Books & Reading, March 2017

At the start of the year, I set a few reading goals, with the overall aim of trying to make my way through books I've had for a while and haven't read, and trying not to acquire too many new books. The goals were:

1. Read at least 100 books in 2017 (approximately 2 per week; hopefully I can accomplish this)
2. Buy/acquire fewer books each month than I remove from my TBR shelf/list
3. Read at least 1 of the books I've had since before 2015 (there were 4 on the list at the start of the year) and at least three of the books I  bought during 2015 (12 on the list)

They are (fairly) reasonable goals, which shouldn't stress me too much.

In January:  books read: 8, list reduced by: 2; pre-2015 reduction: 0; pre-2016 reduction: 1
In February: books read: 12. list reduced by: 11; pre-2015 reduction: 0; pre-2016 reduction: 1

Here's what happened in March:

• I re-read three books we have in the house already (Graceling, Fire, Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore)
• I read 2 books from my list (Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine, A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman)
• I read one children's book from school which my class is going to be using as a text next half term (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DeCamilio)
• I read one book already owned by someone else in my house (Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick)
• I read one book in the house which wasn't on my list (Kidnapped by Jan Burke)
• I got three books as presents for Mother's Day (The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon, The Portable Veblen by Elzabeth McKenzie, Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave)

March goal progress:

1. books read: 8 of 80 books 
2. books removed from list: 2; books added: 3 ; net result  +1
3. books read/removed from list from before 2015: 0 of 4;  from before 2016: 0 of 10

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2017.  There were 46 books at the beginning of January, and now there are 33.

1. Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky (charity shop, October 2016)
2. Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom (Waterstones Wimbledon, February 2017)
3. Susan Barker, The Incarnations (charity shop, July 2016)
4. Philip Baruth, The Brothers Boswell (Waterstones Canterbury bargain bin, July 2015)
5. Jessie Burton, The Muse (Waitrose, January 2017)
6. Joanna Cannon, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep (Mother's Day 2017)
7. Chris Cleave, Everyone Brave is Forgiven (Mother's Day, 2017)
8. Wilkie Collins, The Haunted Hotel (birthday present, November 2015)
9. Anthony Doerr, About Grace (Waterstones Piccadilly, July 2016)
10. Arthur Conan Doyle, Adventure of Sherlock Holmes (World of Books, October 2015)
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. Antonia Hodgkin, The Devil in the Marshalsea (charity shop, May 2016)
16. Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of  a Nation (birthday present, Nov 2016)
17. Rebecca MacKenzie, In a Land of Paper Gods (Christmas Present, 2016)
18. Elizabeth McKenzie, The Portable Veblen (Mother's Day, 2017)
19. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (charity table, Wetland Centre, May 2015)
20. Philipp Meyer, American Rust (charity shop, December 2015)
21. Alice Munro, Runaway (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
22. Flannery O'Connor, Complete Stories (charity shop, December 2015)
23. Orhan Pamuk. A Strangeness in Mind (Christmas present 2016)
24. Natasha Pulley, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Waterstones Wimbledon, December 2016)
25. Elizabeth Redfern, The Music of the Spheres  (charity shop, December 2015)
26. Anna Richards, Little Gods (pound shop, November 2016)
27. Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram (Abe Books, July 2016)
28. Hannah Rothschild, The Improbability of Love (charity shop, October 2016)
29. Caterina Ingleman Sanders, The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules (charity shop, October 2016)
30. Jane Smiley, Some Luck (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
31. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Barnes & Noble (in MD), Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen) *
32. M L Stedman, The Light Between Oceans (Waterstones Wimbledon, December 2016)
33. Rose Tremain, Tresspass (charity shop, December 2015)