The Firsts of 2023 Book Tag

Given a busy schedule this week, I wanted to make today’s post a light and easy one for me to share! It’s been absolutely ages since I shared a book tag, and so I found this firsts of 2023 tag over on witchy reading’s blog.

Given that we are coming up to the last quarter of the year, I thought it would also make for a good time to recap where things started at the beginning of the year. So, let’s get into it.

 

First Book Read in 2023

Technically the first book I finished in 2023 was a carryover I started in 2022. For the purposes of this section, I am going to feature the first book I read in full in 2023, which was The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

It doesn’t feel like it was that long ago, since I picked up the book, but it clearly was!

 

First Book Reviewed in 2023

Around the beginning of this year, I was completing my reviews on the Harry Potter book series. The first review of 2023 was for the fourth book of that series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

This book is actually where I really get into the series. The early books are generally quite light, but have a good set up for the later books. I enjoy the dark themes and more complex narrative that we see a lot more of later on. This book really bridges those two together for me.

 

First Book by a Debut Author

My first debut of the year was a book called Thanks For Sharing by Eleanor Tucker. I read the book as I had just taken up a sustainability role at my workplace and I wanted a perspective on how someone can live more sustainably.

This book definitely gave me that insight. Not all of it is relevant to a workplace, but gives ideas on little changes we can all make in order to make a difference!

 

First Book by a New-to-me Author

It’s hardly surprising that of the first books I read this year makes this feature. Over the course of the year, 22 out of the 42 books I’ve picked up are written by authors I have never read before. It’s fair to say that when it comes to trying out books by new people, I am not shy!

The very first book I picked up this year, technically in part as I started it on New Year’s Eve, is The Secret Library by Oliver Tearle. To summarise this book, it is a book about books. It made for an interesting non-fiction that explored some lesser-known titles in a comparison to headline books, with some or other interlinking factor between them.

 

First book that slayed me in 2023

A book I really enjoyed this year, so much so that it took me by surprise, was The Waste Lands by Stephen King. This is the third book in The Dark Tower series.

Having read the first couple of books, I was already confident that I was going to enjoy this third instalment. What I didn’t expect was how quickly I was going to devour it! Having not picked up the series for four years between The Drawing of the Three and The Waste Lands, I thought it was going to take me some time to get back into this book. It didn’t! On the contrary, I picked it up, and I ran with it… and never looked back!

 

First Book of 2023 that I wish I could get back the time spent reading it

The only book I’ve not really had a great time with this year is The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. This book is a rare one in that I pushed through with finishing it, despite not enjoying it. It was only a relatively short book, and the storyline was compelling enough that I wanted to see how things worked out. Without these factors, I’d probably have DNF’d it!

As it stands, I read but didn’t really enjoy it. The story is a strange one, and it’s not what I expected based on the write up of the book.

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So, those are my firsts of 2023! If you like the look of this post and would like to write your own, then I would love to see your answers. Tag me in the post so I can check them out!

 

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