My 2023 Reading and Viewing Stats

Happy New Year and welcome 2024!  The new year leads us to reflect back on the past year, and once again, I am grateful to @eyeoncanon who at the end of 2020 shared a short list of personal reading and viewing stats for the year.  I took his idea, which I wrote about here, and have kept my yearly stats since 2021.  Over the last few years, I have modified what I keep track of and added a few categories myself.  

                                                2023        2022            2021

Movies watched:              26            21              31
Rewatch:                         10             13             16
First time:                        16              8              15
Viewed in a theater:                 8                N/A            N/A

TV series (streamed):
Episodes:                      149            111            86
Rewatch:                        90              25            40
First time:                        59              86            46

Books read:                    18               13            21
Graphic Novels:                2                 4            6
Fiction:                           12                  8            12
Nonfiction:                        4                 0              3
Pages read:              4,703           2,895        4195

Books abandoned:            1                  2            0
Pages read:                  154               N/A

Podcast Episodes:          N/A              N/A        N/A
Fiction:                            
Nonfiction:
Time listened:              

Audiobooks:                     1                     1            3
Fiction:                                                    1            3
Nonfiction:                         1                    0            0

Short Stories:                                                         8
Pages read:                                                        244

Comic books read:          94                 142         164
Digital:                             30                   42           64
Print:                                64                 100         100

Book Titles:
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Slaying the Dragon by Ben Riggs
The Loop by Ben Oliver
Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves The Road to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson
Dragons of Winter Night: Dragonlance Chronicles Book II by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Astral Adventurers Guide
To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
High Republic: The Edge of Balance Vol. 1 (graphic novel)
High Republic: the Edge of Balance Vol. 2
Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith by Christopher Adam
Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
Cleric Quintet: Book 3 The Night Masks by R.A. Salvatore
DragonLance: Dragons of Fate by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist
The Legends of Drizzt Visual Dictionary by Michael Witwer
Vivian Van Tassel and the Secret of Midnight Lake by Michael Witwer
Being Henry by Henry Winkler (audiobook)

Movie Titles:
Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Super Mario Bros.
Murder Mystery 2
The Speed Cubers
Inside the Mind of a Cat
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Air
The Little Mermaid
Across the Spider-verse
Glass Onion Knives Out
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Star Wars The Phantom Menace
Star Wars The Clone Wars
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
A Few Good Men
The Barbie Movie
Galaxy Quest
The Haunted Mansion
Aladdin
Miracle on 34th Street
Home Alone
Elf
Disney's A Christmas Carol

TV Streaming Series:
The Bad Batch Season 2
The Crown Season 1
The Crown Season 2
The Book of Boba Fett
Mandalorian season 2
Tales of the Jedi Season 1
Mandalorian season 3
Visions Season 2
Rebels Season 1
Rebels Season 2
Rebels Season 3
Secret Invasion
The Crown Season 3
Rebels Season 4
Ahsoka
X-Men 92 animated
Loki season 2
Marvel's What If... Season 2
The Crown Season 4

So, one day I will find a cleaner way to display the stats, but I think this shows them well enough to discover there are some interesting details in the numbers above.  My TV streaming and comic book reading seem to show an interesting trend over the three years.  

My TV streaming in 2023 has a sizeable jump.  My rewatches increased and I believe that is a result of rewatches to prepare for a new series.  For example, I rewatched the entire Rebels series to prepare for viewing Ahsoka.  Will this rewatch trend continue?  Hard to tell, but I am gearing up for a Bad Batch rewatch this summer in anticipation of season 3, so the magic 8 ball says "It is decidedly so."  

Comic book reading went down considerably.  It is true; I do not subscribe to as many print comics these days, but my subscription to Marvel Unlimited (not subscribed yet?  Read this) gives me easy access to over 10,000 issues!  What gives?  I suspect time.  I will say though, that the accuracy of reporting may be at fault here.  There are times I binge 10-15 comics (yes, that is a binge for me) over a weekend and I can't remember if I recorded them or not.  To not over-inflate numbers, I error on not reporting rather than double reporting.  I need to do better.  

Being a podcaster (CWK Pourover and Teachers in the Dungeon), I don't listen to nearly enough podcast episodes, so this year I added a podcast listening category to attempt to motivate me to do more listening to my peers.  There are some amazing podcasts out there, and I need to do a better job of listening.  

I also added in the movie category a place to record how many of the movies I watch in theaters.  After the pandemic it was really hard for me to want to return to the theaters.  I found myself just waiting for it to come out on a streaming service.  In 2023, I think I found the love of returning to the theater, but I am interested to see if I continue that trend.  Last year I even considered subscribing to a customer loyalty program at our local theater.  Maybe this is the year.  

To conclude, here are my 2023 favorites as heard on the podcast The Colby Cast where my good friend Colby and I talk about our favorites of 2023 among other topics.  Colby is great and so is his show.  These are all chosen from material I actually watched and read: 

Favorite Book:  Slaying the Dragon by Ben Riggs

Favorite Star Wars Disney + show:  Bad Batch season 2

Favorite Marvel Disney + show: Loki season 2

Favorite Marvel film:  Guardians of the Galaxy 3

Favorite Non-MCU film:  Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Favorite Non-MCU/Star Wars show:  The Crown season 4

Top 5 Marvel Collect Digital Cards of 2023

It is time to continue looking at the top 5 digital cards from Topps.  Marvel Collect is up and there were some really great sets and cards this year that it was difficult to keep up and not completely run out of credits.  These 2023 Marvel Collect cards all come from the rare variant and are, in my opinion, the Top 5 of my collection.  There are many, many more insert sets that I don't have that might very well be much more interesting or coveted, but I am only going with what I've collected.  That said, I may not have succeeded in completing the set, but they are cards that I pulled from those sets.  You might recognize those last three sentences because they came right off the post from last week when I looked at the Top 5 Star Wars Card Trader 2023 cards.  If you didn't get a look at that post, you can click right here and then come back for the Marvel Top 5.  

Here are the Top 5 Marvel Collect cards from the account of CYCLELIBRARIAN: 

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Collection, Major Victory, Series 1 - Galactic Heroes - Static 10,083 Global Count

Okay, so right out of the gate I did a little cheating.  This card is actually from the Uncommon variant, but I knew I had a Major Victory card.  Major Victory is a really cool character with lots of interesting history, and he doesn't make many appearances in the digital card world.  He had to be on my Top 5.  

4. Collector' Reserve '23, Moon Knight, Volume 1 - Across the Universe - Silver, 12,823 Global  Count

Why did this card make my top 4?  Take a minute to look at the art on this card.  It comes right off of the cover of a book or off of a framed picture on the wall.  It is beautiful artwork.  On top of the realism of the card, it has great action where we can guess where he is coming from and where he is going.  What is his next move?  You tell me!  

3.  Avengers/X-Men 60th Anniversary Box, X-Men #6, Series 1 - Anniversary Varients - Group 1 - Red, 12,223 Global Count

I had this cover back in the day, and it is a classic.  It is an appropriate card image for an Anniversary set.  I love the action of the X-Men as they move from left to right on the page with classic poses from Cyclops, Psylocke, and Wolverine front and center.  In the background, the title of the team and book are carved into the mountain, rock solid.  Just awesome!  

2. Artist Spotlight 2023, Cable, Kael Ngu - White - Volume 1, N/A Global Count

First, thank you, Marvel Collect, for this set highlighting the awesome artists of the cards which we love.  Second, thanks for the Cable card.  It is no secret that Cable is my favorite X-Men character, but Kael Ngu pulled the image of how I see Cable right out of my head and put it on this card.  This is why it is number 2 on my Top 5.  

1. Women of Marvel 2023, Elektra, Series 2 - Silver, 8,865 Global Count

This may be more of a tip of the hat to the series than necessarily this card, but I don't think many could argue that this isn't a great card.  That is really the standard of this set that highlights many women of Marvel like Ghost Spider, She-Hulk, Black Cat, Wasp, Magik, and so many more.  Anyway, this card of Electra is just, well, electric.  

I decided to highlight one more card.  It is more of a gold star of my collection as it comes from the highest variant that I have, Epic, and it is the lowest Global Count card in my 2023 collection.  

Artist Spotlight 2023, Spider-man, Gabrielle Dell'Otto - Gold Motion - Volume 1, 127 Global Count

Thanks for taking a look at what I think are the Top 5 Marvel Collect digital cards from 2023 in my collection.  What do you think?  Would you have chosen these cards too?  Do you collect Marvel Collect too?  Give me a follow on the app CYCLELIBRARIAN and give me a follow right here on Seeking Positivity in the Galaxy.