Well one hell of a year in the books and not always in a good way. I know I’m late on this since here it is February already. The start to 2024 was so busy so far I hardly have any time to sit down and write. I had even hoped to post more here. Let’s see if I can hold to that.
So a New Year starts with resolutions. This is where we try to think up ways we are going to better ourselves and hope for a better year ahead. Are we kidding ourselves? Is this all fantasy thoughts because we had way too much food and drink between Christmas and the New Year?
Personally, I know I will never keep any resolution I set for myself. I’m not a driven self improving person. I dedicate myself to a lot of external responsibilities. I hate to quit or give up when it comes to to everything except myself. I have grudges I have held for years for better or worse, but when it comes to looking inward and working to improve me, I will drop it like a hot pan and no pot holder.
Now here is where the hypocrite and personal contradiction comes in. I know I will not finish my self improvement goals, but that doesn’t mean I don’t sort of try. I use the end of the year for reflection. What goals did I set? How many of them did I complete and why didn’t I complete others?
I love a good end of the year wrap up. When I was doing my old blog, I did these every year. Since I started over I did import my old posts and now they are housed here for your reading pleasure (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017) . Feel free to read the previous wrap ups and judge my 2023 all you want. I sure did 🤣.
Here is my end of year wrap up. Warning, this may be a long one. So feel free to find the sections you are interested in and read what you want. I’m just glad you’re here at the bar.
2023 GoodReads Reading Challenge
Way back in the day (2011) when I first set up a GoodReads account, I was working a brainless tech job fixing cell phones for Sprint. I listened to and read a lot of books. I had goals set at 75 or a 100 for the year and I was making those goals as well as surpassing them. In 2013, I finally got what I refer to as a big boy job. However, since my beautiful daughter was born that year and we had a 3 year old son, I was working 2 jobs. That began the decrease in books read in a year. I was exhausted. Currently I average around 20-30 a year.
2023 I set a goal of 30 books. Due exhaustion, mental health issues, and a general lack of free time I missed my goal by 9 books. I read some great books though so no real complaints here. Check out my list.
The best books I read in 2023 were both 5 star reviews from me, and those were The Last Thing He Told Me and Unwind. Both books I read because of others. My son in his AP English class was in charge of his reading group and chose Unwind because he loved Scythe. He was falling out of love with reading and refused to actually read what was required. So he and I listened to the Audio Book together and I LOVED IT!!!! The Last thing He Told Me was one my wife was given by a friend of ours and she loved it so much she made it her book club pick. I read it and was destroyed when it was over it was that good. I have yet to watch the Apple+ series with one of my celebrity crushes Jennifer Garner, but I will this year.
As to my least favorites… I was very fortunate to pick some really good reads this year. The lowest rating i had was 3 out of 5 and there were a good amount that I wont list here. Let’s let this category be positive only.
Watching 365 Horror Movies, Sitcoms, True Crime, Shorts, What Have You all year long. #Horror366Challenge
Of course I always like to make things difficult for myself. “Make your own rule” challenge accepted. I decided I was going to try and watch 365 Horror movies I have never seen before. i figured this would be easy. I work from home and always have something on in the background be music or a movie.
I watched 291 movies. A lot were stinkers, but I was still glad I watched them. If you would like to see my full list and the ratings check it out at LetterBox. Here is the list:
I may have watched a lot of stinkers, but there were some amazing movies in that list. Quite a few I gave 5 🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃 and added to my favorites. Here are my top Horror movies of 2023:
- Evil Dead Rise
- Haunted Mansion (2023)
- His House
- It’s a Wonderful Knife
- M3GAN
- The Menu
- Renfield
- We Have a Ghost
I may not have reached my goal but I am still impressed with how many new to me Horror movies I watched. That being said, I missed watching my favorites. I missed my holiday horror watches all because I was focused on only new to me. This year is going to be different.
How was your 2023? Did you have goals you completed? What do you wish you would have done differently? Let me mix you another drink and you can tell me about your year.
Brunner's Bar 
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