Books of the Year 2023
Including two that were published in the last twelve months.
This year I added to a thread on Twitter every time I finished a book. I wanted to be honest about what I read, no matter how embarrassing or ephemeral. My theory is every confession of cringe redoubles the desire to improve. Publicly exposing your tastes helps you find like-minded people … or at least alienates the hostile. It has also made compiling this list much easier.
As with my favourite films, due to be published next Sunday, I cannot imagine being restricted to only those books that were published in 2023. To do it justice, you’d have to read hundreds of contemporary books, which sounds maddening.1 My reading is driven by curiosity, research, or recommendations by people who I admire. I wrote previously about reading discipline and it paid off because I finished twice as many books as last year.
What did you enjoy reading this year? Let me know in the comments.
10 Best Books I Read in 2023
1. Bel-Ami (1885) by Guy de Maupassant
A compelling novel about the rise of a poor ex-soldier to the heights of Parisian society. Duroy is a charming rogue and it was a delight to read. For a nineteenth century novel, it is also extremely sprightly.
2. A Year with Swollen Appendices (1996) by Brian Eno
It is 1995 and Brian Eno is producing David Bowie and U2, saving Bosnia, swimming naked with an erection, thinking about culture, and generally living his best life. Wonderful to revisit with the new (2023) introduction.
3. Hooking Up (2000) by Tom Wolfe
I devoured this collection of waspish essays documenting American excess. Wolfe is such a confident satirist that some think him snarky, but you can sense the substantial intelligence behind it all.
4. Less is More (2021) by Jason Hickel
A few years ago George Monbiot called for new political narratives to help exit neoliberalism. Jason Hickel's book on Degrowth provides just that. Lucid, purposeful, and empowering.
5. Exercises for Rebel Artists (2011) by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Roberto Sifuentes
I had wanted to read this before Guillermo Gómez-Peña appeared at Buzzcut this year and I'm so glad I did. In it, utopian politics are grounded in the body and the experience of performing a life.
6. The Photographer's Eye (1966) by John Szarkowski
I re-read this in 2023 because I wanted to do a talk about it. I found it challenging and awkward, disturbed by the possibilities it presented.
7. Everybody (2021) by Olivia Laing
Olivia Laing is brilliant at telling the best stories about resonant figures from the 20th century such as Wilhelm Reich, Ana Mendieta, Andrea Dworkin, Susan Sontag, and Kathy Acker. Memorable.
8. Mrs S (2023) by K Patrick
Strangely liquid prose despite being written in a short, staccato present tense with minimal punctuation. Patrick's debut slows the reader down to appreciate the depiction of desire. Like Paul Lynch’s obtuse style in Prophet Song, it feels like writers are seeking a style that can’t be imitated by AI.
9. O Brother (2023) by John Niven
Gut punch of a book. How do you process the suicide of your brother? Niven teases out resonant moments from their upbringing and by the end of the book it feels resolved, artistically, if not in life. Read my full review of O Brother.
10. Alasdair Gray: A Secretary's Biography (2009) by Rodge Glass
I read the chapters in reverse order, starting with the Gray I know and going back to the origins, which I always find the least interesting part of a biography. Those latter chapters, when Glass was a witness to events, are the most lively. The whole thing puts one in awe of Alasdair Gray's achievements.
No wonder the Booker Prize winners are so questionable.