Book Plan for 2015

While I AM the type of person to obsessively make lists about things, I don't usually plan out what books I am going to read in the coming year - and I still don't intend to do that. What I do intend to do, though, is try to read as many of the books which I own, which are on my unread/to be read shelf as I can, and (here's the really tricky part) not buy any more books, even in charity shops.  I'm not really sure I can actually do that, so I'm going to allow myself a couple of freebies - unplanned ones. But I'm going to try hard.  I will, however, allow myself to take some books from the library - I have a couple of series which I am looking forward to finishing this year, and there are two or three books on my list of things I'd really like to read which I will either order from the library or ask for, for Mother's Day or Birthday presents.

The picture above of course isn't a prediction of which ones I will choose for my favourites of 2015 (though I wouldn't be surprised if some of them appear on it), but I wanted something visual in the post, to keep it from being boring. Most of the titles used in the collage are either ones I've read before or books by authors I've read other books by. But not all of them.

To help myself out with this monumental reading task, I'm going to make a list of all the books which are on my shelf and then I can cross them through when I either read them, start to read them, decide I don't like them and send them to the charity shop, or decide I'm never going to read them and send them away unread (this probably won't happen with many, as I have winnowed this selection down quite a bit already).

In the past, I've done a monthly review of books read (not all the time, but often) - I'm not going to do that in 2015, as it frequently becomes this hideous task looming over me and I have to work up a lot of effort to do it - or at least, it feels that way - instead, I'm just going to do a little mini blurb about each book as I read them - far more easy (I hope) to keep up with...

Anyway. To kick that off, here's the list of books I have waiting around to read - some of these are books by authors I've read and enjoyed before, some are books I've always meant to read but haven't got around to, some are books that looked interesting in the bookshop/charity shop/whatever, a few might even be gifts I've received which I haven't got to yet. And one or two are books I've read a long time ago and want to read again. I think there are about fifty of them, but I haven't counted (though I will once the list is made!) Most of these, I don't know how long I've had them, though a few I can date - and then feel guilty about not having read yet!

1. Karin Altenberg, Island of Wings
2. James Anderson, The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy
3. Gerhand Bakker, The Twin
4. The Small Hours, Susie Boyt
5. Bill Bryson, One Summer: America 1927
6. Michael Collins, The Resurrectionists
7. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (this one would be a re-read)
8. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
9. Jim Crace, Harvest
10. Esi Edugyan, Half Blood Blues
11. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
12. Jim Fergus, One Thousand White Women (Summer 2013)
13. Anne Fine, All Bones and Lies
14. Ford Maddox Ford, Parade's End (Nov 2012 - birthday present - bought after the BBC adaptation - but I knew I wouldn't read it straight away as I wanted to let time pass from the adaptation.  Enough time has probably passed now...)
15. E M Forster, Howards End
16. Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Christmas 2014)
17. Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career
18. Robert Galbraith, The Cuckoo's Calling
19. Patrick Gale, Rough Music
20. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (re-read, bought shortly after his death - spring 2014 - as I was reminded how much I enjoyed it)
21. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
22. Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm
23. Rumer Godden, Kingfishers Catch Fire
24. Laurie Graham, A Humble Companion
25. Graham Greene, Brighton Rock
26. Nicholas Griffin, The House of Sight and Shadow
27. Jane Haddam, Glass Houses
28. Laurell K Hamilton, Bloody Bones
29. Samantha Hunt, The Seas
30. Jennifer Johnston, Foolish Mortals (Autumn 2014 - charity shop find)
31. Anjali Joseph, Sarasawati Park
32. Jim Lynch, The Highest Tide
33. W Somerset Maugham, The Magician
34. Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs
35. Kate Morton, The Distant Hours
36. Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran
37. Kate O'Brien, The Land of Spices
38. Regina O'Melveny, The Book of Madness and Cures
39. Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table
40. Anuradha Roy, An Atlas of Impossible Longing (Winter 2013, bought in a cheap shop in Oxford)
41. Kathy Reichs, Spider Bones
42. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Watcher in the Shadows (Christmas 2014)
43. Richard Russo, Straight Man
44. Simon Sebag Montefiore, One Night in Winter
45. Muriel Spark, Memento Mori
46. Mark Slouka, The Visible World
47. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen)
48. Magda Szabo, The Door
49. Amy Tan, The Valley of Amazement
50. Scarlett Thomas, Pop Co
51. Barbara Trapido, Frankie and Stankie
52. Rose Tremaine, Merivel
53. Rose Tremaine, Music & Silence
54. Barry Unsworth, Losing Nelson
55. Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in her Navel
56. Ayelet Waldman, Love and Treasure (new in December 2014)
57. December, Elizabeth Winthrop

So there they are - 57 books I own which I want to get through before buying (many) more books. I know there are a few I will borrow from the library during 2015 - one, indeed, is already reserved, though Geoff will read it first (Foxglove Summer, Ben Aaronovitch - the latest in a series we both like) - I will finish off the Southern Vampire mysteries by Charlaine Harris, there's one more Louise Penny I haven't read, I want to read The Miniaturist, there's a new Marilynne Robinson out...  Life needs to be more full of free time, so I can read more!  Still - I read around 100 books in 2013 and quite a few in 2014, so 57 in 2015 shouldn't be impossible, even with a few sidesteps.  Wish me luck!