I Read 100 Books in 2022
2022 was an amazing year of reading for me. I created and participated in the 2022 Reading Challenge. I read a total of 100 books in 2022. I consumed over 30,000 pages.
I read 95 new-to-me books. I found a new top 10 favorite author. I discovered that I really enjoy murder mysteries.
If you’ve been following Spine & Leaf Books, you’ve probably seen my 2022 Reading Challenge as well as my monthly book updates. If you are new here, go ahead and check out the links below to get caught up.
- 2022 Reading Challenge
- 2023 Reading Challenge
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December
I’ll break down the year into a few interesting categories to get a better feel for how the year went overall. After 100 books, it’s easy to forget about a few from earlier in the year.
I kept a reading journal all year to write down the books I was reading, the author, page count, and a rating out of 5 stars.
The List
Book # | Title | Author |
1 | To Sail a Darkling Sea | John Ringo |
2 | The Moment of Lift | Melinda Gates |
3 | The Musical Human | Michael Spitzer |
4 | Yes, Chef | Marcus Samuelsson |
5 | The Client | John Grisham |
6 | “A” is for Alibi | Sue Grafton |
7 | What I Talk About When I Talk About Running | Haruki Mura |
8 | Tom Sawyer | Mark Twain |
9 | Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen |
10 | Built to Last | Jim Collins + Jerry I. Porras |
11 | That Summer | Jennifer Weiner |
12 | The Fishermen | Chigozie Obioma |
13 | Blood Countess | Lana Popovic |
14 | A Discovery of Witches | Deborah Harkness |
15 | The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Mary Ann Shaffer + Annie Barrows |
16 | The House in the Cerulean Sea | TJ Kline |
17 | Lone Survivor | Chris Stringer |
18 | Practical Magic | Alice Hoffman |
19 | The Hawthorne School | Sylvie Perry |
20 | When Breath Becomes Air | Paul Kalanithi |
21 | Murder on the Orient Express | Agatha Christie |
22 | Fauci: Expect the Unexpected | Anthony Fauci |
23 | The Invisible Library | Genevieve Cogman |
24 | Alone on the Wall | Alex Honnold + David Roberts |
25 | Piranesi | Susanna Clark |
26 | Remarkable Creatures | Tracy Chevalier |
27 | Deja Dead | Kathy Reichs |
28 | The Night Circus | Erin Morgenstern |
29 | 21 Lessons for the 21st Century | Yuval Noah Harari |
30 | The Violin Conspiracy | Brendan Slocumb |
31 | The Emperor’s Wolves | Michelle Segara |
32 | All Systems Red | Martha Wells |
33 | The City We Became | N.K. Jemisin |
34 | Kismet | Luke Tredget |
35 | On Juneteenth | Annette Gordon Reed |
36 | Bear Town | Fredrik Backman |
37 | The Ballerinas | Rachel Kapelke-Dale |
38 | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | J.K. Rowling |
39 | Rin, Tongue, and Dorner | Rich Shapero |
40 | The Thursday Murder Club | Richard Osman |
41 | Next | Michael Crichton |
42 | The Sacrifice of One | Emily Fortney |
43 | The Water Knife | Paolo Bacigalupi |
44 | American Zoo | David Grazian |
45 | Taller When Prone | Les Murray |
46 | Why You Eat What You Eat | Rachel Herz |
47 | Dreaming in Turtle | Peter Lauter |
48 | Legacy | Greg Bear |
49 | After Me Comes the Flood | Sarah Perry |
50 | A Dying Fall | Elly Griffiths |
51 | Hood Feminism | Mikki Kendall |
52 | The Sellout | Paul Beatty |
53 | Braiding Sweetgrass | Robin Kimmerer |
54 | Gut | Guilia Enders |
55 | 2001: A Space Odessey | Arthur C. Clarke |
56 | The Liar’s Dictionary | Eley Williams |
57 | And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie |
58 | Breath | James Nestor |
59 | Shadow and Bone | Leigh Bardigo |
60 | A Spindle Splintered | Alix E. Harrow |
61 | The Midnight Library | Matt Haig |
62 | A Briefer History of Time | Stephen Hawking |
63 | The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett |
64 | The Midnight Hour | Elly Griffiths |
65 | Stardust | Neil Gaiman |
66 | Venomous Lumpsucker | Ned Beauman |
67 | Pay Up | Reshma Saujami |
68 | John Dies at the End | Jason Pargin |
69 | The Girl in the Shadows | Audrey Blake |
70 | Triathlon for the Every Woman | Meredith Atwood |
71 | Women Who Tri | Alicia DiFabio |
72 | A Molecule Away from Madness | Sara Manning Peskin |
73 | The Four-Hour School Day | Durenda Wilson |
74 | The Anthropocene Reviewed | John Green |
75 | Eat and Run | Scott Jurek + Steve Friedman |
76 | Messy | Tim Harford |
77 | Death on the Nile | Agatha Christie |
78 | Deaf Utopia | Nyle Dimarco |
79 | The Keeper of Lost Things | Ruth Hogan |
80 | My Messy is a Bit of a Life | Georgia Pritchett |
81 | The Alchemy of Air | Thomas Hager |
82 | The Atlas Six | Olivie Blake |
83 | The Birds at My Table | Darryl Jones |
84 | The Plot | Jean Hanff Korelitz |
85 | The Latecomer | Jean Hanff Korelitz |
86 | Lark Ascending | Silas House |
87 | Take No Names | Daniel Nieh |
88 | Anxious People | Fredrik Backman |
89 | Poster Girl | Veronica Roth |
90 | Our Missing Hearts | Celeste Ng |
91 | The Atlas Paradox | Olivie Blake |
92 | A Man Called Ove | Fredrik Backman |
93 | Oath of Loyalty | Vince Flynn + Kyle Mills |
94 | A House Between Earth and the Moon | Rebecca Scherm |
95 | “B” is for Burglar | Sue Grafton |
96 | Tuf Voyaging | George R.R. Martin |
97 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone | J.K. Rowling |
98 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | J.K. Rowling |
99 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | J.K. Rowling |
100 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | J.K. Rowling |
Favorite New-To-Me Books
- Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin
- Beartown by Fredrik Backman
- The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
- Oath of Loyalty by Kyle Mills and Vince Flynn
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Re-Reads
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling
Longest and Shortest Books
- Longest Book at 734 Pages: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- Shortest Boot at 88 Pages: Taller When Prone by Les Murray
Fiction vs. Non-Fiction

Genres

I’ve gotta say I was surprised with how many book genres I’ve read. Of course, there’s always some overlap where a book can fit multiple categories. But it’s also hard here to make sure that science fiction is kept separate from non-fiction science books. And historical fiction is different than historical non-fiction.
Overall, I really enjoy sci-fi and fantasy and that really shows in the numbers with the majority of my books coming from these two categories. And fantasy was a whopping 20%! One of every five books!
What I Learned
What I learned this year is that there are too many books to ever read. I was never short on books and frequently had to choose what to read and what to leave behind. The constant new releases can be a bit overwhelming, and I like to keep up with at least some of the new popular books in the reading world, but I know I’ll never be able to do it.
Most of the books I read were new-to-me, but actually quite old in the literary world. I think this works for me because there’s something to be said about picking up a worn-out, heavy, torn book from the library shelves. It means that countless others have had the same joy of reading the book already. It means I can join a group of long-time readers that also love some of these favorites and who aren’t ready to leave them behind just yet.
The Worst Part
The worst part of reading 100 books is keeping track of them all.
I’m not one to normally write down everything I do, but I do like the end result. I like when my fitness watch records my workouts for me because I like seeing the results at the end of the month or at the end of a training program, but keeping track of it all myself would be too daunting.
With books, I tried to write down enough info to remember the book and be meaningful, but not so much that it was a bother. Originally, I was writing about what I thought of the book, what was good, what was bad, but that was too much for me.
I noticed if I wrote down the title, author, genre, and page count in my book journal that I’d remember the book. I’d spark something that brought back the good and the bad. Also, with this blog, I was already writing a few sentences at the end of each month in my monthly updates. If I really wanted to go back, I’d still have that digital record to remember.
In addition to a journal and the blog, I was also updating GoodReads. I love the site and appreciate what it does, but I think I’d be better off with only one or two ways to record books each month instead of three. I guess I have to choose for next year!
I wonder if there’s an app that scans barcodes so it automatically uploads all the book’s info for you?
The Best Part
My absolute favorite thing about the challenge is that I realized I like murder mystery books! A whole new genre has opened up to me and there are some real gems in there!
I have never really appreciated murder mysteries and frankly, I’m not sure why I never picked them up. But I’m so glad I did.
Agatha Christie is as amazing as everyone says she is. She has earned every accolade and award she’s ever received. I’m seriously impressed with how good her books are.
The second best part is also about an author. Swedish author Fredrik Backman. I was way behind the curve on this guy too. But he really gets people. He understands humanity and what it means to be human. I will continue to read his books next year because they are too good to put down.
What About Next Year?
Next year, 2023, I’m not sure if I’ll read 100 books.
I love reading.
I’ve loved this experience and setting this goal for myself.
But, there are also other things I love too.
So, in 2023 I will make sure my other hobbies get their fair share of my time. I want to be a well-rounded individual. To me, that means always learning, always trying something new, and always being ready for the next goal. I will absolutely keep reading and I never plan to give that up.
For now, I am setting a reading goal for 2023 to complete the 2023 Reading Challenge. I’m extremely excited because a few of the items will be a real challenge. I want to continue to branch out in what I read because I know it will help me discover things I never knew I enjoyed. But 100 books might be out of the question.
Thank You!
I want to end the post with a thank you to everyone that participated in the challenge with me! I loved hearing what others were reading and I’m just beyond grateful that others thought this challenge was going to be fun.
I wrote it for me, but the fact that others found the blog and joined in will forever make me happy to be a part of the reading community.
Thank you to all and I hope to see you in 2023!
As an author and editor I am a professional reader who reads usually around one hundred books per year; my editor makes me reading all these books. I don’t read much crime and no phantasy and noticed that you read in general different books, books I am not that interested in. I keep a diary writing down five to ten sentences about every book I have read about its style and its technique. I am not that much interested in the plot design but in the style.
I keep my fingers crossed that you’ll be able to read another hundred books this year, actually that’s quite easy to manage, isn’t it?
Keep on reading
Klausbernd
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Great job on completing your 2022 Reading Challenge and reading 100 books! It’s impressive to see the variety of genres and authors you explored in your reading journey. Your detailed book list and yearly breakdown is helpful for others who are interested in setting their own reading goals. Keep up the great work and happy reading in 2023!
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What an awesome reading year! 2022 was a slumpy year for me, but I feel motivated for 2023. I’m hoping to get to 100 this year.
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