Book Progress Update - December

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 practice, by the end of the year, I was beginning to get a little stressed about buying "too many" books - so I think I'll do something a little different next year...) But I digress.

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
In August: books read: 15; list reduced by: 1; pre-2015 reduction: 0; 2015 reduction: 1
In September: books read: 8; list increased by: 1; pre-2015 reduction: 0; 2015 reduction: 0
In October: books read: 7; list increased by: 4; pre-2015 reduction: 0; 2015 reduction: 0
In November: books read: 3; list reduced by: 1; pre-2015 reduction: 0; 2015 reduction: 0

And finally, December: 

• I re-read one book in a series I'm gradually working my way back through (A Noble Radiance, Donna Leon)
• And I re-read one book which Sarah owns, which is a nice, comforting, seasonal read (Let it Snow story collection)
• I read four books from my list (The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon; At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier; Mr Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston; She is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick)
• I read two books Sarah passed to me after reading them herself (The Names they Gave Us by Emery Lord, One of us is Lying by Karen McManus)
• I bought one book in the RA gift shop (The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry) 
• I received four books as Christmas presents (The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas, The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks, At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen)

December goal progress:

1. books read: 8 (goal already met +9)
2. books removed from list: 4; books added: 5; net result +1
3. books read/removed from list from before 2015: 0 of 3;  from 2015: 0 of 2

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2017.  There were 46 books at the beginning of January, and there are 46 now, which seems like no progress, but most of them have changed - only 10 books are left on the list from last year or before  - books acquired in 2017 are underlined. 

1. Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor (charity shop, April 2017)
2. Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale (Christmas present, Dec 2017)
3. Susan Barker, The Incarnations (charity shop, July 2016)
4. Philip Baruth, The Brothers Boswell (Waterstones Canterbury bargain bin, July 2015)
5. Geraldine Brooks, The Secret Chord (Christmas present, Dec 2017)
6. Mikhail Bulgokov, The Master and Margarita (charity shop, April 2017)
7. Jessie Burton, The Muse (Waitrose, January 2017)
8. Alexia Casale, The Bone Dragon (Waterstones Piccadilly, October 2017)
9. Becky Chambers, A Closed and Common Orbit (Waterstones Piccadilly, October 2017)
10. Emma Donohue, The Wonder (Waterstones Nottingham, July 2017)
11. Bi Fieyu, Three Sisters (charity shop, Farnham, September 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. Claire Fuller, Our Endless Numbered Days (charity shop, Farnham, September 2017)
15. 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...) *
16. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (2014)*
17. Linda Grant, The Dark Circle (Waterstones Nottingham, July 2017)
18. Sara Gruen, At the Water's Edge (Christmas present, Dec 2017)
19. Hella Haasse, The Tea Lords (Bookhandel von Rossum, Amsterdam, August 2017)
20. Mark Haddon (Introduction), Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
21. Christina Henry, Lost Boy (Waterstones Piccadilly, October 2017)
22. Siri Hustvedt, A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2017)
23. John Irving, Avenue of Mysteries  (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
24. N K Jemisin, The Fifth Season (AbeBooks, Sept 2017)
25. Lynn Knight, The Button Box  (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
26. Ernest van der Kwast, The Ice Cream Makers (Amsterdam, August 2017)
27. Sarah J Maas, Court of Thorns and Roses (Christmas present, Dec 2017)
28. Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of  a Nation (birthday present, Nov 2016)
29. Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet (2nd Hand Shop, Brighton, October 2017)
30. Edward Marston, The Railway Detective (Charity shop, Farnham, Sept 2017)
31. Alice Mattison, The Book Borrower (Used Book Depot, Vero Beach, April 2017)
32. Elizabeth McKenzie, The Portable Veblen (Mother's Day, 2017)
33. Magnus Mills, The Restraint of Beasts (Abe Books, May 2017)
34. Alice Munro, Runaway (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
35. Flannery O'Connor, Complete Stories (charity shop, December 2015)
36. Maggie O'Farrell, This Must be the Place (Waterstones Brighton, October 2017)
37. Orhan Pamuk. A Strangeness in Mind (Christmas present 2016)
38. Michelle Paver, Dark Matter (charity shop, Farnham, September 2017)
39. Grayson Perry, The Descent of Man (RA Gift Shop, December 2017)
40. Sara Perry, The Essex Serpent (Waterstones Nottingham, July 2017)
41. Lucy Ribchester, The Hourglass Factory (charity shop, Farnham, September 2017)
42. Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram (Abe Books, July 2016)
43. Jane Smiley, Early Warning (Abe Books, May 2017)
44. Ali Smith, Autumn (Waterstones Brighton, October 2017)
45. Sally Vickers, Cousins (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2017)
46. Lucy Worsley, A Very British Murder (Waterstones Oxford, August 2017)