Book Plan Update - September

Back in January, I  made a plan to try to read through books I owned, and not buy new books until I'd made a substantial reduction in the (unread) books I already had. I've been tracking my progress/recidivism:

• In January I didn't gain any books, but also didn't remove many titles from my list as I read a lot of library books and had some re-reads. (2 titles removed, 0 added; net result -2)
• In February, I made bigger inroads in my owned titles (7 titles removed, 1 added; net result -6)
• In March, well, you win some, you lose some (4 titles removed, 10 titles added; net result +6)
• In April, better, but not perfect (6 titles removed, 7 added; net result +1)
• Not too bad in May, either (5 titles removed, 6 added; net result +1)
• Great inroads in June (11 titles removed, 3 added; net result -8)
• Well done for July, as well (10 titles removed, 2 added; net result -8)
• In August, there was a lot of book-buying (8 titles removed, 13 titles added; net result +5)

Let's see what September brings: 

• I managed to read 4 titles from my list (Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan, Virals by Kathy Reichs, The Resurrectionists by Michael Collins, One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus)
• I bought two books in a cheap shop in Bristol (An English Ghost Story by Kim Newman, Birdy by William Wharton) and one book at a car boot sale (Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada)
• I liberated one book from the parent swap shelf at school (I've donated lots to the shelf in my time) (Hanging by a Thread by Monica Ferris)
• I read 1 library book this month (Vendetta by Michael Dibdin)

September's tally is therefore...

books read: 5

titles removed: 4,  titles added: 4 ; net result +/-0

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2015.  There are now 45 books on the list, with 3 months to go - so that's 15 per month if I buy/receive no more books before the end of the year (unlikely with both a birthday and Christmas to come!). Obviously, that's not going to happen - I only got 5 books read in September and the run up to Christmas is no less busy (though  Valley of Amazement was particularly long, which didn't help). [Books with an asterisk are ones which were on the list at the start of the year.]

1. Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (charity shop, March 2015)
2. Jo Baker, Longbourn (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
3. Philip Baruth, The Brothers Boswell (Waterstones Canterbury bargain bin, July 2015)
4. Laura Beatty, Darkling (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
5. Charlotte Betts, The Apothecary's Daughter (Waterstones Kingston, March 2015)
6. Stephen Burke, The Good Italian (Fiumicino Airport, July 2015)
7. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (this one would be a re-read) *
8. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles *
9. Anthony Doerr, All the Light we Cannot See (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
10. Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (Waterstones Kingston, March 2015)
11. Hans Fallada, Alone in Berlin (car boot sale, Bristol, Sept 2015)
12. Monica Ferris, Hanging by a Thread (swap shelf at school, Sept 2015)
13. Nathan Filer, The Shock of the Fall (charity shop, August 2015)
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 (late 2014) *
16. Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career *
17. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (would be a re-read, bought shortly after his death - spring 2014 - as I was reminded how much I enjoyed it and I didn't seem to own a copy - think my old one fell apart, probably...) *
18. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South *
19. Graham Greene, Brighton Rock *
20. Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree (Waterstones Durham, August 2015)
21. Emma, Healey, Elizabeth is Missing (Waterstones Durham, August 2015)
22. Smith Henderson, Fourth of July Creek (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
23. Alice Hoffman, The Museum of Extraordinary Things (Waterstones online, June 2015)
24. Anjali Joseph, Saraswati Park *
25. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (charity table, Wetland Centre, May 2015)
26. John McGregor, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (charity shop, April 2015 - will be a re-read as have read it in (apparently) October 2004 for a book group)
27. Tom McNeal, Goodnight, Nebraska (AbeBooks, March 2015)
28. Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran *
29. Patrick Ness, The Crane Wife (charity shop, April 2015)
30. Kim Newman, An English Ghost Story (The Last Bookshop, Brisol, Sept 2015)
31. David Nicholls, Us (Waterstones Durham, August 2015)
32. Kate O'Brien, The Land of Spices *
33. Peter Robinson, Abbatoir Blues (charity shop, August 2015)
34. Anuradha Roy, An Atlas of Impossible Longing (Winter 2013, bought in a cheap shop in Oxford) *
35. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Prisoner of Heaven (charity shop, August 2015)
36. Simon Sebag Montefiore, One Night in Winter (Waterstones Piccadilly, not sure of date) *
37. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Barnes & Noble (in MD), Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen) *
38. Dana Stabenow, A Cold Day for Murder (charity shop, August 2015)
39. Dana Stabenow, Play with Fire (charity shop, August 2015)
40. Andrew Taylor, The Anatomy of Ghosts (passed on from Geoff, April 2015)
41. Rosie Thomas, The Illusionists (WH Smith, May 2015)
42. Rose Tremaine, Merivel (Birthday, 2014) *
43. Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in her Navel  *
44. William Wharton, Birdy (The Last Bookshop, Bristol, Sept 2015)
45. Niall Williams, Only Say the Word (charity shop, August 2015)