Book Plan Update - June 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)
4. April: books removed from list: 6, books added: 0; net result -6 (total YTD: -15)
5. May: books removed from list: 6, books added: 4; net result -2 (total YTD: -17)

In June:

• I read 2 books from my list (If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by John MacGregor, Birdy by William Wharton)
• I started (but couldn't get into) 1 book from my list (The Ruby in her Navel by Barry Unsworth - this one has been on the list for several years, so it was good to get it off there)
• and tried but abandoned  book which was in the house already but wasn't on my list (The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux - I know the story is good, but the writing is kind of clunky)
• I re-read two books we already own (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling and The Stand by Stephen King) - in terms of numbers of pages, these two alone probably equal my total for some months!
• I finished one book which has been hanging about mostly read (The Girl Who Soared Above Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, Catherynne M Valente)

June's tally is therefore...

books read: 5

books removed from list: 3,  books added: 0 ; net result -3
[Goal (no more than 1 book added to the list 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 35 - of those, only 4 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. Jean-Paul Didierlaurente, The Reader on the 6.27 (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
9. Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
10. Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl  (charity shop, May 2016)
11. 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...) *
12. 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...) *
13. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (2014)*
14. Kate Grenville, The Lieutenant (charity shop, December 2015)
15. Frances Hardinge, A Face Like Glass (Mother's Day present, March 2016)
16. Melissa Harrison, At Hawthorn Time (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
17. Georgette Heyer, A Christmas Party (from my mother, December 2015)
18. Antonia Hodgkin, The Devil in the Marshalsea (charity shop, May 2016)
19. Andrew Michael Hurley, The Loney (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
20. Maria McCain, The Wilding (charity shop, December 2015)
21. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (charity table, Wetland Centre, May 2015)
22. Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men (charity shop, December 2015)
23. Darragh McKeon, All That is Solid Melts into Air (Waterstones Kingston, May 2016)
24. Tom McNeal, Far Far Away (AbeBooks, January 2016)
25. Philipp Meyer, American Rust (charity shop, December 2015)
26. Alice Munro, Runaway (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
27. Kim Newman, An English Ghost Story (The Last Bookshop, Bristol, Sept 2015)
28. Flannery O'Connor, Complete Stories (charity shop, December 2015)
29. Elizabeth Redfern, The Music of the Spheres  (charity shop, December 2015)
30. Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways  (Mother's Day present, March 2016)
31. Jane Smiley, Some Luck (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
32. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Barnes & Noble (in MD), Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen) *
33. Emily St John Mandel, Station Eleven (Waterstones Kingston, May 2016)
34. Matthew Thomas, We Are Not Ourselves (Waterstones Kingston, Boxing Day 2015)
35. Rose Tremain, Tresspass (charity shop, December 2015)