Read the books I have before buying new ones

So here is a list of my unfinished novels:

Amy Sedaris – I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

Anne Rice – Interview With the Vampire

Ayn Rand – The Fountainhead

David Sosnowski – Rapture

Dan Brown – The Da Vinci Code

Ed Sikov – Mr. Strangelove: The Biography of Peter Sellers

Emily Brontë – Wuthering Heights

Erin Gruwell – The Freedom Writer’s Diary

Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen – Sense and Sensibility

Jon Stewart – America (the book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction

Kay Cooper – Chill of Fear

Kelley Armstrong – Bitten

Max Brooks – The Zombie Survival Guide

Philippa Gregory – The Other Boleyn Girl

Stephen Colbert – I Am America (And So Can You!)

Stephen King – Insomnia

Tamsin Picteral – Van Gogh

Tanya Huff – The Blood Books, Volume II

William M. Thackerary – Vanity Fair

William Shakespeare – The Taming of the Shrew

I think that’s all of them….
Ones crossed out I’ve finished, ones in italics I’m in the middle of, and red ones I’ve attempted to many times but could never finish – No book should put you to sleep… unless it’s a book on how to fall asleep.

This goal is going to prove to be impossible for me, as I have some strange compulsion to buy as many books as possible (I don’t even want to know how much I’ve spend on them this year.. >.<) and that’s bad for a slow reader like me.

But I think if I truly don’t want to read them (or they’re just really boring cough Pride and Prejudice) then I’ll just sell them. I’m going to keep track of the books I need to read in a separate entry…

I have so many books that I have not read and I plan to finish reading them all before school starts again.

I have a whole bunch of books that I’ve bought in the last few years and never read. Before I buy any new books I want to read these, or, if I’ve decided I don’t want to read them, donate them to the library.
The only exception to this will be books I need to buy for school, or books for my antique book collection.

Started reading Pillars of the Earth. SOOOOOO GOOD!

Unread books:

Aksakov, Sergei: Years of Childhood
Archer, Jeffrey: Kane and Abel
Bronte, Anne: Agnes Grey
Bronte, Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Bronte, Emily: Wurthering Heights
Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment
Frankl, Viktor: Man’s Search for Meaning
Grisham, John: The King of Torts
Harris, Thomas: Hannibal Rising
Hawking, Stephen: On the Shoulders of Giants
Kant, Immanuel: Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics
King, Stephen: Needful Things
King, Stephen: The Waste Lands
Locke, John: Two Treatises of Government
Ludlum, Robert: The Ambler Warning
Machiavelli, Niccolo: The Prince
McCammon, Robert: Swan Song
Mill, John: On Liberty
Plato: Phaedrus
Plato: Symposium
Plato: The Trial and Death of Socrates
Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
Shakespeare: Othello
Strobel, Lee: The Case for Christ
Tolstoy: War and Peace

Books started and as yet unfinished:

Follett, Ken: The Pillars of the Earth
Hawking, Stephen: A Brief History of Time
Kenakin, Terry: A Pharmacology Primer
Poe, Edgar Allan: Selected Poems & Tales

Books finished:

Darlington, Tenaya: Maybe Baby (Sept 5?)
Lescroart, John: The Hunt Club (July 26)

Just finished Maybe Baby… not too bad, though the ending was meh.

Unread books:

Aksakov, Sergei: Years of Childhood
Archer, Jeffrey: Kane and Abel
Bronte, Anne: Agnes Grey
Bronte, Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Bronte, Emily: Wurthering Heights
Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment
Follett, Ken: The Pillars of the Earth
Frankl, Viktor: Man’s Search for Meaning
Grisham, John: The King of Torts
Harris, Thomas: Hannibal Rising
Hawking, Stephen: On the Shoulders of Giants
Kant, Immanuel: Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics
King, Stephen: Needful Things
King, Stephen: The Waste Lands
Locke, John: Two Treatises of Government
Ludlum, Robert: The Ambler Warning
Machiavelli, Niccolo: The Prince
McCammon, Robert: Swan Song
Mill, John: On Liberty
Plato: Phaedrus
Plato: Symposium
Plato: The Trial and Death of Socrates
Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
Shakespeare: Othello
Strobel, Lee: The Case for Christ
Tolstoy: War and Peace

Books started and as yet unfinished:

Hawking, Stephen: A Brief History of Time
Kenakin, Terry: A Pharmacology Primer
Poe, Edgar Allan: Selected Poems & Tales

Books finished:

Darlington, Tenaya: Maybe Baby
Lescroart, John: The Hunt Club (July 26)

I’ve just finished Alan Warner’s The Man Who Walks. It was another 10p pick up from the library book sale, which I chose because I had loved Morvern Callar. I found The Man Who Walks funny, at times captivating, often disturbing.

Still haven’t finished Young Stalin or made any progress on my TBR list. I hope I haven’t aimed too high with my choices for TBR, I thought it would be a good way to motivate me to read more, but when I looked at the list before my holiday nothing took my fancy.

I haven’t bought any new books for some time – so there is some progress. I’ve been making the effort to get books from the library for the poetry and book groups I am in.

Part of the reason behind this goal is to reduce the clutter I feel I’m surrounded by. I want to read the books I have – keep the ones I love and pass on the ones I am not attached to. The other reason is that I feel like a bit of a fraud – I buy books and say I like reading but never get round to doing it.

no more purchases!

Unread books:

Aksakov, Sergei: Years of Childhood
Archer, Jeffrey: Kane and Abel
Bronte, Anne: Agnes Grey
Bronte, Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Bronte, Emily: Wurthering Heights
Darlington, Tenaya: Maybe Baby
Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment
Follett, Ken: The Pillars of the Earth
Frankl, Viktor: Man’s Search for Meaning
Grisham, John: The King of Torts
Harris, Thomas: Hannibal Rising
Hawking, Stephen: On the Shoulders of Giants
Kant, Immanuel: Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics
King, Stephen: Needful Things
King, Stephen: The Waste Lands
Locke, John: Two Treatises of Government
Ludlum, Robert: The Ambler Warning
Machiavelli, Niccolo: The Prince
McCammon, Robert: Swan Song
Mill, John: On Liberty
Plato: Phaedrus
Plato: Symposium
Plato: The Trial and Death of Socrates
Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
Shakespeare: Othello
Strobel, Lee: The Case for Christ
Tolstoy: War and Peace

Books started and as yet unfinished:

Hawking, Stephen: A Brief History of Time
Kenakin, Terry: A Pharmacology Primer
Poe, Edgar Allan: Selected Poems & Tales

Books finished:

Lescroart, John: The Hunt Club (July 26)

Well, I’m still reading Maybe Baby .. and not really spending that much time reading. The oops is because we went shopping on the weekend. And Pat walked into the Coles (we normally do, and they had a sale going on…)... I tried to resist… but couldn’t. Pat picked up a book for himself, a novel for me (he said it was good but that he would probably never get around to reading it) and I picked up a BEAUTIFUL book. sign I couldn’t not get it.

It’s a large hard cover of selected E.A.Poe poems and tales. And it’s illustrated. So gorgeous! I’ve been reading a few poems here and there, as well as the intro to the book. The intro advised to read the works out loud to better appreciate them. So last night before Pat got home I was reading The Raven and a few other poems out loud to myself. I didn’t feel crazy…

I thought I might go in alphabetical order, but never mind that. I just started reading Maybe Baby by Darlington.