Back in January, I made a plan to try to read through books I owned, and not buy new books until I'd made a substantial reduction in the (unread) books I already had. I've been tracking my progress/recidivism:
- In January I didn't gain any books, but also didn't remove many titles from my list as I read a lot of library books and had some re-reads. (2 titles removed, 0 added; net result -2)
- In February, I made bigger inroads in my owned titles (7 titles removed, 1 added; net result -6)
- In March, well, you win some, you lose some (4 titles removed, 10 titles added; net result +6)
- In April, better, but not perfect (6 titles removed, 7 added; net result +1)
- Not too bad in May, either (5 titles removed, 6 added; net result +1)
- Great inroads in June (11 titles removed, 3 added; net result -8)
- Well done for July, as well (10 titles removed, 2 added; net result -8)
- In August, there was a lot of book-buying (8 titles removed, 13 titles added; net result +5)
Let's see what September brings:
- I managed to read 4 titles from my list (Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan, Virals by Kathy Reichs, The Resurrectionists by Michael Collins, One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus)
- I bought two books in a cheap shop in Bristol (An English Ghost Story by Kim Newman, Birdy by William Wharton) and one book at a car boot sale (Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada)
- I liberated one book from the parent swap shelf at school (I've donated lots to the shelf in my time) (Hanging by a Thread by Monica Ferris)
- I read 1 library book this month (Vendetta by Michael Dibdin)
books read: 5
titles removed: 4, titles added: 4 ; net result +/-0
Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2015. There are now 45 books on the list, with 3 months to go - so that's 15 per month if I buy/receive no more books before the end of the year (unlikely with both a birthday and Christmas to come!). Obviously, that's not going to happen - I only got 5 books read in September and the run up to Christmas is no less busy (though Valley of Amazement was particularly long, which didn't help). [Books with an asterisk are ones which were on the list at the start of the year.]
- Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (charity shop, March 2015)
- Jo Baker, Longbourn (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
- Philip Baruth, The Brothers Boswell (Waterstones Canterbury bargain bin, July 2015)
- Laura Beatty, Darkling (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
- Charlotte Betts, The Apothecary's Daughter (Waterstones Kingston, March 2015)
- Stephen Burke, The Good Italian (Fiumicino Airport, July 2015)
- Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (this one would be a re-read) *
- Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles *
- Anthony Doerr, All the Light we Cannot See (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
- Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (Waterstones Kingston, March 2015)
- Hans Fallada, Alone in Berlin (car boot sale, Bristol, Sept 2015)
- Monica Ferris, Hanging by a Thread (swap shelf at school, Sept 2015)
- Nathan Filer, The Shock of the Fall (charity shop, August 2015)
- 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...) *
- E M Forster, Howards End (late 2014) *
- Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career *
- 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...) *
- Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South *
- Graham Greene, Brighton Rock *
- Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree (Waterstones Durham, August 2015)
- Emma, Healey, Elizabeth is Missing (Waterstones Durham, August 2015)
- Smith Henderson, Fourth of July Creek (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
- Alice Hoffman, The Museum of Extraordinary Things (Waterstones online, June 2015)
- Anjali Joseph, Saraswati Park *
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (charity table, Wetland Centre, May 2015)
- John McGregor, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (charity shop, April 2015 - will be a re-read as have read it in (apparently) October 2004 for a book group)
- Tom McNeal, Goodnight, Nebraska (AbeBooks, March 2015)
- Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran *
- Patrick Ness, The Crane Wife (charity shop, April 2015)
- Kim Newman, An English Ghost Story (The Last Bookshop, Brisol, Sept 2015)
- David Nicholls, Us (Waterstones Durham, August 2015)
- Kate O'Brien, The Land of Spices *
- Peter Robinson, Abbatoir Blues (charity shop, August 2015)
- Anuradha Roy, An Atlas of Impossible Longing (Winter 2013, bought in a cheap shop in Oxford) *
- Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Prisoner of Heaven (charity shop, August 2015)
- Simon Sebag Montefiore, One Night in Winter (Waterstones Piccadilly, not sure of date) *
- Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Barnes & Noble (in MD), Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen) *
- Dana Stabenow, A Cold Day for Murder (charity shop, August 2015)
- Dana Stabenow, Play with Fire (charity shop, August 2015)
- Andrew Taylor, The Anatomy of Ghosts (passed on from Geoff, April 2015)
- Rosie Thomas, The Illusionists (WH Smith, May 2015)
- Rose Tremaine, Merivel (Birthday, 2014) *
- Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in her Navel *
- William Wharton, Birdy (The Last Bookshop, Bristol, Sept 2015)
- Niall Williams, Only Say the Word (charity shop, August 2015)