Sunday 3 January 2016

Planning for 2016

I know it is not smart to plan my reading for the year too much, as inevitably I never read what I plan to anyway. But, in the spirit of getting myself organised for the year, I thought I should set out some goals for 2016.

I would like to read at least two books a month - 24 for the year - which is what I feel I can manage with my work and other commitments. I blog about most of the things I read, so that should give me a good year of blogging as well.  In 2015 I picked up a lot of books at various events like the Sydney Writers' Festival. I need to finish those so that I am free to do more shopping when the Festival rolls around again.




In the first instance, I need to finish books I have already started:
  • H is for Hawk (2015) by Helen Macdonald (Update Jan 16: read review)
  • The Executioner's Song (1979) by Norman Mailer
  • Not My Father's Son (2015) by Alan Cumming
  • Women I've Undressed (2015) by Orry Kelly
  • Go Set a Watchman (2015) by Harper Lee
  • Quarterly Essay 60 - Political Amnesia (2015) by Laura Tingle (Update Jan16: read review)
  • A Spool of Blue Thread (2014) by Anne Tyler
Add to this some of the books I have recently acquired or borrowed:
  • My Brilliant Friend (2012) by Elena Ferrante - which I gave my mother for Christmas and promptly borrowed from her!
  • Career of Evil (2015) by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)
  • The Learning Challenge (2014)  by Nigel Paine

Finally, I need to leave a little room for new books that have been recently published and those I might gather along the way. I am very keen to get my hands on A Little Life (2015) by Hanya Yanagihara and Fates and Furies (2015) by Lauren Groff as these sound very interesting. Yanighara's book is a 700+ page monster, so I will need to put that off for a while so I finish some of the others. There are some new books I want to read too like Christopher Hitchens'  And Yet: Essays (2015) and Julian Barnes' The Noise of Time (2016).


Now if only I could have a few more weeks off work so I had more time to read....