Reccies are at the bottom if that’s what you’re after.

I’m a big reader.

Especially science fiction/cyberpunk, especially queer themes, especially stuff that’s a bit weird.

Before I go any further I want to give a huge shoutout to @shmouflon, my great friend and co-CEO at ScorpInc. She got me back into reading when we first started chatting about 7 years ago. I’d been a voracious reader as a kid but it dropped off after high school. Since then, we have an informal competition each year where we compete to read the most books and I always try and push myself in new genres, new authors, and new sets of cat poems.

This year, I set myself two goals:

1. Read 52 books, averaging one book each week.
2. Read more than my previous best of 59 books.

I’d have been absolutely chuffed to hit the first goal, but I managed to even smash the second goal and currently stand at 61 books finished this year (with a total page count over 21,900).

An unexpected benefit was I spent a lot less time doomscrolling social media (particularly Twitter). I’d spend more time sitting on the couch enjoying amazing novels instead of being glued to a mystical object dealing me intense psychic damage and for that I felt mentally healthier, even during some really rough months. Being able to switch to something easy, pulpy, and fun when I was having some brain and body issues really helped me pass the time and realign myself.

The main drawback was feeling pressured. There were a few times during the year where I felt I had to read, even to the detriment of projects I wanted to work on, other activities, and even some chores. I felt like I needed to be a solid few books ahead so that if I hit a reading drought or was rendered unconcious for three weeks I wouldn’t fall behind. I’d partially prepared for this, so having the smaller goal of 52 books did ease some of the anxiety, but I know a few times in the year I felt like my reading didn’t have the healthiest grip on me.

Recommendations

There were a bunch of stellar books this year, so it’s only fair to share the love, broken down into a few categories.

Shorter Reads

• Defekt by Nino Cipri. Beautiful, queer, anticapitalist adventure in a future multiverse Ikea.
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. Space exploration and science with a loving found family.
• The Hereafter Bytes by Vincent Scott. Ace representation and a hilarious cyberpunk/futuristic romp.

Playing With Form

• Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente. Beautiful, strange, and unsetlling exploration of art and intergenerational trauma in an Art Deco future based on the golden age of film.
• House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. A re-read and an absolutely smashing one. Psychological horror, beautiful use of narrative form as art.

SFF

• Record Of A Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. Sweet, beautiful, heartwrenching, and heartwarming look at an anarchocommunist society in space.
• Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. Hella cool feminist mecha tale based on Chinese mythology and legend.
• Beyond The Farthest Suns by Greg Bear. A series of short tales that explores the strangest potential futures.
• Dreaming Metal by Melissa Scott. A follow up to Dreamships and a look into how we react to terrorism in our art, in our communities.
• The Black Coast and The Splinter King by Mike Brooks. Amazing fantasy with excellent LGBTQIA inclusion and the intermingling of vastly different cultures.
• Renegades: Harrowmaster by Mike Brooks. Warhammer 40k Alpha Legion filled with plots and plans and double crosses.

LGBTQIA+ (but make it SFF)

• Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell. Slow burn M/M scifi romance.
• The Asteriant series by Melissa Scott. M/M fantasy romance with some of the best worldbuilding I’ve seen.
• The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. Race, sexuality, and imperialism.
• It Gets Even Better: Stories of Queer Possibility edited by Isabela Oliveria and Jed Sabin, by various authors. Hopeful, optimistic queer scifi and fantasy.

What’s Next?

I think next year I’ll set 24 books as the main goal. I still get a lot of reading time on my daily commutes, lunches, and lounges in the bath, but next year I want to try and spend more time tackling my “pile of shame” of unplayed games and exploring more of what that medium has to offer.

For the books I do read, I want to try a few non-fiction works related to my work and craft, a few TTRPG books I’ve picked up (including Lancer and Wanderhome), and some fun and engaging fiction, including hopefully:

• The Godbreaker by Mike Brooks to round out The God-King Chronicles.
• Finna by Nino Cipro to round out the Littenverse.
• More of the books sitting on my TBR shelf and on my e-reader.

*Update 2023-01-03: I ended up hitting 64 books and 22,848 pages this year, you can check out my Goodreads Year In Review. Also added some new recommendations.