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In 2023, I read 96 books, an average of 8 per month. That's more than I read in 2020, 2021 or 2022, although I'd have to say the reading I did during the early COVID lockdowns was rather more challenging and ambitious. The books are coded as follows:

A Anthology (a bunch of short pieces, whether stories, essays, poetry or whatever)
D Drama
F Fiction
M/B Memoir, Biography (including autobiography), Diaries etc.
NF Non-fiction, if it doesn't fit into one of the other categories above

The numbers break down as follows: 3A, 1D, 64F, 11M/B, 17NF

So here's my list (books listed in the order I read them)


1. The Story Species - Joseph Gold (NF)
2. Dreadfulwater - Thomas King (F)
3. People change - Vivek Shraya (NF)
4. I'm afraid of men - Vivek Shraya (NF)
5. Ottawa Rising - Ottawa Independent Writers (A)
6. Son of Elsewhere - Elamin Abdelmahmoud (M/B)
7. Chokepoint Capitalism - Rebecca Giblin & Cory Doctorow (NF)
8. The Persuaders: At the front lines of the fight for hearts, minds & democracy - Anand Giridharedas (NF)
9. Devil's Delight - M.C. Beaton with R.W. Green (F)
10. The Book Eaters - Sunyi Dean (F)
11. My Darling Detective - Howard Norman (F)
12. Death takes a perfect trip - Mary Jane Maffini (F)
13. Open and Closed - Mat Coward (F)
14. Petit Pays - Gael Faye (F)
15. All the Queen's Men - S.J. Bennett (F)
16. You light up my death - Mary Jane Maffini (F)
17. The Swedish art of aging exuberantly - Margareta Magnusson (NF)
18. Gobsmacked! Peter Cleveland (F)
19. Stealing Jenny - Ellen Gable (F)
20. The Library Suicides - Fflur Dafydd (F)
21. Hobgoblins of Little Minds - Andrew J. Simpson (A)
22. The future is now - Bob McDonald (NF)
23. The Bookseller's Notebooks - Jalel Barjas (F)
24. The White Hare - Jane Johnson (F)
25. The Black Dove - Colin McAdam (F)
26.Bill Bergson Lives Dangerously - Astrid Lindgren (F)
27. Behind the scenes at the museum - Kate Atkinson (F)
28. Once upon a prime - Sarah Hart (NF)
29. L'évangile du nouveau monde -Maryse Condé (F)
30. A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon (F)
31. Book collecting now: The value of print in a digital age - Matthew Budman (NF)
32. The Little Wartime Library - Kate Thompson (F)
33. When last seen - Brenda Chapman (F)
34. A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf (NF)
35. Open Heart, Open Mind - Clara Hughes (M/B)
36. Git Sync Murder - Michael Warren Lucas (F)
37. The Brothers Lionheart - Astrid Lindgren (F)
38. War Diaries 1939-1945 - Astrid Lindgren (M/B)
39. End of Story -Louise Swanson (F)
40. Astrid Lindgren: The woman behind Pippi Longstocking - Jens Andersen (M/B)
41. Vinyl Resting Place - Olivia Blacke (F)
42. The Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan - Stuart Palmer (F)
43. A Natural History of Transition - Callum Angus, ed. (A)
44. Avenue of Champions - Conor Kerr (F)
45. Crow Winter - Karen McBride (F)
46. Sun Storm - Äsa Larsson (F)
47. Queen High - C.J. Carey (F)
48. Librarian Tales: Funny, strange & inspiring tales from the stacks - William Ottens (NF)
49. Maudites Rumeurs - Chantal Beauregard (F)
50. Sweden: The essential guide to customs & culture - Neil Shipley (NF)
51. The Forgotten Home Child - Genevieve Graham (F)
52. We know you remember - Tove Alsterdal (F)
53. L'Avare - Moliere (D)
54. A Nearly Normal Family - M.T. Edvardsson (F)
55. Red Wolf - Liza Marklund (F)
56. Mio, My Son - Astrid Lindgren (F)
57. The Girl with the Sturgeon Tattoo - Lars Arfssen (Lawrence Douglas) (F)
58. Faceless Killers - Henning Mankell (F)
59. The Murder of Halland - Pia Juul (F)
60. Sweet Revenge: 2 novellas (Women Without Mercy; Truth or Dare) - Camilla Lackberg (F)
61. The Survivors - Alex Schulman (F)
62. Master Detective - Astrid Lindgren (F)
63. Sweden for Beginners - Gunnar Jägberg (NF)
64. Meet me in Malmö - Torquil MacLeod (F)
65. Once upon a time in Uppsala - Shirin Amani Azari (M/B)
66. An extra pair of hands: a story of caring & everyday acts of love - Kate Mosse (M/B)
67. Crisis - Karin Boye (F)
68. The Autists: Women on the spectrum - Clara Törnvall (NF)
69. Karlsson on the Roof - Astrid Lindgren (F)
70. The Foulest Thing: A Dominion Archives mystery - Amy Tector (F)
71. Memories look at me: A memoir - Tomas Tranströmer (M/B)
72. Anywhere out of the world - Karin Tidbeck (F)
73. Speak for the dead - Amy Tector (F)
74. Red X - David Demchuk (F)
75 The Pale Horse - Agatha Christie (F)
76. Shadow Play - Peggy Blair (F)
77. Sleet - Stig Dagerman (F)
78. Loving the Difficult -Jane Rule (NF)
79. Pageboy - Elliot Page (M/B)
80. Losing the signal: The spectacular rise and fall of Blackberry - Jacquie McNish & Sean Silcoff (NF)
81. Encore- Alexis Koetting (F)
82. The Dogs of Winter - Ann Lambert (F)
83. An English Murder - Cyril Hare (F)
84. Reykjavik - Ragnar Jonasson & Karin Jakobsdottir (F)
85. The Power of Language: The codes we use to speak, think & live - Viorica Marian (NF)
86. Wishin' & Hopin' - Wally Lamb (F)
87. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop - Satoshi Yagisawa (F)
88. The Instant - Amy Liptrot (M/B)
89. Woman in the Shadows - Jane Thynne (F)
90. The Librarianist - Patrick DeWitt (F)
91. The Go-between: A portrait of growing up between different worlds - Osman Yousefzada (M/B)
92. Death of a Bookseller - Alice Slater (F)
93. Yule Island - Johana Gustawsson (F)
94. Tom's Story: My 16-year friendship with a homeless man - Jo-Ann C. Oosterman (M/B)
95. Blood and Circuses - Kerry Greenwood (F)
96. What you are looking for is in the library - Michiko Aaoyama (F)

Like many people I know, I'm averse to the idea of New Year's "resolutions" because I see it as setting myself up for failure. Some folk reformulate them as goals, objectives, plans or priorities, which already sounds better to me - still optimistic, but reflective of the fluid and evolving nature of human decision-making. I've chosen the word "directions", which I like because it can be as broad or narrow as one chooses to make it. Broad as in "I'm headed in the right general direction" or narrow as in directions (or instructions) for assembling a particular product. Also, the word "direction" doesn't necessarily imply that a specific milestone or endpoint must be arrived at by a specific date. So if, on December 31, 2023, I haven't exhausted the possibilities I saw with heading in one of my preferred directions, that's fine - I just take stock of where I'm at and if still appropriate, think of what else I want to do.

With that in mind, here are three roads I want to travel along in 2023.

1. Improving my French

2. Spending less time online and more time in real life

3. Succession planning (planning for this phase of my life and beyond)


I could go on at length about any one of the above but for now I'll limit myself to a few specifics.

1. When I worked for the government, I was in a bilingual position and had occasion to speak and write French in the course of my work. Since I retired, I rarely seem to use my French, even though my daughter's family lives in Gatineau and the grandchildren all attend a French school. I recently joined the Alliance Française and plan to attend at least some of their monthly "Café Discussions" and book group discussions. There are also options in terms of films, discounts on the NAC French Theatre series and other cultural events as well as more traditional courses if I decide I want those.

2. This one is a bit tougher as more and more things these days can ONLY be done online. And of course there's the pandemic. But even though I'm an introvert, I'm definitely feeling the need to go out and do things and interact with real people beyond my immediate household. I think the main thing is to know what I'm going to do each time I go online: read my e-mail, write my blog, do some specific banking or shopping or booking of appointments or research or even play Solitaire or 2048, as long as I follow some self-imposed time limit. Two or three online sessions per day sounds about right and in most cases each session can be quite short. The rest of the leisure time that I'm at home can be spent reading, listening to music, watching TV or DVDs, etc. When I have the opportunity, I'll go out with meet friends, visit museums and art galleries, go to movies and plays - whatever.

3. I debated how how to phrase this one. If I say I'll be putting my affairs in order, that could sound as if I think my death is imminent, which I don't. I do have a RIF and a will (which needs updating) and many of the things that others in my age group have but mainly what I'm thinking about here is a little more prosaic. While continuing on my decluttering journey, I really want to think more carefully about the possessions I definitely do want to keep. For example, with respect to books, I'm gathering a few treasures together in one bookcase and plan to put little annotations with them, indicating why I value them. For example: the books of short stories written by my Grade Six teacher; the ones with interesting dedications in them; the one that mentions a childhood friend; the ones written by or about family members; the ones that made a particularly profound impression on me for whatever reason. When it comes time for my survivors to sort through my belongings, it will obviously be totally up to them what they keep and what they discard - but at least they'll have an idea of my retention rationale, which may also influence theirs. I've gained a lot of useful and practical ideas from Margareta Magnusson's book on the Swedish art of death-cleaning and I understand she has a new book out, which I definitely want to look at.

So those are my self-guided directions to life in 2023, the closest I ever want to get to New Year's resolutions