2023 Wrapped: A Year in Reading
tonight's bowl of soup is creamy and shrimp-free laksa.
hi, hello.
first things first: it has been a few months since i released a missive, but as i said in november 2021 and as i said in july 2023, i am still here, writing to you. a lot has happened since july 3rd. i shed tears here and then, and my hair has changed quite a few times since. i graduated, got a job, got another job, flew to malaysia, met new people. but it is all the same; i am here, writing to you.
anyways, i had a reading slump that spanned years, only going through about 2 books a year, sometimes even less or none at all. last year, i managed to get out of it again and swore that i’d read more this year. i had a little reading challenge set up on my storygraph account. it was tiny, just about six books, but i’m proud to say that i exceeded it by 5. go me!
moving on, i thought i’d share the books that i read this year, regardless of how high or low i rated them on storygraph.
it’s 11 in the evening. do things feel surreal for you? i hope that the next year brings all of us better fortune and that we all find steady ground in this ever unsteady world of ours.
also, if you’re new here, come join me at the table. after we have some laksa, we can pore over my mini library together and marvel at how much unfinished books i have vs finished books.
Finished: February 9, 2023
Rating: ⭐4.5/5
First on the list is the cult classic, The Hobbit. This was a bit tedious to get through. Tolkien is a descriptive writer who uses words that make me want to eat a dictionary for breakfast and become more eloquent. It is, however, a rather lifechanging read—at least, in my opinion. I loved reading The Hobbit, even though it took me forever to finish. Tolkien’s world building is honestly so elaborate and charming, and his descriptive writing truly helps Middle-earth come to life. I loved Bilbo Baggins and his cosntant longing for home and his bursts of bravery. Also, let’s not forget the book’s beautiful opening line. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Truly remarkable. Having The Hobbit as my first finished book of the year kind of set the mood/bar for the rest of the year (in terms of reading).
Favourite line/s: “Farewell," they cried, "Wherever you fare till your eyries receive you at the journey's end!" That is the polite thing to say among eagles.
"May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks," answered Gandalf, who knew the correct reply.”
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#2 The Age of Umbrage, Jessica Zafra
Finished: May 5, 2023
Rating: ⭐3.5/5
Fullybooked finally stocked a bunch of local authors this year and I went ham buying the ones I found interesting. I have a vague memory of this being stocked before I got it this year, but I can’t fully remember anymore. I had a lot of favourite lines from this and Zafra has a wonderful and calming writing style, and I do want to read more of her work. It didn’t give me the coming of age vibe that the description had. But it had that introspection that I look for in books and, at times, the depiction of a teenage girl felt very accurate. It would actually make a rather nice little film, honestly. I also want to share that I passed my copy onto my cousin, Naomi.
Favourite line/s: They recognized each other as citizens of the margins, of the empty spaces beyond the tight platoons of typography, just before the guillotine edge and the fall into nothingness.
What a terrible burden it was to be the center of someone’s existence, the reason they got up every morning, the justification for all their pain and toll. She did not ask to become the deity of her mother’s personal religion.
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#3-7 The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tonyv DiTerlizzi & Holly Black
Finished: June 6-8, 2023
Official Rating: ⭐3.75/5
Personal Rating: ⭐4/5
I decided I needed to revisit my all-time favourite childhood series, next to Percy Jackson. Spiderwick shaped me as a kid. I remember traipsing around school, telling everyone fairies and fae were real, repeatedly borrowing the series in the library, and endlessly begging my dad to get me the copy in the photo—which was over a thousand pesos back in 2011/2012 (and he did). The reason why there’s an official rating and a personal one is because I tried to rate without my nostalgia goggles on and, as much as I love this series, it just does not feel fleshed out enough to 23 year old me. I wish we had more time exploring the universe of Spiderwick and mucking around with the fae. The personal rating of 4 is my nostalgia goggles talking, as well as what I’d have rated it at ~10/11.
Favourite line/s: Through field, cave, and forest this yarn has unspun with our heroes victorious and evil undone!
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#8 Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree
Finished: June 17, 2023
Rating: ⭐4.75/5
When I told you The Hobbit set the vibe of my reads for the year, I wasn’t lying. I got this for Christmas last year (see: bought it and asked my mom if she could “gift” it to me) and got to reading it sometime in in June, which was also around the time I started playing D&D. I loved this book so much, I’m pretty sure it was my favourite read of the year. It was the perfect balance of slice of life and that tiny bit of action that kept things a little more interesting. All the characters in this book were lovable and honestly, I really liked how it focused on Viv trying to make the new chapter of her life work out and only touched on the romance a little bit. If you’re looking for a cozy fantasy read without the high stakes, then this is for you. I got the prequel for L&L this Christmas and I can’t wait to read it.
Favourite line/s: You've found a very peaceful place here. A special place. You've planted something, and now its blossoming. Very nice. A good spot to rest. My thanks to you for letting an old-timer shade under the branches of what you’ve grown.
What flames could not consume shall never be extinguished.
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Finished: June 24, 2023
Rating: ⭐3.5/5
I reviewed this book in my last newsletter, so you already know my thoughts on it—if you read my previous missive, that is. If you didn’t then I fear you must do it right now, lest you wish for me to appear at the edge of your bed in the dead of the night, staring at you until you read it. Just kidding! Or am I? That aside, Idol, Burning was a short read about a young girl and her parasocial relationship with her oshi, who was caught up in a controversy. I think, in an age where we’ve been seeing parasocial relationships become more common—in an age where idol worship and fanaticism is seeing an ever-present rise, Idol, Burning provides us with a glimpse into what young girls may be thinking and feeling. I also really enjoyed how Usami portrayed teenage girls. I felt it to be very accurate and true to my experience.
Favourite line/s: Bodies were so heavy. Legs spraying up water were heavy, and wombs that shed their lining every month were heavy [...} I felt the burden of my involuntary role as a mammal dragging me down.
I’d been burdened by the weight of the flesh of my body ever since I’d been born. Now, I wanted to heed its trembling and destroy it. I wanted to do it to myself instead of letting it happen to me.
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Finished: August 16, 2023
Rating: ⭐3.75/5
I love Sally Rooney. Reading Normal People last year changed me as a person. I haven’t been the same since. I feel like Sally Rooney writes for us girlies. That being said, Mr Salary was a nice quick read to help me kind of wriggle out of a tiny reading slump. I love how Sally Rooney writes and it’s amazing how she can build such a reflective and emotional story in the span of 30 something pages. I do wish that this was a little longer so that we could have more fleshed out characters and see a little more than the surface of Sukie and Nathan’s relationship, but perhaps that is simply part of the charm of this short story.
Favourite line/s: My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often impossible for me to see him clearly at all. If he left my line of sight for more than a few seconds I couldn't even remember what his face looked like.
Nothing inside my body was trying to kill me. Death was, of course, the most ordinary thing that could happen, at some level I knew that. Still, I had stood there waiting to see the body in the river, ignoring the real living bodies all around me, as if death was more of a miracle than life was.
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#11 Dead-End Memories, Banana Yoshimoto
Finished: November 22, 2023
Rating: ⭐4.75/5
Is my reading year ever complete without a Banana Yoshimoto book? I think not. Dead-End Memories is a collection of short stories about women and their relationship with love. In House of Ghosts, the first story featured, we get a short “right person, wrong time” moment, which I have always loved. I’ve always been so enamored at the concept of two people finding their way back to each other after spending time apart; realizing that they were, in fact, the pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly. In Not Warm At All, we read about the friendship between a young girl and a boy who felt out of this world and their relationship—how things suddenly came to a halt. Banana Yoshimoto’s writing is always so lyrical and enthralling. I absolutely adore her and her works. I think Dead-End Memories is my current favourite of the works I’ve read. I love how she depicts a character’s feelings and thoughts, and I love the little worlds she builds, and how each of her characters truly feel alive, as though they’re talking to us from beyond the pages of this book. As someone who dreams of publishing their own book, I can only hope that I reach the skill Yoshimoto has when weaving worlds, words, and lives.
Favourite Line/s: Happiness descends on you suddenly, regardless of circumstance, and so indifferently that it seems cruel. It doesn’t care who you are, or who you’re with. You don’t see it coming. [...] Like the movements of waves, or the shifts in water, the miracle lies in wait for everyone.
I’d always believed I didn’t take up a lot of space in this world—that it hardly mattered whether I was here or not. When a person left, the people around them got used to their absence. That was true enough. But when I pictured the world without me, and the people I loved living on it, I couldn’t help but feel like crying.
[...] somehow they keep going as they’ve always done, carried downstream by the inexorable flow of time. The same flow of time that seemed to have swallowed up Makoto’s memory without a trace.
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Current Read: Dragonlance Chronicles 1: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
A book that’s part of a series my dad has been getting me to read since I was 13. I’ve tried to read it twice, but my little brain kept getting distracted. 10 years after he gave me his old copies, I’ve finally gotten past the first chapter (93 pages in)! So far, so good. My D&D brainrot is making me see everything play out in the perspective of players (attack rolls thinking of long rests, saving throws), which is funny. For the sake of myself and my dear old dad, hopefully I get around to finishing it this time around. I guess you’ll see if I complete it in next year’s reading wrapped!
hugs.
that’s it for this year’s “year in reading”! i should add that the working title for this was “2023 wrapped: misha’s (measly) reading version” until i decided to change it while making the cover, lol.
if you noticed, how to stand up to a dictator by maria ressa, which i said i was reading last time, isn’t here. that’s because i didn’t feel like the book when i was reading it, so i switched it out for some more lighthearted stuff—if you could call banana yoshimoto lighthearted.
i want to consume more media next year; return to the more curated version of myself from 2020/2021. i felt like i lost a lot of myself both last and this year, which is strange, considering i found new hobbies and whatnot. perhaps that is just the course of life. unfortunately, i am annoying and have a deep desire to be a little bit more special than normal folks, so i shall be consuming more once again. i’ll remember to also try to be more meaningful in my consumption, whatever that means. if all goes well, i might have a few lists next year, like the albums i enjoyed, or the shows i liked. maybe even a little list for manga i enjoyed.
i need to live up to yotsuba&!’s motto:『いつでも今日が、いちばん楽しい日』. i need to have enjoyable days despite the perils of adulthood and life. (i so desperately wish i was 10 again, with everyone i love still alive and around me.)
as always, here’s a song to wind down to. again, if you care at all, here’s a playlist full of songs i’ve recommended so far.
thank you for taking time to read this silly little letter.
with love,
misha