Book Plan Update - April 2016

Continuing in 2016 to make inroads on the books I own (un-read) and not buy too many new ones. Progress to date:

1. January: books removed from list: 7,  books added: 2; net result -5
2. February: books removed from list: 4, books added: 0; net result -4 (total YTD: -9)
3. March: books removed from list: 8, books added:8; net result 0 (total YTD: -9)

In April:

• I  read 5 titles from my list (Howards End by E M Forster, The Bees by Laline Paull, Lisette's List by Susan Vreeland, The Illusionists by Rosie Thomas, The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer)
• I re-read seven books we owned already (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J K Rowling, Summer of the Dragon by Elizabeth Peters, Last Act by Jane Aiken Hodge, Tregaron's Daughter by Madeleine Brent, Whose Body, Clouds of Witness and Unnatural Death by  Dorothy L Sayers)
• I tried & abandoned one title from my list, which I just couldn't get into (Brighton Rock by Graham Greene)
• I read one book which is in the read-and-sent-to-the-charity-shop pile; apparently I've read this before, if I believe my own reading lists (in 2008), but I don't remember it at all, not even that sort of vague familiarity you get with something you read in the dim & distant past. (Bloodlines, Jan Burke)
• I bought one book in a bookshop in Lund while visiting Sweden and read it almost right away, so it didn't really get added to The List (Wolf Winter by Ceclia Ecback)

April's tally is therefore...

books read: 14

books removed from list: 6,  books added: 0; net result -6
[Goal (no more than 1 book in for every two books removed)  achieved/exceeded this month.]

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2016.  There were 55 books at the beginning of January, and now there are 40 - of those, only 5 are left from before 2015. [Books with an asterisk]. 

1. Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins (Waterstones Kingston, January 2016)
2. Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone (AbeBooks, March 2016)
3. Philip Baruth, The Brothers Boswell (Waterstones Canterbury bargain bin, July 2015)
4. Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead (AbeBooks, October 2015)
5. Wilkie Collins, The Haunted Hotel (birthday present, November 2015)
6. Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (Waterstones Kingston, Boxing Day 2015)
7. Arthur Conan Doyle, Adventure of Sherlock Holmes (World of Books, October 2015)
8. Rene Denfield, The Enchanted (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
9. Jean-Paul Didierlaurente, The Reader on the 6.27 (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
10. Hans Fallada, Alone in Berlin (car boot sale, Bristol, Sept 2015)
11. Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
12. 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...) *
13. 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...) *
14. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (2014)*
15. Kate Grenville, The Lieutenant (charity shop, December 2015)
16. Frances Hardinge, A Face Like Glass (Mother's Day present, March 2016)
17. Melissa Harrison, At Hawthorn Time (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
18. Georgette Heyer, A Christmas Party (from my mother, December 2015)
19. Anthony Horowitz, Moriarty (Waterstones Kingston, Boxing Day 2015)
20. Andrew Michael Hurley, The Loney (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
21. Donna Leon, Doctored Evidence (charity shop, December 2015)
22. Maria McCain, The Wilding (charity shop, December 2015)
23. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (charity table, Wetland Centre, May 2015)
24. Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men (charity shop, December 2015)
25. 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)
26. Tom McNeal, Far Far Away (AbeBooks, January 2016)
27. Philipp Meyer, American Rust (charity shop, December 2015)
28. Alice Munro, Runaway (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
29. Kim Newman, An English Ghost Story (The Last Bookshop, Brisol, Sept 2015)
30. Flannery O'Connor, Complete Stories (charity shop, December 2015)
31. Elizabeth Redfern, The Music of the Spheres  (charity shop, December 2015)
32. Peter Robinson, Bad Boy  (charity shop, December 2015)
33. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Prisoner of Heaven (charity shop, August 2015)
34. Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways  (Mother's Day present, March 2016)
35. Jane Smiley, Some Luck (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
36. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Barnes & Noble (in MD), Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen) *
37. Matthew Thomas, We Are Not Ourselves (Waterstones Kingston, Boxing Day 2015)
38. Rose Tremain, Tresspass (charity shop, December 2015)
39. Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in her Navel (2014) *
40. William Wharton, Birdy (The Last Bookshop, Bristol, Sept 2016