I finally got back into reading! Over winter break 2022, I started the Stormlight Archive then followed up in 2023 by reading the entirety of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere, as well as a some other fantasy, science fiction, and literary fiction. Here’s the list.

  1. Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive #3) by Brandon Sanderson
  2. Rhythm of War (Stormlight Archive #4) by Brandon Sanderson
  3. The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson
  4. The Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2) by Brandon Sanderson
  5. The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) by Brandon Sanderson
  6. The Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4) by Brandon Sanderson
  7. Shadows of Self (Mistborn #5) by Brandon Sanderson
  8. The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn #6) by Brandon Sanderson
  9. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
  10. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
  11. The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #1) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  12. The Angel’s Game (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #2) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  13. The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson
  14. The Hope of Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
  15. The Eleventh Metal by Brandon Sanderson
  16. Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson
  17. Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon Sanderson
  18. Sixth of Dusk by Brandon Sanderson
  19. White Sands by Brandon Sanderson
  20. The Lost Metal (Mistborn #7) by Brandon Sanderson
  21. Edgedancer (Stormlight Archive #2.5) by Brandon Sanderson
  22. What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
  23. Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
  24. The Prisoner of Heaven (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #3) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  25. The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss
  26. The Wise Man’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2) by Patrick Rothfuss
  27. The Labyrinth of Spirits (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #4) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  28. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
  29. Hyperion (The Hyperion Cantos #1) by Dan Simmons
  30. The Fall of Hyperion (The Hyperion Cantos #2) by Dan Simmons
  31. Dawnshard (Stormlight Archive #3.5) by Brandon Sanderson
  32. The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
  33. All Systems Red (Murderbot Dairies #1) by Martha Wells
  34. Endymion (The Hyperion Cantos #3) by Dan Simmons
  35. The Rise of Endymion (The Hyperion Cantos #4) by Dan Simmons
  36. A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine
  37. A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan #2) by Arkady Martine
  38. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  39. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
  40. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  41. Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown
  42. Golden Son (Red Rising Saga #2) by Pierce Brown
  43. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Cosmere moments I really enjoyed (spoilers):

  1. Every single oath (finished or not), particularly Elhokar and Eshonai
  2. I guessed the twist in Tress of the Emerald Sea
  3. Kelsier’s not dead!
  4. Dalinar Kholin’s entire character arc
  5. Wayne, Pattern, and Nightblood being hilarious
  6. Michael Kramer and Kate Reading’s voices
  7. All the tidbits in Sunlit Man… I can’t wait for Stormlight 5 to fill in some of the gaps.

Other non-Cosmere highlights (spoilers):

  1. Narrator reveal at the end of The Labyrinth of Spirits
  2. Anna Karenina’s inner monologue as she commits suicide was devastating
  3. Rothfuss’s prose is like honey
  4. The messiah arc in the second Hyperion duology is really nice. It’s a much better version of the awful “love connects the universe” cliché at the end of Interstellar that actually creates plot- and character-driven relevance.

Disappointments:

  1. Knowing the Doors of Stone might never come out but reading Kingkiller Chronicle #1 and #2 anyway
  2. I didn’t like that All Systems Red had the entire plot get resolved off-screen. My sisters were really hoping I’d like this book, and I was only neutral. I’ll still give the next one a try.
  3. I missed the Year of Sanderson Kickstarter (and the hilarity of the announcement video). I hadn’t really started until after.
  4. The Russian classics were pretty slow, but I guess that’s how it goes.

My goal in 2024 is to read more books from different genres, especially ones I’ve never touched before.