This will be the third year I’ve taken part in this reading and blogging challenge, hosted most ably by Cathy at 746Books, running from 1 June to 1 September 2023. The sign up page and logo are here. You can also use the hashtag #20BooksOfSummer23 wherever you please.
It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Just pick 20 books, then you have three months to read and blog about them. Any type, any length, physical books, audiobooks or e-books, or a combination of the three. If you want to change books, no problem. If you haven’t got the time or inclination to read 20, pick 10 or 15. But which 10 or 15 or 20? That’s the difficult bit!
Plans
My plan this year was to pick longer books because if I can persuade myself to pass them on once I’ve read them, that will make more space on the shelves. I don’t mean empty space, oh no! That would only get dusty. But it would be rather nice to have all the books on my TBR on a proper bookshelf somewhere in the house, rather than in the back room in banana boxes. We now have a free bedroom which is going to become my study, with extra bookshelves and a desk of my own. At last! Of course, I can’t pick just 20, so I’ve narrowed it down to 30, plus some e-ARCs I have signed up to on NetGalley. Decision-making was never my strong point…
The list
My list is subdivided into three monthly themes (senses/feelings, calendar and water), which come from a reading challenge on BookCrossing.com. Plus some travel books, as it’s summer, a book I’ve borrowed and want to return, then the ARCs. And last of all, I’ve kept the list of those poor books which I nearly picked, but decided to read at a later date. Maybe they’ll make it on to next year’s list.

Senses/feelings
- The Man Who Spoke Snakish (2007), Andrush Kivirähk, trans. Christopher Mosely
- Dreamland (2021), Rosa Rankin-Gee
- Heimwee naar de jungle (The Lost Steps) (1953), Alejo Carpentier, trans. J.G. Rijkmans
- Invisible Women (2019), Caroline Criado Perez NF
- Dear Fatty (2008), Dawn French NF
Calendar
- Neverwhere (1997), Neil Gaiman
- Spring (2019, Ali Smith
- Summer (2020), Ali Smith
- The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022), Shehan Karunatilaka
- The Thursday Murder Club (2020), Richard Osman
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010), David Mitchell
- Time Shelter (2020), Georgi Gospodinov
- The Enchanted April (1922), Elizabeth von Arnim
- Buiten is het maandag (2003), Bernlef
- A View of the Empire at Sunset (2018), Caryl Phillips
Water
- The Hungry Tide (2004), Amitav Ghosh
- The Sea Lady (2006), Margaret Drabble
- Watermelon (1995), Marian Keyes
- Fingersmith (2002), Sarah Waters 1001
- Waiting for the Waters to Rise (2010), Maryse Condé
Travel
- The Places in Between (2004), Rory Stewart NF
- The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment (2019) , Amelia Gentleman NF
- Africa is Not a Country (2022), Dipo Faloyin
Borrowed
- Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy (2014), Jeff Vandermeer
Digital ARCs via NetGalley
- Taking Flight (2023), Lev Parikian
- The Octopus in the Parking Garage: A Call for Climate Resilience (2023), Rob Verchick
- Mild Vertigo (1997), Mieke Kanai, trans. Polly Barton pub. 21/6 (Fitzcarraldo) 192pp
- Mystery book (2023) pub. 6/7
- Red Smoking Mirror (2023), Nick Hunt, pub. 6/7
Understudies (maybe next year?)
- Waarom het leven sneller gaat als je ouder wordt, Douwe Decker NF
- Calamiteitenleer voor gevorderden< Marisha Pessl
- Mijn zoon heeft een seksleven en ik lees mijn moeder Roodkapje voor, Renate Dorrestein
- A Widow for One Year, John Irving
- The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Kate Summerscale NF
- If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller, Italo Calvino 1001
- Saturday, Ian McEwan
- Earthsea, Ursula le Guin
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
- Salt on Your Tongue, Charlotte Runcie NF
- The Scent of Water or The Child from the Sea, Elizabeth Goudge
- The Kingdom by the Sea, Paul Theroux NF
- In Siberia, Colin Thubron NF
- Islands of Abandonment, Cal Flyn NF
- Seeking Robinson Crusoe, Tim Severin NF
- Pachinko, Min Jin Lee
- The Song of Wirrun, Patricia Wrightson
- South Riding, Winifred Holtby
- Utopia for Realists, Rutger Bregman
As usual, I’m really looking forward to taking part in this challenge and seeing what everyone else is going to read. I very much doubt I’ll manage 20 this year, given the length of some of them, but I’m going to have a good go at it. Last year I managed it by the skin of my teeth, but only because I was confined to my bed in the attic for a fortnight. Something tells me I won’t get away with that twice.