My 2023 Books, Games, and Media

One of my main goals for 2024 is to read a lot more, finish more games, and actually consume some great shows & movies¹. I keep meticulous track of these, and I thought it would be fun to share what I had done in 2023.

Books

It’s funny - I have my Kindle, but I barely read on it. Most of my reading comes via the Kindle app on my phone. Convenience plays a large part of that, I assume.

Books read in 2023: 25 (2022: 30, 2021: 50, 2020: 23)

• Ruination by Anthony Reynolds
• Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky (my top read of the year)
• Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
• The Poppy War series (The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, & The Burning God) by R.F. Kuang
• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
• Silo series (Wool, Shift, & Dust) by Hugh Howey
• The Divide series (The Last Watch, & The Exiled Fleet) by J.S. Dewes
• Redshirts by John Scalzi
• Newsflesh series (Feed, Deadline, & Blackout, + Feedback) by Mira Grant
• This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
• Rubicon by J.S. Dewes
• The Stormlight Archive 1-3 + 2 novellas (The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Edgedancer, Oathbringer, & Dawnshard) by Brandon Sanderson

Games

My PC game playing dropped a ton this year for a few reasons. Moving helped me hit the reset button a bit, and with Pixel dying, I made it a focus to hang around my cats more often in the evening; they really like being downstairs at the new house, so that’s where I am too.

Games beaten in 2023: 4 (2022: 15, 2021: 5, 2020: 22)

• Horizon: Forbidden West (PS5)
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Steam Deck)
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch) (my favorite game of the year)
• Spider-Man 2 (PS5)
• I also played waaaaaaaaaay too much World of Warcraft (and will continue to do so, thank you very much)

Other Media

I went through a couple of different spurts this year, sitting downstairs watching shows every night for a week or two. Maybe I’ll have to find another film series to do that with.

(This list is totally from memory, so it’s likely I’m forgetting a bunch of stuff)

• The Bear, seasons 1 & 2 (this rules and if you haven’t watched it you should)
• Reacher, some of season 1
• Jack Ryan, the whole thing
• Primo
• The first 6 Mission: Impossible movies (rankings: Rogue Nation, 3, 4: Ghost Protocol, 6: Fallout, 1, 2)
• Most of the MCU (I think I stopped at Endgame because of the proliferation of the shows)
• The start of the DCEU (Man of Steel & BvS - I couldn’t finish Suicide Squad because it was so bad)
• A whole bunch of NBA, MLB, NFL, F1, & Premier League
• A whole bunch of Bluey, Sesame Street, Super Simple Songs, Daniel Tiger, Blippi, and more