Book Plan Update - January

At the start of the year, I made a plan (I don't really like the word "resolution" - adds too much pressure to my life!) to try to read through books I owned, and not buy any new books until I'd made a substantial reduction in the books I owned. I did, however, allow myself library books (both those I order in because they are part of a series I'm reading and those which I happen to see which take my fancy) and a few gifts, e.g. birthday and Mother's Day. (My birthday's not until November, so I don't see that helping a lot, but Mother's Day here is in March, so I know I've already asked for one book - I might allow myself a second if there's something I really want).

So, first month gone, how'd I do?

• I didn't buy any new (to me) books, either from book shops or charity shops, so that's a good first step.
• I did read some library books - three ordered in series that I'm reading (Ben Aaronovitch, Foxglove Summer; Louise Penny, The Long Way Home; Charlaine Harris, Dead Reckoning), and two that I saw on the shelf and fancied (Katharine Webb, The Night Falling; Patrick Ness/Siobhan Dowd, A Monster Calls (this one I've been meaning to read for a while after reading very good things about it)).  In two of these series, I am now caught up to as many books as the authors have written (and one just came out in December) so it's going to be a while before I can get my hands on another unless they WRITE FASTER. 
• There were a couple of re-reads from the books I own, including the book that Alex and I were reading aloud as a bedtime book. (Georgette Heyer, Arabella; Richard Adams, Watership Down)
• I managed to read two titles from my list. (Barbara Trapido, Frankie and Stankie; Samantha Hunt, The Seas)

So, although I only crossed two titles off my list of books I own but haven't read, I didn't add any (and actually, I'm over half way through another one, but I won't finish it today, so it will count as a February book).  Perhaps not quite as many off the list as I'd like, but so far, so good. And it's likely there won't be as many library books next month, as the only thing I've ordered recently are a couple of combine cookbook/memoirs.

So, here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2015. Yep, there are still 55 books on this list, and 11 months to go. That's 5 books from the shelf each month. Is that going to happen? Probably not, but if I can get through 3 or 4 each month, I'll be pretty happy.  And you never know.  One thing that will help is if I just don't go inside the library, so I don't get distracted by books on the "new books" shelf!

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. Jennifer Johnston, Foolish Mortals (Autumn 2014 - charity shop find)
30. Anjali Joseph, Sarasawati Park
31. Jim Lynch, The Highest Tide
32. W Somerset Maugham, The Magician
33. Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs
34. Kate Morton, The Distant Hours
35. Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran
36. Kate O'Brien, The Land of Spices
37. Regina O'Melveny, The Book of Madness and Cures
38. Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table
39. Anuradha Roy, An Atlas of Impossible Longing (Winter 2013, bought in a cheap shop in Oxford)
40. Kathy Reichs, Spider Bones
41. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Watcher in the Shadows (Christmas 2014)
42. Richard Russo, Straight Man
43. Simon Sebag Montefiore, One Night in Winter
44. Muriel Spark, Memento Mori
45. Mark Slouka, The Visible World
46. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen)
47. Magda Szabo, The Door
48. Amy Tan, The Valley of Amazement
49. Scarlett Thomas, Pop Co
50. Rose Tremaine, Merivel
51. Rose Tremaine, Music & Silence
52. Barry Unsworth, Losing Nelson
53. Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in her Navel
54. Ayelet Waldman, Love and Treasure (new in December 2014)
55. December, Elizabeth Winthrop