Apple unveils the top books of 2023 and a new Year in Review experience

Apple Books is the single destination for all the books and audiobooks readers love, featuring the ability to set Reading Goals, organize books into collections, share purchases using Family Sharing, and browse personalized recommendations for new titles.

Today, Apple Books unveiled the top books and audiobooks of 2023 and launched Year in Review, a new in-app experience that helps readers to celebrate the titles, authors, and genres that defined their year. With Year in Review, users can view personalized reading highlights about the books and audiobooks they enjoyed in 2023, including their total time spent reading, the longest book or audiobook they read, the series they completed, their most-read author and genre, and their highest-rated book – all presented in a simple and engaging experience with visuals that are easy to share.

Here’s how to access Year in Review on Apple Books:

Year in Review is available on iPhone and iPad within the Read Now tab under Top Picks to users with at least three titles marked as finished.

To add books or audiobooks, readers can tap and hold on any book in the app and choose Mark as Finished. To change the finished date shown, users can hold down on the book and select Edit Finished Date. For titles read elsewhere, such as in hardcover or paperback, users can search for them in Apple Books and select Mark as Finished to add them to their Year in Review.

Year in Review uses anonymized reader insights to determine a personal reading type. There are six reader types to discover, including The Contemporary for readers of trendy titles; The Completist for readers of multiple books in a series; The Seeker for nonfiction readers; The Wanderer for multigenre readers; The Deep Diver for single-genre readers; or The Free Spirit for readers with wide-ranging interests across the book world.

At the end of a user’s Year in Review, they can see an overview of their year in Books, featuring the total books read and total minutes spent reading, with an accompanying grid of book covers they’ve finished.

To close the chapter on a remarkable year, Apple Books published the Best of 2023, an editorially curated collection of standout books and audiobooks across a variety of genres, and the most popular titles of the year. Topping the charts in many countries were two prominent celebrity memoirs that bookended 2023: Prince Harry’s Spare in January and Britney Spears’s The Woman in Me, narrated by actor Michelle Williams, in October. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros was also a must-read for fans of romance and fantasy during the spring and summer. Check out the most popular books and audiobooks of 2023 and browse the top charts for all titles on Apple Books.

Top Nonfiction Books of 2023

1. Spare by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex
2. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
3. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
4. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford
5. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

Top Fiction Books of 2023

1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
2. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
3. Happy Place by Emily Henry
4. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
5. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Top Nonfiction Audiobooks of 2023

1. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
2. Spare by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex
3. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford
4. The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
5. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

Top Fiction Audiobooks of 2023

1. Only the Dead by Jack Carr
2. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
3. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
4. Happy Place by Emily Henry
5. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Availability

• Year in Review is available for free for Apple Books users in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S.
• Year in Review is available on iPhone with iOS 17.1 and iPad with iPadOS 17.1.
• Users can share purchased titles with up to five family members using Family Sharing.