At the end of 2022, I composed a Book Report on what I read that year, which expanded into an overview of my reading habits. A year later, I’ve decided to broaden the scope of the retrospective to include other media.

Books

I read about 32 books in 2023, the fewest since 2018, but still about double my rate of a decade ago when I was often away on day hikes. The continued slide since the pandemic lockdown high in 2020 is no surprise, given my steady diet of YouTube videos, including many long-form ones.

I continue to enjoy books in both written and audio form. It appears that about half of my fellow Americans don’t read books at all, and WordsRated found that the average number of books read per year increases with age. Their finding was that the average number of books read by Gen-Xers like me was six, and place me among the 17% from that generation who read 11 or more books in a year.

Anecdotally, one of my acquaintances had read 75 books by mid-November this year, while one of my former students read 150 new books this year and re-read about 20 more. So while I read more than the norm, I know folks who easily outpace me.

My favorite book in 2023 was The Man Who Died Twice, the sequel to Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. I listened to the first book in July, fascinated by the characters populating it and its take on modern life across the pond. Most of the characters live in a luxury retirement village in southeast England and the initial contrivance is that four of the retirees gather to investigate crime cases. The pensioners include a female nurse, a male psychiatrist, a male union activist, and a retired female spy. A young policewoman and older male detective get drawn into their activities, along with a brutally competent Polish immigrant and various side characters.

The initial book, which Osman wrote in 2020, was so delectable that I deliberately delayed devouring the next in the series. I often save what will likely be a great read/listen for later while I explore other works. That way, when my reading becomes frustrating or I suffer from ennui, I can readily return to something by a proven author.

Thus I parcel out the comedic works of P.G. Wodehouse, the mysteries of Edith Mary Pargeter (aka Ellis Peters), and now the Thursday Murder Club books of Richard Osman. I read or listened to eight books, including science fiction, romances, historical novels, another mystery, and two nonfiction works, before taking up the second in the Thursday Murder Club series in October. It was great fun to reconnect with his memorable characters, and I repeatedly paused the audiobook to cackle with glee and ponder where the tale might be going.

Another favorite in a different genre was Attachments, an office romance by Rainbow Rowell. That one was so good that upon finishing it I immediately purchased Landline for my Kindle, saving it for later. I see that is a Christmas love story, so I might wait for some hot and humid summer weather and use it as an escape.

I also greatly enjoyed Ted Chiang’s thought-provoking tales in Exhalation: Stories. As for classics, I took on A Room with a View by E.M. Forster, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, and Reverend Frederick Amadeus Malleson’s translation of Jules Verne’s Voyage au centre de la Terre.

I enjoyed Peter Manseau’s unusual Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter: A Novel sufficiently to later read his The Maiden of All Our Desires: A Novel, which was even better. Manseau is a novelist, historian, and museum curator, being the founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Center for the Understanding of Religion in American History.

I greatly enjoyed listening to two more splendid nonfiction works by Simon Winchester: Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World and Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge from Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic. I can never get enough of listening to my favorite living polymath.

I’m currently listening to Ann Napolitano’s Dear Edward and reading Peyton Place by Grace Metalious on my Kindle. The former is much more modern than many of the books I read, and I like not knowing what will happen next with its deeply traumatized title character.

As for Peyton Place, it was notorious in the 1950s as a tale of secrets, sex, and hypocrisy in a small New England town. The opening draws you right in: “Indian summer is like a woman. Ripe, hotly passionate, but fickle, she comes and goes as she pleases so that one is never sure whether she will come at all, nor for how long she will stay. ” I am only 1/4 of the way through it, but I am enjoying its portraits of women struggling with their sexual and social identities that conflict with their town’s social and moral principles. Grace herself led a short and troubled life, and it certainly appears that she heeded the advice to write what you know.

I continue to track my reading at LibraryThing and at GoodReads.

Videos

My main distraction from reading is watching videos on YouTube. I have subscribed to 164 channels, and in 2023, I supported 10 via Patreon. I decided to link my favorite channels for you and to include a representative video or playlist from each in case you want to explore some of them.

Videos on Video

• Terry Frost is a movie buff from Melbourne, Australia. I thoroughly enjoy it when Terry Talks Movies on a wide variety of obscure films of the past. I enjoyed his recent series on hidden gems.
• I enjoyed watching Alex and Josh of Target Audience react to viewing the original series of Star Trek, and now they are working their way through Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• I also enjoy some of the hilarious but boozy output of RedLetterMedia. They took off over a decade ago with their takes on the Star Wars prequels.
• Patrick (H) Willems offers up interesting long-form takes on the film industry, although I dislike the narrative framing of his videos, which is used to break up his long monologues for viewers with shorter attention spans. Who is Killing Cinema? – A Murder Mystery is a good place to start.
• Stam Fine offers splendid looks back at old movies and television series. Just go pick something you enjoyed as a kid.
• Minty Comedic Arts has always-entertaining 10 Things You Didn’t Know movie videos. You just need to look up any movie you enjoyed; here is trivia about the hilarious Blazing Saddles.
• Rowan J. Coleman provides in-depth retrospective reviews. He has a long retrospective on Star Trek.
• Dominic Noble’s Lost in Adaptation videos are fun looks at how books are adapted into other forms.

Cars

• I’ve enjoyed the overviews of automobile history at Ed’s Auto Reviews.
• Robert Dunn of Missouri is a creative enthusiast of oddball cars at Aging Wheels. I got a kick out of his Trabant.
• I also enjoy Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History by CFO Adam Wade of Detroit. He dives into many car features, and I love his interviews with retired designers like Bob Lutz.

Books and More

• Matt of Bookpilled is an avid reader of science fiction who offers great takes and recommendations. Here is just one example.
• Even though I don’t read comic books, I quite enjoy Chris Piers’ looks at ComicTropes. Here’s an example.
• On a related note, Pete Beard provides overviews of the output of talented illustrators of the past, such as N.C. Wyeth.
• It is also worthwhile to climb up The Library Ladder for takes on topics such as Ballantine’s Adult Fantasy Series.

Home Projects

• It has been a treat to watch Ariel Bissett renovate and decorate her 1850s farmhouse in Nova Scotia.
• For three years I have enjoyed watching Kaleb steadily renovate an 1889 home in St. Louis at The 2nd Empire Strikes Back.
• The Stud Pack take on all sorts of jobs.
• For wilder projects, I’m enjoying the bunker project of JerryRigEverything and the tunnels of ColinFurze.

Travel

• Bethany and Drew have highlighted unusual sights all around southern California, and lately have branched out to other regions for their Oddity Odysseys.
• Carol & Ken offer up relaxing journeys around Europe in their camper, reminding us that Life is too short. Take a look at their trip around the Isle of Man.
• I love the humor of The Tim Traveller, including his visits to the highest mountains in the lowlands of Europe.

Old & New Tech

• Mat of Techmoan is my favorite YouTuber with his looks at old audio technology and whatever else catches his interest.
• I’ve supported Alec for years as he shares Technology Connections, including how weird brown is.
• David Murray is the The 8-Bit Guy, a retrocomputing enthusiast and video game developer from Texas. I never had a Commodore computer, but I’ve certainly enjoyed his look back at them.
• For a look at troubleshooting and repair, you should visit Adrian’s Digital Basement, while RMC – The Cave has fun looks at vintage computer and video game hardware.
• I used to watch a lot of Today I Found Out, but lately I’ve mostly narrowed down to staff writer Gilles Messier’s Our Own Devices.

Art

• Perspective has great documentaries with Waldemar Januszczak and the slick Fake or Fortune? series.
• The Canvas fascinates me, including his takes on things like the Fallen Angel.
• Art Deco also provides background for artworks, such as Madame X.

Music

• Polyphonic and Todd in the Shadows sometimes interest me, especially Todd’s Trainwreckords.
• I have enjoyed many of the song reactions by Empress Joy Jean of Nigeria. Her reaction to ABBA’s return after 40 years was quite emotional.

Other Favorites

Other favorite channels this year have been Defunctland for its amazing long-form looks at things Disney, Phil Edwards, formerly of Vox, for his eclectic interests, science with Steve Mould and Veritasium, geology with Myron Cook, and anything that interests Peter Dibble.

And those were just the most interesting 1/4 of my subscribed channels. So while I don’t watch television, I most certainly do watch…a lot! When I was young, our family only had a black-and-white tube television with four broadcast channels, so I feel truly blessed to have so much high-quality focused content readily available on my iPad, and more books than I can handle via Kindle, Audible, and yes, wood fibers.