Claire's book list 2014

[chesilbeach]

2013 reading blog - 183 books
2012 reading blog - 145 books
2011 reading blog - 141 books
2010 reading blog - 130 books
2009 reading blog - 143 books
2008 reading list - 63 books
2007 reading list - 97 books
2006 reading list - 82 books

2014 BOOKS READ

January
1. Saplings by Noel Streatfeild
2. Gemma Bovery by Posy Simmonds
3. The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James
4. His Lordship's Pleasure by M. C. Beaton
5. The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain
6. My Uncle Silas by H. E. Bates
7. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
8. Lady Margery's Intrigue by M. C. Beaton
February
9. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
10. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
11. The Harpole Report by J. L. Carr
12. The First Rebellion by M. C. Beaton
13. The Scandalous Lady Wright by M. C. Beaton
14. Death of a Gossip by M. C. Beaton
15. Banishment by M. C. Beaton
March
16. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
17. Wild Things by Chloe Neill
18. Shiverton Hall by Emerald Fennell
19. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
20. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (narrated by Susannah Harker)
21. Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
April
22. Those Endearing Young Charms by M. C. Beaton
23. Storm and Stone by Joss Stirling
24. A Croft in the Hills by Katharine Stewart
25. Soulless by Gail Carriger (narrated by Emily Gray)
26. Angel Fire by L. A. Weatherly
27. Changeless by Gail Carriger
28. Blameless by Gail Carriger
29. Heartless by Gail Carriger
30. Timeless by Gail Carriger
31. Edmund Bertram's Diary by Amanda Grange
32. Twelve Minutes of Love: A Tango Story by Kapka Kassabova
33. Weightless by Michele Gorman (short story)
34. Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis
35. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
May
36. Emerald Isle by Barbra Annino
37. Strands: A Year of Disccoveries on the Beach by Jean Sprackland
38. Tout Sweet: Hanging up my High Heels for a New Life in France by Karen Wheeler
39. Death of a Cad by M. C. Beaton
40. Sea and Shore Cornwall by Lisa Woollett
41. The Bookshop That Floated Away by Sarah Henshaw
42. The Adventuress by M. C. Beaton
43. Rainbird's Revenge by M. C. Beaton
44. Intrigue by M. C. Beaton
45. Deception by M. C. Beaton
46. The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters
47. Death of an Outsider by M. C. Beaton
48. The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters
49. Death of a Perfect Wife by M. C. Beaton
50. Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters
51. Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
52. The Perfect Retreat by Kate Forster
53. The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
54. A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson
55. Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd
56. The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
57. Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch
58. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
June
59. The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead
60. To Davy Jones Below by Carola Dunn
61. Death of a Hussy by M. C. Beaton
62. Rattle His Bones by Carola Dunn
63. Tilly by M. C. Beaton
64. The Deeds of the Disturber by Elizabeth Peters
65. The Longest Night by Alyxandra Harvey
66. 13 by Kelly Armstrong
67. Kitty by M. C. Beaton
68. The Case of the Murdered Muckraker by Carola Dunn
69. A Breath of Frost by Alyxandra Harvey
70. Mistletoe and Murder by Carola Dunn
71. Conjugal Rites by Paul Magrs
72. The Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan
73. Die Laughing by Carola Dunn
74. Last Days of the Bus Club by Chris Stewart
75. The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler
76. Hatchet Job by Mark Kermode
77. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
78. The Taste of Apple Seeds by Katharina Hagena
79. Dispute Over A Very italian Piglet by Amara Lakhous
80. The Last Wild by Piers Torday
July
81. Cider With Rose by Laurie Lee
82. The Tornado Chasers by Ross Montgomery
83. Russian Roulette by Anthony Horowitz
84. Our Woodland Birds by Matt Sewell
85. The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin
86. Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
87. Our Garden Birds by Matt Sewell
88. Don't Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli
89. Q: A Love Story by Evan Mandery
90. Cold Hard Secret by Sierra Dean
91. Blameless by Gail Carriger (narrated by Emily Gray)
92. The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters
93. Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead
August
94. Little Sacrifices by Jamie Scott
95. Poppy by Mary Hooper
96. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin (narrated by Eleanor Bron)
97. Velvet by Mary Hooper
98. The Original Miss Honeyford by M. C. Beaton
99. The Girl Who Walked On Air by Emma Carroll
100. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
101. Circle Line by Steffan Meyric Hughes
102. The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness
103. A Room With A View by E. M. Forster (narrated by Joanna David)
104. Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
105. Capital by John Lanchester
106. Jessica Cole: Model Spy by Sarah Sky
September
107. The Humans by Matt Haig
108. Love Nina: Despatches from Family Life by Nina Stibbe
109. Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements
110. The Hotel on the Roof of the World: Five Years in Tibet by Alec le Sueur
111. Moon Bear by Gill Lewis
112. Toute Allure: Falling in Love in Rural France by Karen Wheeler
113. A la Mod: My So-Called Tranquil Family Life in Rural France by Ian Moore
114. Trouble at the Little Village School by Gervase Phinn
115. The Madness by Alison Rattle
116. Love With a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche
October
117. The Dog by Kerstin Ekman
118. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
119. The Moon's A Balloon by David Niven
120. The Snake, The Crocodile and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters
121. Idiopathy by Sam Byers (DNF)
122. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (narrated by Lindsay Duncan)
123. How To Be Both by Ali Smith
124. Folly by M. C. Beaton
125. Romance by M. C. Beaton
126. Homecoming by M. C. Beaton
127. Minerva by M. C. Beaton (narrated by Claire Morgan)
128. The Horologican by Mark Forsyth
November
129. Hell's Belles by Paul Magrs
130. Bitter Blood by Rachel Caine
131. Fall of Night by Rachel Caine
132. Daylighters by Rachel Caine
133. Gold by Dan Rhodes
134. The Quietness by Alison Rattle
135. Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson
136. Cat Out Of Hell by Lynne Truss
137. Christmas Carol by Michele Gorman
138. Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan (narrated by Jane Collingwood)
139. The Reluctant Elf by Michele Gorman
140. Christmas at Rosie Hopkins's Sweetshop by Jenny Colgan
December
141. A Mourning Wedding by Carola Dunn
142. The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan
143. Meet Me Under The Mistletoe by Abby Clements
144. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
145. The Thornthwaite Inheritance by Gareth P. Jones
146. The Imaginary by A. F. Harrold
147. The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
148. The Sins of Lady Dacey by M. C. Beaton
149. Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr
150. Scarlet Ibis by Gill Lewis

151. The Darling Buds of May by H. E. Bates

[chesilbeach]

2014 BOOKS TO BE READ

 

On the 1st January 2014, there are 34 books on my TBR pile. This does not include any books I own from any of the reading lists in subsequent posts.

 

Fiction

1. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton

2. Citadel by Kate Mosse

3. Perfect by Rachel Joyce

4. One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper

5. The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams

6. The Dynamite Room by Jason Hewitt

7. The Gallery of Vanished Husbands by Natasha Solomons

8. The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

9. Clay by Melissa Harrison

10. Perfect Girl by Michele Gorman

11. Gunpowder Plot by Carola Dunn (DD No. 15)

12. The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

13. Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan

14. The Child's Elephan by Rachel Campbell-Johnston

15. Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough

16. Heap House by Edward Carey

 

Non-fiction

17. Head Over Heel: Seduced by Southern Italy by Chris Harrison

18. Artful by Ali Smith

19. Italian Ways by Tim Parks

20. Going To Sea In A Sieve by Danny Baker

21. The Tent, The Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy

 

 

I'm going to exclude some books from my main TBR as they are book in a series which I've bought on sale, but haven't yet bought and read the earlier books in series, so I can't read the ones I own until after the earlier books have been bought.

 

Series books

1. The Black Ship by Carola Dunn (DD No. 17)

2. Sheer Folly by Carola Dunn (DD No. 18)

3. The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing by Tarquin Hall (VP No. 2)

4. Death of a Prankster by M. C. Beaton (HM No. 7)

5. Death of a Travelling Man by M. C. Beaton (HM No. 9)

[chesilbeach]

MY (CONTINUING) YEAR OF JANE AUSTEN
 
I still haven't finished all the books I want to read on this subject, so the list continues into this year. This is not a reading challenge, just simply a list of books I want to read.
 
Key:
Books I own in Italics
Books I have read in Bold
 
BOOK LIST:
 
Jane Austen
1. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
2. Persuasion by Jane Austen
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
5. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
6. Emma by Jane Austen
7. The Watsons by Jane Austen
 
Fiction inspired by Austen's work
8. Mr Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange (Pride and Prejudice)
9. Mr Knightley's Diary by Amanda Grange (Emma)
10. Captain Wentworth's Diary by Amanda Grange (Persuasion)
11. Colonel Brandon's Diary by Amanda Grange (Sense and Sensibility)
12. Wickham's Diary by Amanda Grange (Pride and Prejudice)
13. Henry Tilney's Diary by Amanda Grange (Northanger Abbey)
14. Edmund Bertram's Diary by Amanda Grange (Mansfield Park)
15. Death Comes To Pemberley by P. D. James (Pride and Prejudice)
16. The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine (Sense and Sensibility)
17. An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan (Pride and Prejudice) (recommended by frankie)
18. These Three Remain by Pamela Aidan (Pride and Prejudice) (recommended by frankie)
19. Duty and Desire by Pamela Aidan (Pride and Prejudice) (recommended by frankie)
20. The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen by Syrie James (present from poppyshake)
21. Austenland by Shannon Hale
 
Biographies
22. Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
 
Miscellany
23. Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon (recommended by willoyd)
24. Understanding Austen: Key Concepts in the Six Novels by Maggie Lane
 
Status: 19/24 books read = 79% complete

Edited April 22, 2014 by chesilbeach

[chesilbeach]

OTHER AUTHOR READING LISTS
 
There are some authors whose work I want to read in its entirety, so I'll keep a list of their work here, and monitor how I'm doing. This is not a reading challenge or a time specific plan, just simply a list of books I want to read.
 
J. L. CARR
 
Key:
Books I own in Italics
Books I have read in Bold
 
BOOK LIST:
 
1. A Day In Summer
2. A Season in Sinji
3. The Harpole Report
4. How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won The F. A. Cup
5. A Month In The Country
6. The Battle of Pollocks Crossing
7. What Hetty Did
8. Harpole and Foxberrow, General Publishers
 
Status: 4/8 books read = 50% complete
 
E. H. YOUNG
 
Key:
Books I own in Italics
Books I have read in Bold
 
BOOK LIST:
 
1. A Corn of Wheat
2. Yonder
3. Moor Fires
4. The Bridge Dividing (aka The Misses Mallett)
5. William
6. The Vicar's Daughter
7. Miss Mole
8. Jenny Wren
9. The Curate's Wife
10. Celia
11. Caravan Island
12. River Holiday
13. Chatterton Square
 
Status: 0/13 books read = 0% complete

Edited February 11, 2014 by chesilbeach

[chesilbeach]

PERSEPHONE BOOKS

 

I love the books from independent publisher Persephone, not just for their beautiful book designs, but also for their ethos and the authors they chose to publish, so much so that I even started a thread just about them! http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/9960-persephone-books

 

I made far too little progress on this list in 2013, and hope to rectify that in 2014. This is not a reading challenge or a time specific plan, just simply a list of books I want to read.

 

Key:

Books I own in Italics

Books I have read in Bold

 

BOOK LIST:

1. William - an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton

2. Mariana by Monica Dickens

3. Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple

4. Fidelity by Susan Glaspell

5. An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum 1941-43 by Etty Hillesum

6. The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski

7. The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

8. Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes by Mollie Panter-Downes

9. Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson

10. Good Things in England by Florence White

11. Julian Grenfell by Nicholas Mosley

12. It's Hard to Be Hip Over Thirty by Judith Viorst

13. Consequences by E. M. Delafield

14. Farewell Leicester Square by Betty Miller

15. Tell It to a Stranger by Elizabeth Berridge

16. Saplings by Noel Streatfeild

17. Marjory Fleming by Oriel Malet

18. Every Eye by Isobel English

19. They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple

20. A Woman's Place: 1910-75 by Ruth Adam

21. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

22. Consider the Years by Virginia Graham

23. Reuben Sachs by Amy Levy

24. Family Roundabout by Richmal Crompton

25. The Montana Stories by Katherine Mansfield

26. Brook Evans by Susan Glaspell

27. The Children who lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham

28. Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski

29. The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett

30. Kitchen Essays by Agnes Jekyll

31. A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair

32. The Carlyles at Home by Thea Holme

33. The Far Cry by Emma Smith

34. Minnie's Room: The Peacetime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes by Mollie Panter-Downes

35. Greenery Street by Denis Mackail

36. Lettice Delmer by Susan Miles

37. The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart

38. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey

39. Manja by Anna Gmeyner

40. The Priory by Dorothy Whipple

41. Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge

42. The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

43. The Wise Virgins by Leonard Woolf

44. Tea with Mr Rochester by Frances Towers

45. Good Food On The Aga by Ambrose Heath

46. Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd

47. The New House by Lettice Cooper

48. The Casino by Margaret Bonham

49. Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton

50. The World that was Ours by Hilda Bernstein

51. Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper

52. The Village by Marghanita Laski

53. Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary by Ruferguson

54. They Can't Ration These by Vicomte De Mauduit

55. Flush by Virginia Woolf

56. They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple

57. The Hopkins Manuscript by Rc Sherriff

58. Hetty Dorval by Ethel Wilson

59. There Were No Windows by Norah Hoult

60. Doreen by Barbara Noble

61. A London Child of the 1870s by Molly Hughes

62. How To Run Your Home Without Help by Kay Smallshaw

63. Princes in the Land by Joanna Cannan

64. A Woman Novelist and Other Stories by Diana Gardner

65. Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson

66. Gardener’s Nightcap by Muriel Stuart

67. The Fortnight in September by Rc Sherriff

68. The Expendable Man by Dorothy B Hughes

69. Journal by Katherine Mansfield

70. Plats du Jour by Patience Gray and Primrose Boyd

71. The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett

72. House-Bound by Winifred Peck

73. The Young Pretenders by Edith Henrietta

74. The Closed Door and Other Stories by Dorothy Whipple

75. On the Other Side: Letters to my Children from Germany 1940-46 by Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg

76. The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby

77. Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer

78. A Very Great Profession by Nicola Beauman

79. Round about a Pound a Week by Maud Pember Reeves

80. The Country Housewife's Book by Lucy H Yates

81. Miss Buncle's Book by De Stevenson

82. Amours de Voyage by Arthur Hugh Clough

83. Making Conversation by Christine Longford

84. A New System of Domestic Cookery by Mrs Rundell

85. High Wages by Dorothy Whipple

86. To Bed with Grand Music by Marghanita Laski

87. Dimanche and Other Stories by Irène Némirovsky

88. Still Missing by Beth Gutcheon

89. The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow by Mrs Oliphant

90. The Winds of Heaven by Monica Dickens

91. Miss Buncle Married by D. E. Stevenson

92. Midsummer Night in the Workhouse by Diana Athill

93. The Sack of Bath by Adam Fergusson

94. No Surrender by Constance Maud

95. Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple

96. Dinners for Beginners by Rachel and Margaret Ryan

97. Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins

98. A Writer's Diary by Virginia Woolf

99. Patience by John Coates

100. The Persephone Book of Short Stories by Various

101. Heat Lightning by Helen Hull

102. The Exiles Return by Elisabeth De Waal

103. The Squire by Enid Bagnold

104. The Two Mrs Abbotts by De Stevenson

105. Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield

106. Into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg

107. Wilfred and Eileen by Jonathan Smith

 

Status: 8/107 books read = 7% complete

[chesilbeach]

THE ENGLISH COUNTIES CHALLENGE
 
For more details, visit the English Counties Challenge board: http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/forum/74-english-counties-challenge/
 
Key:
Books I own in Italics
Books I have read in Bold
 
BOOK LIST:
 
BEDFORDSHIRE: My Uncle Silas by H. E. Bates
BERKSHIRE: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
BRISTOL: The Misses Mallett by E. H. Young
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
CAMBRIDGESHIRE: The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers
CHESHIRE: Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
CITY OF LONDON: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
CORNWALL: Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
CUMBRIA: Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
DERBYSHIRE: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
DEVON: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
DORSET: Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
COUNTY DURHAM: Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE: South Riding by Winifred Holtby
EAST SUSSEX: Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne
ESSEX: The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James
GLOUCESTERSHIRE: Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee
GREATER LONDON*: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
GREATER MANCHESTER: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
HAMPSHIRE: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
HEREFORDSHIRE: On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
HERTFORDSHIRE: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
ISLE OF WIGHT: England, England by Julian Barnes
KENT: The Darling Buds of May by H. E. Bates
LANCASHIRE: Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
LEICESTERSHIRE: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend
LINCOLNSHIRE: The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
MERSEYSIDE: An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge
NORFOLK: The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley
NORTH YORKSHIRE: All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
NORTHUMBERLAND: The Stars Look Down by A. J. Cronin
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
OXFORDSHIRE: The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
RUTLAND: Set In Stone by Robert Goddard
SHROPSHIRE: Summer Lightning by P. G. Wodehouse
SOMERSET: Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
SOUTH YORKSHIRE: A Kestral For A Knave by Barry Hines
STAFFORDSHIRE: The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett
SUFFOLK: The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
SURREY: Emma by Jane Austen
TYNE AND WEAR: Another World by Pat Barker
WARWICKSHIRE: Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes
WEST MIDLANDS: Middlemarch by George Eliot
WEST SUSSEX: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
WEST YORKSHIRE: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
WILTSHIRE: Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
WORCESTERSHIRE: The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
 
Status: 15/48 books read = 31% complete

[chesilbeach]

Despite reading more books in 2013 than in any previous year (which wasn't intentional, it just sort of happened!), it was actually a bit of a damp squib, with very few top rated reads, and most of the ones I did have were re-reads.  I was entertained with some easy reads, but on the whole, I think I need to take a more considered approach to my book choices in order to improve the reading experience this year.  My plan, therefore, is to try and concentrate on the books either already on my TBR, or in the book lists in the above posts.

 

Of course, none of my reading plans usually come to fruition, so I'm not going to beat myself up about this, I just want to enjoy my reading as usual.  I've got a few other projects on the go at home so reading time may be limited, but I have no intention to try and read a particular number of books this year, and I don't care if I read much lower numbers than in previous years.  Having said that, if I'm inspired, you never know, I might still be up there when I come to look back at the end of December.

 

So that's it, I now declare my book list for 2014, officially open!

Edited December 31, 2013 by chesilbeach

[Signor Finzione]

Wow, that's a lot of lists! Good luck with them all, and I hope you enjoy your reading a lot more in 2014. I haven't heard of or read most of the authors on your lists (we clearly have very different reading tastes!), but I do hope you enjoy North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - I think it's brilliant.

 

Happy reading in 2014!

[poppyshake]

The very best of luck for 2014 Claire   I hope by the end of it you will have read some fantastically awesome books .. and have a very nice quilt for cosying up with   I hope to be tramping about the English countryside too .. literarily speaking .. so I expect we will cross paths at some point. 

We will definitely cross paths in actuality and I'm already looking forward to our next meet-up 

[chesilbeach]

Wow, that's a lot of lists! Good luck with them all, and I hope you enjoy your reading a lot more in 2014. I haven't heard of or read most of the authors on your lists (we clearly have very different reading tastes!), but I do hope you enjoy North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - I think it's brilliant.

 

Happy reading in 2014!

 

It does look like a lot of lists, but I'm not busting a gut on any of them, and some are really just an aide-mémoire, so I hope I can just enjoy my reading off them.

 

I'm looking forward to North and South.  I did try Cranford but I think I read it too soon and after watching the television adaptation, and I didn't finish it, but I did like her writing, so not knowing the story of North and South, I'm hoping it'll be a good 'un.

[chesilbeach]

The very best of luck for 2014 Claire   I hope by the end of it you will have read some fantastically awesome books .. and have a very nice quilt for cosying up with   I hope to be tramping about the English countryside too .. literarily speaking .. so I expect we will cross paths at some point. 

We will definitely cross paths in actuality and I'm already looking forward to our next meet-up 

 

Thanks, Kay!  I think I'm going to try and be more considered in book choices this year, which will hopefully lead to a more rewarding year.

 

I'm already looking at days off and thinking about when I can next come and meet up with you too!

[Signor Finzione]

 

 l'm looking forward to North and South.  I did try Cranford but I think I read it too soon and after watching the television adaptation, and I didn't finish it, but I did like her writing, so not knowing the story of North and South, I'm hoping it'll be a good 'un.

 

And then when you've finished it you can watch the TV adaptation starring the lovely Richard Armitage!   

[chesilbeach]

And then when you've finished it you can watch the TV adaptation starring the lovely Richard Armitage!   

 

There's a TV adaptation with Richard Armitage????  I have to see that!  North and South officially bumped up the TBR list.

Edited December 31, 2013 by chesilbeach

[Signor Finzione]

There's a TV adaptation with Richard Armitage????  I have to see that!  North and South officially bumped up the TBR list.

 

Even if you don't like the book I'm sure you'll enjoy that.

[Athena]

I hope 2014 will be a better reading year for you, Chesilbeach !

[Karsa Orlong]

Happy reading in 2014, Claire!    Like you, I'm trying not to plan too much this year - although that's probably a plan in and of itself, in which case: I have a plan! 

Edited December 31, 2013 by Karsa Orlong

[karen.d]

Despite reading more books in 2013 than in any previous year (which wasn't intentional, it just sort of happened!), it was actually a bit of a damp squib, with very few top rated reads, and most of the ones I did have were re-reads.  I was entertained with some easy reads, but on the whole, I think I need to take a more considered approach to my book choices in order to improve the reading experience this year.  My plan, therefore, is to try and concentrate on the books either already on my TBR, or in the book lists in the above posts.

 

Of course, none of my reading plans usually come to fruition, so I'm not going to beat myself up about this, I just want to enjoy my reading as usual.  I've got a few other projects on the go at home so reading time may be limited, but I have no intention to try and read a particular number of books this year, and I don't care if I read much lower numbers than in previous years.  Having said that, if I'm inspired, you never know, I might still be up there when I come to look back at the end of December.

 

So that's it, I know declare my book list for 2014, officially open!

 

 

Hopefully 2014 won't be a damp squib like 2013. My year was a bit like that too Like you, I'm also not setting myself any reading goals. Reading such be enjoyable, not a chore!

 

Happy New Year to you!

[Little Pixie]

Happy Reading in 2014 !

 

I do like the look of the Persephone list.

[Peacefield]

WTG Chesil on your lists and lots of luck and good vibes for a reading-ful 2014!

[chaliepud]

 

Wishing you another very productive reading year Claire! I love all your lists and challenges and will be checking your progress regularly.     

[chesilbeach]

Thank you all!  I'm hopeful for a better reading year and I'm going to make a positive start with a Persephone book - Saplings by Noel Streatfeild (whose name I always find difficult to get right, as it's just not natural to type the e before the i instead of the usual spelling of field! )

[Alexi]

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

 

Looking forward to comparing notes on the English Counties! For the books I've read (Sherlock Holmes and Adrian Mole) I intend to substitute them for others that were discussed as options.

 

I'm really looking forward to the two Gaskells - especially as that's my neck of the woods!

[Devi]

I wish you many good reading adventures in 2014 Claire!

Edited January 1, 2014 by Devi

[Chrissy]

Happy Reading this year Claire.

[Janet]

My Mum and I looked at A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar in Waterstone's today.  It sounds good. 

 

Happy reading in 2014, Claire.