November Book Update

So, in 2018, I'm taking a slightly different approach to blogging about my reading - I'm not really worrying about the in/out balance or how many books I read each month versus how many have been removed from the list. My only goal in 2018 is to read at least 100 books (as usual), so I'll be counting towards that, and noting books I read, acquire, get rid of, etc, but only for interest. I'm tired of feeling guilty if I acquire new books!

In January:  books read: 7; books otherwise removed: 3; books in: 7; books on windowsill: 62
In February: books read: 6; books otherwise removed: 1; books in: 3;  books on windowsill: 61
In March: books read: 8; books otherwise removed: 1; books in: 5;  books on windowsill: 60
In April: books read: 13; books otherwise removed: 1; books in: 6; books on windowsill: 61
In May: books read: 10 ; books otherwise removed: 1; books in: 2; books on windowsill: 58
In June: books read: 10; books otherwise removed: 1; books in: 3; books on windowsill: 58
In July: books read: 8; books otherwise removed: 0; books in: 5; books on windowsill: 62
In August: books read: 6; books otherwise removed: 1; books in: 3; books on windowsill: 63
In September: books read: 9; books otherwise removed: 0; books in: 4; books on windowsill: 67
In October: books read: 9; books otherwise removed: 1; books in: 3; books on windowsill: 62
In November: books read: 9; books otherwise removed: 0; books in: 2; books on windowsill: 58

And here's the breakdown for this month: 

• I read one book from my waiting shelf (The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden)
• I read one Sherlock Holmes story, which I picked up at the museum (A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle)
• I read one book in a series which I follow (when I remember to check there's a new book) - I was reminded of it by my visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum (The Murder of Mary Russell, Laurie R King)
• I tried and abandoned one book which had been talked about positively in an online discussion of crime fiction - too formulaic and not very well written (The Ice Princess, Camilla Lackberg)
• And consoled myself with a different crime novel I knew WOULD be well written (The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz)
• Then I read something completely different, from my windowsill (Exit West by Mohsin Hamad)
• Then back to some crime fiction - another Holmes pastiche (The Last of August, Brittany Cavallaro)
• And a children's book from my pile of waiting books to check out for my classroom book corner (Flood Child by Emily Diamand)
• And another one which had been waiting (If We Were Villains by M L Rio)
• Then one more from my windowsill (A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale)
• I received one book as a birthday present (Lethal White by Robert Galbraith) and picked up one in the charity shop (The Mistletoe Bride and other stories by Kate Mosse)

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2018. These are the books hanging out on my windowsill upstairs, waiting to be read. Or discarded. But hopefully, read. I started the year with 60 books on this list - you can see how long the books have been knocking around by the dates in brackets.

1. 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...)
2. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (2014)
3. 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...) 
4. Daphne du Maurier, Frenchman's Creek (Waterstones Piccadilly - 2016? bought in principle for the girls, but thought I might read it again as it's been ages)
5. Daphne du Maurier, Jamaica Inn (Waterstones Piccadilly - 2016? bought in principle for the girls, but thought I might read it again as it's been ages)
6. Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram (Abe Books, July 2016)
7. Susan Barker, The Incarnations (charity shop, July 2016)
8. Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of  a Nation (birthday present, Nov 2016) (This book isn't technically on my windowsill, it's downstairs because I keep thinking I might have a go at reading it, but haven't really got around to it yet...)
9. Orhan Pamuk. A Strangeness in Mind (Christmas present 2016)
10. Andrew Taylor, The Ashes of London (passed to me by Geoff after he read it, April 2017)
11. Mark Haddon (Introduction), States of Mind: Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
12. John Irving, Avenue of Mysteries  (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
13. Mikhail Bulgokov, The Master and Margarita (charity shop, April 2017)
14. Rachel Ward, Numbers 2: The Chaos (Sarah's - added to my shelf after I read the first one, April 2017)
15. Rachel Ward, Numbers 3: Infinity (Sarah's - added to my shelf after I read the first one, April 2017)
16. Jane Smiley, Early Warning (Abe Books, May 2017, after finishing the first in the series)
17. Siri Hustvedt, A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2017)
18. Ernest van der Kwast, The Ice Cream Makers (Amsterdam, August 2017)
19. Lucy Worsley, A Very British Murder (Waterstones Oxford, August 2017)
20. Lucy Ribchester, The Hourglass Factory (charity shop, Farnham, September 2017)
21. Alexia Casale, The Bone Dragon (Waterstones Piccadilly, October 2017)
22. Sebastian Barry, Days without End (Abe Books, January 2018)
23. Ursula K LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness (Watersones Piccadilly, January 2018)
24. Clare Vanderpool, Moon over Manifest (was in the house, moved to my shelf Feb 2018)
25. Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad (Waterstones Wimbledon, Feb 2018)
26. Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (passed to me by Geoff, Feb 2018)
27. ed. Tracy Chevalier, Reader I Married Him (Waterstones online, March 2018)
28. Bella Pollen, Hunting Unicorns (Kingston Hospital Charity Bookshelf, March 2018)
29. Diana Rosie, Alberto's Lost Birthday (Kingston Hospital Charity Bookshelf, March 2018)
30. Jojo Moyes, The Last Letter from your Lover (Charity Shops, March 2018)
31. Jojo Moyes, Sheltering Rain (Charity Shops, March 2018)
32. Sebastian Faulkes, A Week in December (Charity Shops, March 2018)
33. Marcus Zusak, I am the Messenger (Charity Shops, March 2018)
34. Jose Saramago, Blindness (Lisbon, April 2018)
35. Margaret Atwodd, Oryx and Crake (passed on by Geoff, April 2018)
36. The Killing Moon, N K Jemisin (Waterstones online, April 2018)
37. If we were Villains, M L Rio (Waterstones Wimbledon, April 2018)
38. Spark, Alice Broadway (Waterstones Wimbledon, April 2018)
39. The Mime Order, Samantha Shannon (Abe Books, May 2018)
40. March, Geraldine Brooks (Abe Books, June 2018)
41. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins (charity shop, June 2018)
42. Anything is Possible, Elizabeth Strout (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2018)
43. The Disappearances, Emily Bain Murphy (Waterstones Picadilly, July 2018)
44. Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys  (Waterstones Picadilly, July 2018)
45. Cassandra at the Wedding, Dorothy Baker (Waterstones Picadilly, July 2018)
46. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (charity shop, July 2018)
47. The Same Sky, Amanda Eyre Ward (discount shop in US, August 2018)
48. The Murderer's Ape, Jakob Wegelius (Waterstones Wimbledon, August 2018)
49. The Terracotta Dog, Andrea Camelleri (passed to me by Geoff, Sept 2018)
50. The Snack Thief, Andrea Camelleri (passed to me by Geoff, Sept 2018)
51. Even the Dogs, Jon McGregor (Abebooks, Sept 2018)
52. Islands in the Stream, Ernest Hemingway (Abebooks, Sept 2018)
53. Scythe, Neil Schusterman (Waterstones Piccadilly, Sept 2018)
54. Alice, Christina Henry (Waterstone Piccadilly, Sept 2018)
55. Throne of Glass, Sarah J Maas (Waterstones Wimbledon, October 2018)
56. Winter, Ali Smith (Waterstones Wimbledon, October 2018)
57. Lethal White, Robert Galbraith (birthday present, November 2018)
58. The Mistletoe Bride, Kate Mosse (charity shop, November 2018)