31 January 2016

Reading plan update - January


Once again, I'm trying this year to read through books I own, and not buy so many new books until I've made a substantial reduction in the (unread) books I already had. New year, new tracking...  How am I doing so far?
  • I  read 5 titles from my list (Sarasawati Park by Anjali Joseph, Goodnight, Nebraska by Tom McNeal, Merivel by Rose Tremain, The Good Italian by Stephen Burke, Play with Fire by Dana Stabenow)
  • and removed 2 which I started, but didn't really get into  (The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien (50 pages); Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson (100 pages) )
  • I read (or apparently, re-read, though I don't really remember it) one book I already had around the house in a series I am reading before donating to the charity shop (Flight, Jan Burke)
  • I re-read one book we owned already (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J K Rowling)
  • I read one library book (Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith)
  • I bought one used book from Abe Books (Far, Far Away by Tom McNeal)
  • I bought one book in Waterstones Kingston when shopping for Alex's birthday presents (A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson)
January's tally is therefore...
books read: 8.5
books removed from list: 7,  books added: 2; net result -5
[Goal (no more than 1 book in for every two books removed) achieved/exceeded this month.]


Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2016.  There were 55 books at the beginning of January, and now there are 50 - of those, only 7 are left from before 2015. [Books with an asterisk]. 
  1. Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins (Waterstones Kingston, January 2016)
  2. Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows (Waterstones online, November 2015)
  3. Philip Baruth, The Brothers Boswell (Waterstones Canterbury bargain bin, July 2015)
  4. Laura Beatty, Darkling (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
  5. Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead (AbeBooks, October 2015)
  6. Wilkie Collins, The Haunted Hotel (birthday present, November 2015)
  7. Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (Waterstones Kingston, Boxing Day 2015)
  8. Arthur Conan Doyle, Adventure of Sherlock Holmes (World of Books, October 2015)
  9. Rene Denfield, The Enchanted (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
  10. Anthony Doerr, All the Light we Cannot See (Big Waterstones, August 2015)
  11. Hans Fallada, Alone in Berlin (car boot sale, Bristol, Sept 2015)
  12. Nathan Filer, The Shock of the Fall (charity shop, August 2015)
  13. 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...) *
  14. E M Forster, Howards End (late 2014) *
  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 *
  17. Graham Greene, Brighton Rock *
  18. Kate Grenville, The Lieutenant (charity shop, December 2015)
  19. Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree (Waterstones Durham, August 2015)
  20. Georgette Heyer, A Christmas Party (from my mother, December 2015)
  21. Anthony Horowitz, Moriarty (Waterstones Kingston, Boxing Day 2015)
  22. Laurie R King, Dreaming Spies (birthday present, November 2015)
  23. Donna Leon, Doctored Evidence (charity shop, December 2015)
  24. Maria McCain, The Wilding (charity shop, December 2015)
  25. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (charity table, Wetland Centre, May 2015)
  26. Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men (charity shop, December 2015)
  27. 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)
  28. Tom McNeal, Far Far Away (AbeBooks, January 2016)
  29. Philipp Meyer, American Rust (charity shop, December 2015)
  30. Kim Newman, An English Ghost Story (The Last Bookshop, Brisol, Sept 2015)
  31. David Nicholls, Us (Waterstones Durham, August 2015)
  32. Flannery O'Connor, Complete Stories (charity shop, December 2015)
  33. Liliane Paul, The Bees (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
  34. Elizabeth Redfern, The Music of the Spheres  (charity shop, December 2015)
  35. Peter Robinson, Abbatoir Blues (charity shop, August 2015)
  36. Peter Robinson, Bad Boy  (charity shop, December 2015)
  37. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Prisoner of Heaven (charity shop, August 2015)
  38. Jane Smiley, Some Luck (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
  39. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Barnes & Noble (in MD), Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen) *
  40. Andrew Taylor, The Anatomy of Ghosts (passed on from Geoff, April 2015)
  41. Matthew Thomas, We Are Not Ourselves (Waterstones Kingston, Boxing Day 2015)
  42. Rosie Thomas, The Illusionists (WH Smith, May 2015)
  43. Rose Tremain, Tresspass (charity shop, December 2015)
  44. Anne Tyler, A Spool of Blue Thread (World of Books, October 2015)
  45. Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in her Navel  *
  46. Ferdinand von Schirach, The Girl who wasn't There (charity shop, December 2015)
  47. Susan Vreeland, Lisette's List (birthday present, November 2015)
  48. William Wharton, Birdy (The Last Bookshop, Bristol, Sept 2015)
  49. Niall Williams, Only Say the Word (charity shop, August 2015)
  50. Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A J Firky (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)

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