Book Plan Update - May 2016

Continuing in 2016 to make inroads on the books I own (un-read) and not buy too many new ones. Progress to date:

1. January: books removed from list: 7,  books added: 2; net result -5
2. February: books removed from list: 4, books added: 0; net result -4 (total YTD: -9)
3. March: books removed from list: 8, books added:8; net result 0 (total YTD: -9)
4. April: books removed from list: 6, books added: 0; net result -6 (total YTD: -15)

In May:

• I read 2 books from my list (The Enchanted by Rene Denfield, Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz)
• I tried and abandoned 2 books from my list (The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada)
• I read one book of short stories by Dorothy L Sayers (Lord Peter views the Body), recently purchased to help complete my Peter Wimsey collection (doesn't count as a "book added" on my list as it goes with the permanent collection, not the "to be read" shelf)
• I re-read 5 books which we already owned (Beauty by Robin McKinley, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Strong Poison and Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers)
• I read one book we had in the house already, which Geoff has been trying to get me to read for ages (The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean)
• and one book which Sarah had (Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell) which I keep seeing listed on every list of great books both YA and just regular lists, so I thought I should really read it.
• I read one library book (The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald)
• I bought two books in the charity shop (Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgkin) and two books in Waterstones in Kingston (Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel and All That is Solid Melts into Air by Darragh McKeon)
• And finally, I removed two books from the list which really shouldn't have been there anyway - charity shop crime fiction, which just comes in and goes out again - I know I'll read these as they are by authors I frequently read, so it's not the same kind of issue as with other books I acquire (Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon and  Bad Boy by Peter Robinson)

May's tally is therefore...

books read: 11

books removed from list: 6,  books added: 4; net result -2
[Goal (no more than 1 book added to the list for every two books removed) not met 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 38 - of those, only 5 are left from before 2015. [Books with an asterisk]. 

1. Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins (Waterstones Kingston, January 2016)
2. Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone (AbeBooks, March 2016)
3. Philip Baruth, The Brothers Boswell (Waterstones Canterbury bargain bin, July 2015)
4. Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead (AbeBooks, October 2015)
5. Wilkie Collins, The Haunted Hotel (birthday present, November 2015)
6. Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (Waterstones Kingston, Boxing Day 2015)
7. Arthur Conan Doyle, Adventure of Sherlock Holmes (World of Books, October 2015)
8. Jean-Paul Didierlaurente, The Reader on the 6.27 (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
9. Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
10. Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl  (charity shop, May 2016)
11. 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...) *
12. 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...) *
13. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (2014)*
14. Kate Grenville, The Lieutenant (charity shop, December 2015)
15. Frances Hardinge, A Face Like Glass (Mother's Day present, March 2016)
16. Melissa Harrison, At Hawthorn Time (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
17. Georgette Heyer, A Christmas Party (from my mother, December 2015)
18. Antonia Hodgkin, The Devil in the Marshalsea (charity shop, May 2016)
19. Andrew Michael Hurley, The Loney (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
20. Maria McCain, The Wilding (charity shop, December 2015)
21. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (charity table, Wetland Centre, May 2015)
22. Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men (charity shop, December 2015)
23. 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)
24. Darragh McKeon, All That is Solid Melts into Air (Waterstones Kingston, May 2016)
25. Tom McNeal, Far Far Away (AbeBooks, January 2016)
26. Philipp Meyer, American Rust (charity shop, December 2015)
27. Alice Munro, Runaway (Waterstones Piccadilly, March 2016)
28. Kim Newman, An English Ghost Story (The Last Bookshop, Brisol, Sept 2015)
29. Flannery O'Connor, Complete Stories (charity shop, December 2015)
30. Elizabeth Redfern, The Music of the Spheres  (charity shop, December 2015)
31. Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways  (Mother's Day present, March 2016)
32. Jane Smiley, Some Luck (Waterstones Reading, October 2015)
33. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Barnes & Noble (in MD), Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen) *
34. Emily St John Mandel, Station Eleven (Waterstones Kingston, May 2016)
35. Matthew Thomas, We Are Not Ourselves (Waterstones Kingston, Boxing Day 2015)
36. Rose Tremain, Tresspass (charity shop, December 2015)
37. Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in her Navel (2014) *
38. William Wharton, Birdy (The Last Bookshop, Bristol, Sept 2016