As always, I want to start out by saying that this blog post is purely my opinion, and that what I say here are only my views. I have always said, your social media, your rules – so I am exercising that here and now!

It’s always a big thing as a blogger isn’t it – putting together your best books of the year, trying to work out if you have kept all your notes up to date so that you know exactly which ones have made the list, and which ones you loved but didn’t quite make the cut.

I have been thinking about my list since January to be honest. Wondering how many will be on it (never stuck to ten I don’t think!), should I make it 22 for 2022, or throw caution to the wind and add as many as I want.

Then I started to see tweets and posts from authors, reassuring each other that they weren’t to worry if they didn’t make a list, that their words and efforts were appreciated, and in having a novel published they had already achieved something incredible.

Two Fond of Books, the second bookish account that I run with Amanda @bookishchat is something that not only brings me such joy, but with the Two Fond Showcases that have kind of become our thing, means that we speak to authors all the time. As well as being the kindest and most helpful people you could ever wish to meet, they have constantly told us how much they appreciate us taking the time to focus on them, and often how difficult they find it to get their voices heard, and their books reviewed or shouted about.

That got me thinking too. I have always told you that if I talk about a book on my social media, then I love it and would love you to read it too. I worked out I have read over eighty books this year, and honestly, I don’t want to pick a top ten, or a top twenty, or even a fifty like I did a few years ago to celebrate my 50th birthday (that took ages to do and I’m not sure anyone really cared to be honest!)

I guess this is my roundabout, clumsy way of saying this year that I’m not doing a Best Books of 2022, because I don’t want to choose! If I have told you all about a book this year, either on Twitter or Instagram – then I have loved it. If you want me to personally recommend some cracking reads to you, you can always ask me and I’m more than happy to help. Truthfully, and for full transparency, I haven’t loved every book I have read this year, and as my ethos on Years Of Reading is that life is too short to read books you don’t love, of course there have been books that weren’t for me but I felt no shame in not finishing them.

Becoming a full time carer has also shifted my priorities and perspective a bit to be honest. Now, more than ever, being able to pick up a book after a long, sometimes challenging, sometimes fabulous day has felt more and more like a delicious treat to be savoured. I don’t want to pick out the books I have loved the most, because all of the ones I have read and loved this year have given me different things at different times for different reasons, and made 2022 much more bearable.

To every author whose book I loved and raved about, to all the authors who wrote such incredible books and introduced me to worlds and places and people and things I had never met before, I hope you understand what an impact you had.

To all the authors whose books found their way onto my shelves and into my hands this year. I hope you know that your words and stories brought me delight, comfort, solace and hope on days when the world seemed too much to take in, and your books were the escape I needed.

Here’s to 2023 and all the stories that I can’t wait to read and the books I can’t wait to shout about on Years Of Reading Selfishly.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous New Year,

Lots of love,

Clare

xxx