chesilbeach

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

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!

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.

That's a very impressive TBR list! Hope you have a great year of reading in 2014, and looking forward to reading your reviews.

Those Kindle books pile up really quickly, don't they?! It's so easy to forget how many you've got as your Kindle doesn't get bigger and you're not filling up shelf space. Hope you have a great year of reading, bobblybear!

Hope you have a good reading year in 2014, Kidsmum - looking forward to joining you in the English Counties challenge!

Happy reading in 2014, Alexi! Looking forward to sharing in the English Counties challenge with you.

Hope you have a smashing reading year in 2014, Laura!

Hope you have a lovely year of reading in 2014, Devi.

Happy reading in 2014, Chrissy! May your mojo stay close by your side and your bookish adventures be spectacular!

Hope you have a good year of reading in 2014, Steve. I may not post in here often, but it's a very entertaining thread to read, and you never know, one day I might be brave enough to try another of the books you rate highly. I'm still planning to read more of the Jim Butcher Dresden Files series after enjoying reading the first one on your recommendation.

Well, that's just a bit of light reading for you then! Hope you have an interesting year of books ahead of you, pontalba, and enjoy your 2014 reading.

Hope you have a good year of reading in 2014, Laura. I have to admit, I don't read any of fantasy authors on your book list, but I do read your reviews - hopefully one day I might feel brave enough to dip my toes into something new!

Happy reading in 2014, Andrea. Nice to see your wish list - I have far too many books on my wish list to be able to put them all in a single post!

Hope you find time to read for yourself in 2014, tunn, as I guess it won't be too long before you're reading plenty of children's books to your son!

That's a very interesting list of books you're planning to read! Hope you have a good time reading in 2014.

Hope you have a good reading year in 2014, Willoyd. Some of the books in your 2013 Accolades list are among my favourites and some others are on my wish list!

Good luck with your reading in 2014, Ben. Hope you manage to find time in amongst your studies for some frivolous books.

Hope you have a fabulous reading year in 2014, Sari! I always look forward to coming into your thread to see what you've been up to.

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!

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

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

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

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

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)