best reads of 2023

I read 141 books last year. I read 30 sci-fi novels. The best of them was Harry Harrison’s semi-comic space opera adventure romp The Stainless Steel Rat (1961).

I read 37 crime novels in 2023. The highlight was Lawrence Block’s The Girl with the Long Green Heart from 1965. I just love novels about con-artists. And this is a great one.

In 2023 I read 29 books that could at least vaguely be called spy stories. If I had to pick one highlight it would be Peter O'Donnell's The Black Pearl, a collection of four Modesty Blaise comic-strip adventures.

And last year I read 20 books fitting vaguely into the thriller/adventure genres. My favourite was Ian MacAlister's superb "treasure hunt in the desert" tale Valley of the Assassins.