Planning for 2017

The new year has begun and my To Be Read pile is staggeringly high! I need to sort and prioritise my books to start the reading year off well.

I plan to read at least two books a month - 24 for the year - which I almost achieved in 2016. I blog about most of the things I read, so that should give me a good year of blogging as well.

In the first instance, I need to finish books I am currently midway through or decide whether to take them off the pile:

• Women I've Undressed (2015) by Orry Kelly
• Not My Father's Son (2015) by Alan Cumming (update: read review)
• Unfinished Business (2015) by Anne-Marie Slaughter
• Farewell Kabul (2015) by Christina Lamb

Then I have my pile of new books to prioritise and read:

• The Good People (2016) by Hannah Kent (update: read review)
• The Dry (2016) by Jane Harper (update: read review)
• The Sellout (2015) by Paul Beatty
• Fantastic Beasts (2016) by JK Rowling (update: read review)
• The Princess Diarist (2016) by Carrie Fisher (update: read review)
• The North Water (2016) by Ian Maguire (update: read review)
• Commonwealth (2016) by Ann Patchett
• The Pursuit of Love (1945) by Nancy Mitford

I also want to get my hands on Hillbilly Elegy (2016) by JD Vance (update: read review) and White Trash (2016) by Nancy Isenberg so a trip to the library is likely on the cards.

I will need to save space in my reading schedule as there are new works coming in 2017 from authors like Roxane Gay (Difficult Women), Colm Toibin (House of Names), Arundhati Roy, Joan Didion (South and West), Sofie Laguna, Jane Harper, Barbara Gowdy, Paula Hawkins (Into the Water) and more. Plus there are some other interesting books to come, like Tony Jones' debut political thriller, Sarah Schmidt's novel See What I Have Done (about Lizzie Borden).


My Random Reads will continue in 2017 as I subscribe to several regular publications including the New York Times, Vanity Fair magazine, and others. It will be an interesting year - with the new US President, Brexit and more unfolding - and it I look forward to reading different views on these activities. Plus I will have my Quarterly Essays to keep me occupied (can't wait for the next David Marr - On Politics and Prejudice!).

Finally, I am travelling to Europe this year and hope to read a few books about places I will be visiting - Berlin, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, Krakow etc. Top of my list is Graham Greene's The Third Man (1950), set in Vienna. This blog may suffer during the five weeks of holidays (as I will be travel blogging instead) but the reading will continue on planes, trains, boats and buses!

Let the reading begin!