Erratic charmer makes some breathing room

Hi everyone! I'm a long-time member of Librarything but a sporadic poster. I'm 33 and live in England. My library is a hodgepodge of different things, mostly fiction that I've picked up secondhand on a whim.

This year I've made a resolution to free up some shelf space, to which end I'm reading the books I already have and avoiding buying/borrowing new titles, apart from special occasions like literature festivals. The first literature festival I have in the calendar isn't until July, so if I stick to the plan I should be in good shape by then :)

Edited to add: For purposes of this challenge, the only books I'm counting are books of my own (nothing borrowed from friends and no library books). I'm hoping to re-home quite a few of them after they're finished in order to free up some shelf space, but if it's read, it counts toward the total even if I decide to hang onto it.




January books:

1. The Beauty Volume 1 by Jeremy Haun
2. Goddesses in Everywoman by Jean Shinoda Bolen
3. Artifical Flowers by Rachael Smith
4. A Rose for Winter by Laurie Lee
5. The History of Sexuality Volume 1 by Michel Foucault
6. The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier
7. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Basho
8. Onward Christian Soldiers? The Religious Right in American Politics by Clyde Wilcox
9. Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley
10. A Winter Book: Selected Stories by Tove Jansson

Have a great reading year and good luck with your goal! Be sure to let us know how the festival goes in July so we can live vicariously through you ;)

Best of luck with avoiding new titles. If it works for you I'm sure we would all like to know because I know I, for one, don't have a clue how to avoid buying/borrowing books. Good luck with your ROOTing.

Great resolution - but since you have come here, I suspect avoiding new books will be a challenge. We are all helpless addicts in that regard.

Good luck ROOTing.

One done already!

Happy reading and ROOTing!

Happy 2017 ROOTing!

Welcome! Happy ROOTing!

Haha, thanks! Two in two days! (One was a graphic novel and the other I started reading on New Year's Eve, so that didn't hurt ;) ) Back to work now though so I won't be keeping up this pace.

Welcome to the group!

Two books down already, congrats!

Happy ROOTing, Valerie. You had a good start with 2 books all ready read.

Good luck with your goals! It can be so difficult to avoid those new books.

A slightly belated January summing-up post:

Off to a good start with 10 books read towards my total :) (Not counting books that I borrowed or books that I started reading but couldn't be bothered to finish.)

My top three were:
1. A Winter Book by Tove Jansson
2. Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley
3. The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier

February should see my pace slow somewhat as I have fewer graphic novels on the to-read stack for this month and more big fat doorstop books and nonfiction. Plus, shortest month of the year and all.

See you're planning to read Basho's NRTDN. If you haven't discovered and read it already, Please seek out The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. You will appreciate this painfully beautiful contemporary novel more than most readers of it, I venture, for having read Basho's classic work.

Thanks for the recommendation Limelite!

February books:

11. A History of Japan by Mason and Caiger
12. The Uncertainty Principle by Ruth Brandon
13. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
14. Rape of the Fair Country by Alexander Cordell
15. Doing it with Style by Quentin Crisp
16. The Celtic Twilight by W. B. Yeats

March books:

17. Letters Between Gentlemen by Nimue Brown and Professor Elemental
18. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
19. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
20. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
21. Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness by Bryan Lee O'Malley
22. Gossip from the Forest: The Tangled Roots of Our Forests and Fairytales by Sara Maitland
23. Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley
24. Marble Skin by Slavenka Drakulic
25. Wet Moon Book Two: Unseen Feet by Sophie Campbell

April books:

26. Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
27. Beluthahatchie by Andy Duncan
28. My Neighbor Seki by Takuma Morishige
29. Giant Days vol 4 by John Allison
30. Wet Moon volume 3 by Sophie Campbell
31. A Romantic Education by Patricia Hampl

28 books done. Good job!

Thanks! I have bought a couple - well, three: Wet Moon volumes 2 and 3 and Giant Days volume 4. Can't resist new volumes of my favourite comics. I've read them right away though so that's okay - right? ;)

>20 Erratic_Charmer: Of course that is okay, they are of the pile now!

Great progress so far!

Thanks :)

May books:

32. Prague Tales by Jan Neruda
33. As You Step Outside by V.G. Lee

A slow month for shelf-clearing - been re-reading old favourites and some Kindle titles while on holiday.

Re-reading old favorites while on holiday sounds wonderful :)

June books:

34. Refuting ISIS by Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi
35. Sultan vs Dracula by Razwan Ul-Haq
36. I See by My Outfit by Peter S Beagle
37. Bloom Into You by Nakatani Nio
38. The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K Le Guin
39. Motor Crush Volume 1 by Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, Babs Tarr
40. The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle

July books:

41. The English Civil War by Diane Purkiss
42. Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
43. Sunstone vol 2 by Stjepan Sejic
44. Sunstone vol 3 by Stjepan Sejic
45. Queen of Desire by Sam Toperoff
46. Juniper Loa by Lin Yutang
47. The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write ed by Sabrina Mahfouz
48. Sunstone vol 4 by Stjepan Sejic
49. Cheri and The Last of Cheri by Colette
50. Paper Girls vol 1 by Brian K Vaughan
51. Sunstone vol 5 by Stjepan Sejic

Wow, you have read a lot of books, Valerie!

>26 Erratic_Charmer: another 'silent assassin' getting on quietly with ROOTing - good going!

Thanks both :) The above doesn't include a few books that I started and then abandoned, or some library books or the nearly 800-page Chronicles of Amber that I borrowed from a friend. I've been on sick leave from work and getting a hell of a lot of reading done.

On the flip side there was also a literature festival that happened and a few trips to the comic shop, so the overall number is probably still about par, LOL

Sick leave is seldom enjoyable, good for you that you can read!

I hope you are feeling better, Valerie.

I'm sorry to hear you've been on sick leave, but am relieved that you're still able to read! Being too sick to read is the pits.

Literature festivals are fun! Hope you had a great time :)

sorry to hear you've been unwell - hope you're on the mend now :)

Oh thank you everyone, you are all so sweet! It is anxiety disorder. It took a while to calm down enough to be able to concentrate on reading but since then a stack of books has been the perfect company.

August books:

52. The Secret Loves of Geek Girls ed by Hope Nicholson
53. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
54. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
55. Princess Jellyfish vol 2 by Akiko Higashimura
56. Citrus vol 5 by Saburouta
57. Julian Grenfell by Nicholas Mosley
58. Kitchen Essays by Agnes Jekyll
59. Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe by Bryan Lee O'Malley
60. Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley

You are making excellent progress, Valerie.

>34 Erratic_Charmer: I know all about anxiety disorder, My husband is suffering from it. I'm glad you were able to calm down and read again.

September books:

61. Bringing Race to the Table ed by Crystal Blanton
62. Wet Moon vol 4: Drowned in Evil by Sophie Campbell
63. Death in Venice and other stories by Thomas Mann
64. Monster vol 1 by Naoki Urasawa
65. The Luxury of Exile by Louis Buss
66. The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion by Thorkild Jacobsen
67. Giant Days vol 5 by John Allison
68. Yes, Roya by C Spike Trotman
69. Journey to the Dark Goddess by Jane Meredith
70. Fresh Romance vol 1

Glad you are somewhat recovered and back to reading!

So close I can almost taste it! :)

October books:

71. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
72. Starborn by Lucy Hounsom

Only three more!

November books:

73. The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland
74. Y: The Last Man vol 1 by Brian K Vaughan
75. My Pretty Vampire by Katie Skelly
76. Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
77. Girl Trouble by Carol Dyhouse

Just one to go!

And DONE! :)

Good job!

Congrats on reaching your goal!

Well done!

Congratulations on meeting your number!

Hooray! Thanks all :)

December books:

78. Y: The Last Man vol 2 by Brian K Vaughan, Pia Guerra