Book progress update - August

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 or otherwise get rid of 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 theory.

In January:  books read: 8; list reduced by: 2; pre-2015 reduction: 0; 2015 reduction: 1
In February: books read: 12; list reduced by: 11; pre-2015 reduction: 0; 2015 reduction: 1
In March: books read: 8; list increased by: 1;  pre-2015 reduction: 0; 2015 reduction: 0
In April: books read: 10; list increased by: 8; pre-2015 reduction: 1; 2015 reduction: 3
In May: books read, 14; list reduced by: 1; pre-2015 reduction: 0; 2015 reduction: 3
In June: books read, 9; list reduced by: 3; pre-2015 reduction: 0; 2015 reduction: 0
In July: books read: 7; list increased by: 5; pre-2015 reduction: 0; 2015 reduction: 1

How did I do in August?

• I read 4 books from my list (The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgewick, In a Land of Paper Gods by Rebecca MacKenzie, Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave)
• I read part of and then donated back to a charity shop a book from my list (The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Emma Donohue (I struggle with short stories. I keep trying to like them more, but I don't always succeed.))
• I started one book from my list, decided it would be just too depressing, despite being beautifully written, and put it in the charity shop pile (Blood Meridien by Cormac McCarthy)
• I read one book I bought in Oxford before it really had a chance to make it on to my list, though I'll count it as an in-and-out (The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida)
• And I read one book I had ordered online after reading a very good review - but again, I read it before I had a chance to add it to my list (The Keeper of Lost Things, Ruth Hogan)
• I re-read four books which I already owned (Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen; the Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman - Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass)
• And re-read (I think) one book which is part of  a series I'm re-reading in order, and to make sure I get all the ones I might have skipped along the way (The Death of Faith by Donna Leon)
• I read three books which are going to be class texts next year (Skellig by David Almond, The Astounding Broccoli Boy by Frank Cottrell Boyce, Floodland by Marcus Sedgwick)
• And I read one book which someone else had in the house already (Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira)
• I bought two books in Amsterdam by Dutch authors, in translation, and three books in Waterstones in Oxford

August goal progress:

1. books read: 15 of 32 books 
2. books removed from list: 6; books added: 5; net result -1
3. books read/removed from list from before 2015: 0 of 3;  from 2015: 1 of 3

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2017.  There were 46 books at the beginning of January, and now there are 41 (but a lot of them are different! (Books acquired in 2017  are underlined and a quick look below shows that only 13 books are left on the list from last year or before)).

1. Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor (charity shop, April 2017)
2. Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky (charity shop, October 2016)
3. Elizabeth Aston, Mr Darcy's Daughters (from Taffy's house in Florida, April 2017)
4. Susan Barker, The Incarnations (charity shop, July 2016)
5. Philip Baruth, The Brothers Boswell (Waterstones Canterbury bargain bin, July 2015)
6. Mikhail Bulgokov, The Master and Margarita (charity shop, April 2017)
7. Jessie Burton, The Muse (Waitrose, January 2017)
8. Joanna Cannon, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep (Mother's Day 2017)
9. Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Book People, May 2017)
10. Tracy Chevalier, At the Edge of the Orchard  (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
11. Emma Donohue, The Wonder (Waterstones Nottingham, July 2017)
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. Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2017)
14. 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...) *
15. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (2014)*
16. Linda Grant, The Dark Circle (Waterstones Nottingham, July 2017)
17. Hella Haasse, The Tea Lords (Bookhandel von Rossum, Amsterdam, August 2017)
18. Mark Haddon (Introduction), Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
19. Siri Hustvedt, A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2017)
20. John Irving, Avenue of Mysteries  (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
21. Lynn Knight, The Button Box  (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
22. Ernest van der Kwast, The Ice Cream Makers (Amsterdam, August 2017)
23. Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of  a Nation (birthday present, Nov 2016)
24. Alice Mattison, The Book Borrower (Used Book Depot, Vero Beach, April 2017)
25. Elizabeth McKenzie, The Portable Veblen (Mother's Day, 2017)
26. Magnus Mills, The Restraint of Beasts (Abe Books, May 2017)
27. Kiran Millweed Hargrave, The Girl of Ink and Stars (Waterstones Wimbledon, April 2017)
28. Alice Munro, Runaway (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
29. Patrick Ness, More than This  (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
30. Flannery O'Connor, Complete Stories (charity shop, December 2015)
31. Michael Ondaatje, Divisadero (charity shop , April 2017)
32. Orhan Pamuk. A Strangeness in Mind (Christmas present 2016)
33. Sara Perry, The Essex Serpent (Waterstones Nottingham, July 2017)
34. Natasha Pulley, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Waterstones Wimbledon, December 2016)
35. Anna Richards, Little Gods (pound shop, November 2016)
36. Marcus Sedgewick, She is not Invisible (Waterstones Oxford, August 2017)
37. Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram (Abe Books, July 2016)
38. Jane Smiley, Early Warning (Abe Books, May 2017)
39. Elizabeth Strout, My Name is Lucy Barton (Waterstones Nottingham, July 2017)
40. Sally Vickers, Cousins (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2017)
41. Lucy Worsley, A Very British Murder (Waterstones Oxford, August 2017)