Book Plan Update - February

If you're a regular reader here, you'll remember that at the start of the year, I made a plan to try to read through books I owned, and not buy any new books until I'd made a substantial reduction in the (unread) books I owned. I did, however, allow myself library books (both those I order in because they are part of a series I'm reading and those which I happen to see which take my fancy) and a few gifts, e.g. birthday and Mother's Day. 

In the first month, I didn't gain any books, but I read a lot of stuff from the library and a few re-reads from what I already own, so I only managed to remove 2 titles from my list.  

Was Month 2 any better?

• I bought 2 books from a charity shop, but one was a book I've already read by a favourite author, so it's going on the shelves with the other stuff by that author. The other goes into the reading list (Can't Wait to Get To Heaven, Fannie Flagg).
• No library books this month (there was a cookbook/memoir I ordered which I had a look through and decided not to buy, but it doesn't really count as a read).
• There were two  re-reads from the books already in the house, including the book that Alex and I were reading aloud as a bedtime book. (The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catheryne Valente)
• I managed to read six titles from my list. (A Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore; The Distant Hours, Kate Morton; Losing Nelson, Barry Unsworth; Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons; Foolish Mortals, Jennifer Johnston; PopCo, Scarlett Thomas )
• One title from my list (The Small Hours, Susie Boyt) I didn't really like, so after a few chapters, decided to donate it to the charity shop. It counts as a book off the list, but not as a read title...

So, a good month - one book added to the list, but 7 removed, for a net loss of six.  Pretty good in a month!

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2015.  There are now 49 books on the list, with 10 months to go. That's down from 5 books per month left to read to 4.9 books.  Yeah, I know, not down by much!  But it's still very feasible - the main thing being, more steps forward than back, which is the main idea of the exercise!

1. Karin Altenberg, Island of Wings
2. James Anderson, The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy
3. Gerhand Bakker, The Twin
4. Bill Bryson, One Summer: America 1927
5. Michael Collins, The Resurrectionists
6. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (this one would be a re-read)
7. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
8. Jim Crace, Harvest
9. Esi Edugyan, Half Blood Blues
10. Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
11. Jim Fergus, One Thousand White Women (Summer 2013)
12. Anne Fine, All Bones and Lies
13. Fannie Flagg, Can't Wait to get to Heaven (Feb 2015, charity shop)
14. 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...)
15. E M Forster, Howards End
16. Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Christmas 2014)
17. Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career
18. Robert Galbraith, The Cuckoo's Calling
19. Patrick Gale, Rough Music
20. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (re-read, bought shortly after his death - spring 2014 - as I was reminded how much I enjoyed it)
21. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
22. Rumer Godden, Kingfishers Catch Fire
23. Laurie Graham, A Humble Companion
24. Graham Greene, Brighton Rock
25. Nicholas Griffin, The House of Sight and Shadow
26. Jane Haddam, Glass Houses
27. Laurell K Hamilton, Bloody Bones
28. Anjali Joseph, Sarasawati Park
29. Jim Lynch, The Highest Tide
30. W Somerset Maugham, The Magician
31. Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran
32. Kate O'Brien, The Land of Spices
33. Regina O'Melveny, The Book of Madness and Cures
34. Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table
35. Anuradha Roy, An Atlas of Impossible Longing (Winter 2013, bought in a cheap shop in Oxford)
36. Kathy Reichs, Spider Bones
37. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Watcher in the Shadows (Christmas 2014)
38. Richard Russo, Straight Man
39. Simon Sebag Montefiore, One Night in Winter
40. Muriel Spark, Memento Mori
41. Mark Slouka, The Visible World
42. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen)
43. Magda Szabo, The Door
44. Amy Tan, The Valley of Amazement
45. Rose Tremaine, Merivel
46. Rose Tremaine, Music & Silence
47. Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in her Navel
48. Ayelet Waldman, Love and Treasure (new in December 2014)
49. December, Elizabeth Winthrop