Book Plan Update - November

At the start of 2015, 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)
• In September, I didn't read very much - I did read a couple of longish books, but I've just been so busy that not much reading got done (4 titles removed, 4 titles added: net result +/- 0)
• In October, I read/got rid of slightly more than I bought (8 titles removed, 7 added; net result -1)

How about November: 

• I  read 2 titles from my list (The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman, One Night in Winter, Simon Sebag Montefiore)
• and removed one which I started, but just couldn't get into (The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood)
• I read 3 library books (Ranger's Apprentice: Ruins of Gurlan by John Flanagan, The Song Collector by Natasha Solmons, Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs)
• I re-read two books I already owned, before giving it to the charity shop (Liar and Bones, both by Jan Burke)
• I bought 1 book from Waterstones online to bring a Christmas present order up to the free shipping level (Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo)
• I got 3 books as birthday presents (Dreaming Spies by Laurie R King, The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins, Lisette's List by Susan Vreeland)

November's tally is therefore...

books read: 7

titles removed: 3,  titles added: 4 ; net result +1

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2015.  There are now 45 books on the list, with 1 month to go. That's still a lot of books, but fewer than I started the year with. And are only 11 books on the list were there at the start of the year  [Books with an asterisk].

1. Jo Baker, Longbourn (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
2. Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows (Waterstones online, November 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. Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead (AbeBooks, October 2015)
8. Wilkie Collins, The Haunted Hotel (birthday present, November 2015)
9. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (this one would be a re-read) *
10. Arthur Conan Doyle, Adventure of Sherlock Holmes (World of Books, October 2015)
11. Rene Denfield, The Enchanted (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
12. Anthony Doerr, All the Light we Cannot See (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
13. Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (Waterstones Kingston, March 2015)
14. Hans Fallada, Alone in Berlin (car boot sale, Bristol, Sept 2015)
15. Nathan Filer, The Shock of the Fall (charity shop, August 2015)
16. 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...) *
17. E M Forster, Howards End (late 2014) *
18. 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...) *
19. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South *
20. Graham Greene, Brighton Rock *
21. Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree (Waterstones Durham, August 2015)
22. Smith Henderson, Fourth of July Creek (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
23. Anjali Joseph, Saraswati Park *
24. Laurie R King, Dreaming Spies (birthday present, November 2015)
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. Kim Newman, An English Ghost Story (The Last Bookshop, Brisol, Sept 2015)
29. David Nicholls, Us (Waterstones Durham, August 2015)
30. Kate O'Brien, The Land of Spices *
31. Liliane Paul, The Bees (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
32. Peter Robinson, Abbatoir Blues (charity shop, August 2015)
33. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Prisoner of Heaven (charity shop, August 2015)
34. Jane Smiley, Some Luck (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
35. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Barnes & Noble (in MD), Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen) *
36. Dana Stabenow, Play with Fire (charity shop, August 2015)
37. Andrew Taylor, The Anatomy of Ghosts (passed on from Geoff, April 2015)
38. Rosie Thomas, The Illusionists (WH Smith, May 2015)
39. Rose Tremaine, Merivel (Birthday, 2014) *
40. Anne Tyler, A Spool of Blue Thread (World of Books, October 2015)
41. Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in her Navel  *
42. Susan Vreeland, Lisette's List (birthday present, November 2015)
43. William Wharton, Birdy (The Last Bookshop, Bristol, Sept 2015)
44. Niall Williams, Only Say the Word (charity shop, August 2015)
45. Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A J Firky (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)