Add 2023 Book List

_posts/2024-01-01-books-in-2023.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: Books I Read in 2023
+date: 2024-01-01 22:22:00 +0100
+author: Charles Tapley Hoyt
+tags:
+  - books
+---
+
+I finally got back into reading! Over winter break 2022, I started the Stormlight Archive then followed up in
+2023 by reading the entirety of Brandon Sanderson's _Cosmere_, as well as a some other fantasy, science fiction, and
+literary fiction. Here's the list.
+
+1. Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive #3) by Brandon Sanderson
+2. Rhythm of War (Stormlight Archive #4) by Brandon Sanderson
+3. The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson
+4. The Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2) by Brandon Sanderson
+5. The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) by Brandon Sanderson
+6. The Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4) by Brandon Sanderson
+7. Shadows of Self (Mistborn #5) by Brandon Sanderson
+8. The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn #6) by Brandon Sanderson
+9. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
+10. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
+11. The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #1) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
+12. The Angel's Game (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #2) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
+13. The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson
+14. The Hope of Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
+15. The Eleventh Metal by Brandon Sanderson
+16. Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson
+17. Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon Sanderson
+18. Sixth of Dusk by Brandon Sanderson
+19. White Sands by Brandon Sanderson
+20. The Lost Metal (Mistborn #7) by Brandon Sanderson
+21. Edgedancer (Stormlight Archive #2.5) by Brandon Sanderson
+22. What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
+23. Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
+24. The Prisoner of Heaven (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #3) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
+25. The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss
+26. The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2) by Patrick Rothfuss
+27. The Labyrinth of Spirits (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #4) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
+28. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
+29. Hyperion (The Hyperion Cantos #1) by Dan Simmons
+30. The Fall of Hyperion (The Hyperion Cantos #2) by Dan Simmons
+31. Dawnshard (Stormlight Archive #3.5) by Brandon Sanderson
+32. The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
+33. All Systems Red (Murderbot Dairies #1) by Martha Wells
+34. Endymion (The Hyperion Cantos #3) by Dan Simmons
+35. The Rise of Endymion (The Hyperion Cantos #4) by Dan Simmons
+36. A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine
+37. A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan #2) by Arkady Martine
+38. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
+39. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
+40. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
+41. Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown
+42. Golden Son (Red Rising Saga #2) by Pierce Brown
+43. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
+
+Cosmere moments I really enjoyed (spoilers):
+
+1. Every single oath (finished or not), particularly Elhokar and Eshonai
+2. I guessed the twist in Tress of the Emerald Sea
+3. Kelsier's not dead!
+4. Dalinar Kholin's entire character arc
+5. Wayne, Pattern, and Nightblood being hilarious
+6. Michael Kramer and Kate Reading's voices
+7. All the tidbits in Sunlit Man... I can't wait for Stormlight 5 to fill in some of the gaps.
+
+Other non-Cosmere highlights (spoilers):
+
+1. Narrator reveal at the end of The Labyrinth of Spirits
+2. Anna Karenina's inner monologue as she commits suicide was devastating
+3. Rothfuss's prose is like honey
+4. The messiah arc in the second Hyperion duology is really nice. It's a much better version of the awful "love connects
+   the universe" cliché at the end of Interstellar that actually creates plot- and character-driven relevance.
+
+Disappointments:
+
+1. Knowing the Doors of Stone might never come out but reading Kingkiller Chronicle #1 and #2 anyway
+2. I didn't like that All Systems Red had the entire plot get resolved off-screen.
+   My sisters were really hoping I'd like this book, and I was only neutral. I'll still give the next one a try.
+3. I missed the Year of Sanderson Kickstarter (and the hilarity of the announcement video). I hadn't really started
+   until after.
+4. The Russian classics were pretty slow, but I guess that's how it goes.
+
+My goal in 2024 is to read more books from different genres, especially ones I've never touched before.