to-Face conversation. Keep it up! I really appreciate the time you took to leave feedback. Hopefully, you can tell that you’ve shaped the conversation here—it has, I assure you. Many of you are pushing me to be a better writer—some of you push me to read better books. I’m going to give a particular thanks to Robert Germaux, Lashaan, The Write Reads, Allyson Johnson (you really push me to think about what I’m reading!), W&S Bookclub, Lashaan, Emma, and Noelle for their encouragement, retweets, and interaction.
• Flattered thanks to (in roughly reverse chronological order): Little Reader, Taylor @ Taylor Fenner’s Bookish World, JK Joy, Amy Rice, cchittom, Ashleigh Mordew, NovelLives, danigarciagimenez, holley4734 of chasing destino, Bachir Bastien, Damien de Soto, Mike Finn and mehsi, Hilarey, Jolie, SHANNON K SEXTON, hikingtheup, Mike Finn, Blue Bell, jason Lee, and Aditi Kundu, for being new followers (at least for a post or two) of the blog this year—the size of this list shocks me, and I hope you all got at least something out of it. (I sincerely hope I didn’t miss anyone)
• A hearty thanks to all the authors, editors, illustrators, translators, and other people behind the production of the books I spent time with this year—this blog would be nothing without your efforts, your blood, sweat, tears, fears, work, love, dreams, hopes, art, and words. Your books were my companions throughout this year, and I can’t thank you enough for them (and I hope I get to spend time with many of you again soon!).
• More thanks to all those who requested that I read and talk about your (or your clients’) books. I know how much work, effort, heart, and everything else that went into your books. It’s super humbling, I know you all didn’t like what I said, but, I am grateful for the opportunity.
• I did a mind-boggling number (for me, anyway) number of Q&As this year and I cannot thank every participant enough. I got to ask “A Few Quick Questions” to: JCM Berne, Andi Ewington, Tony Ganzer, Matthew Hanover (always a good time to have him back), Harry L-B, Hilarey Johnson, D.I. Jolly (again!), Troy Lambert, Paul Levine (I can’t believe he came back for another round), Elliott Linker, K.R.R. Lockhaven, Rebecca Carey Lyles, Josef Matulich, Elizabeth Peiró and Shannon Knight, Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Amy Maren Rice, Michael Sears, Herman Steuernagel, and Matt Witten.
• Beyond those, I really want to thank Matt Edwards, Taylor R. Gray (a.k.a. .G.), Merri Halma, Danielle Higley, Lisa Hess and Hilarey Johnson, Hilary Johnson, James T. Lambert, Troy Lambert, Cate Lawley (a.k.a. Kate Baray), Rebecca Carey Lyles, Bryan McBee, Danielle Parker, Brock Poulsen, Justin Reed, Joyce Reynolds Ward, Amy Maren Rice, and Paul Regnier for answering my questions about writing in Idaho (or close to it).
• As I mentioned before, those who contributed to The Inside Scoop were far more in number than I’d hoped, and I really appreciate them sharing their experiences, difficulties, and victories on the self-publishing front. They were: JCM Berne, Jeremy Billups, James Lloyd Dulin, Andi Ewington, Jonathan Fesmire, Robert Germaux, Matthew Hanover, Shannon Knight, Rebecca Carey Lyles, Michael Michel, H.C. Newell, Raina Nightingale, e rathke, Alex Robins, Ian Shane, and Tao Wong
• I also hosted a record number of Guest Posts this year. Many thanks to Vesper Aeon, E.N. Crane/Noelle Rider/Noelle Neal-Crane, Jodie Crump, Mars G. Everson, Lilly and Sara from Fiction Fans Podcast, Robert Germaux, J. M. Gulmire, Shannon Knight, K.R.R. Lockhaven, Daniel Meyer, Chris Monceaux, Donna Morfett , Raina Nightingale, Mark Pepper, Raven, Matthew Samuels, Shazzi.
• My son Owen provided a lot of the technical support I needed this year. Owen’s my best editor (sadly, it’s largely after I post something…), too, and he’s saved me from looking stupid on more than one occasion.
• All my kids have acted as sounding boards this year—helping with some graphics, jokes, themes, etc. They (and Owen) do a solid job of pretending to care about what I’m saying about books, reading, and whatnot. A hat tip to Calvin, Katrina, Carleigh, and Machen, too.
• A lot of thanks need to go to the Grandcritter, and my pack—Kinai (RIP), Tanny, and Athena. Not only have you brought me joy and inspired some reading, you’re also great at reminding me to stop all this nonsense and pay attention to life around me. (for example, this post would’ve taken 2/3 as long to write if it wasn’t for Athena and Tanny insisting on some pets and scritches—the Grandcritter wasn’t present today, so he gets no blame—er, credit—on that front. This time.)
• A special thanks to my wife. Without your support, indulgence, and patience this thing wouldn’t exist—and I’d read a lot less (the horror!). Thank you. I love you.
• And thank you all for reading. This may feel obligatory and insincere. It is not. Honestly, each time I get a notification of a comment, or a like, or a share, or a follow, etc. it makes my day. To know that someone took a couple of seconds or more out of their day to glance at this? It means the world to me. Thanks.

Have a great 2024, hope you find plenty of good things to read!