Lizy's Books lovingly and carefully removed from the shelves 2012

No bombing for me! My books are precious and bombing is an altogether too destructive way to deal with them. I will move them carefully from shelf to shelf or from my shelves to loving new homes. Everyone will be happy and there will be no explosions!

In 2011 I managed to read only 23 books, and acquired 65. And only 14 of the books read were from my own shelves. I can’t decide whether this is an improvement or not over 2010 when I read a respectable 68 books but purchased an extravagant 150!

So this year I want to cut my purchasing down to double the numbers of books I read from my own shelves. And I’ll head for a conservative target of 20 books which have been on my shelves before 1st January 2012.




I’ll also keep a record of all the books I read here so I can keep an eye on what I'm up to overall. Crossed out means read and underlined means currently reading.

Books in 2012

1. Ruby: A Novel by Mary Summer Rain From the shelves (2010)
2. The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White From the shelves (2011)
3. Kraken by China Mieville Borrowed from my brother
4. To Sea and Back: The Heroic Life of the Atlantic Salmon by Richard Shelton Library Book from 2011
5. The Winter Whale From the shelves (2011)
6. The Woman In Black by Susan Hill From the shelves (2011)
7. The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham From the Shelves(2011)
8. The Ritual by Adam Nevill From the Shelves (2012)
9. Wesley: The Story of a Remarkable Owl by Stacey O'Brien From the Shelves (2011)
10. Management Guide to Birds of Lowland Farmland (RSPB Management Guides)
11. The Voyage of the Narwhal From the shelves (2011)
12. Dead and Gone From the shelves (2011)
13. In Search of Arctic Birds From the Library
14. The Terror From the shelves (2012)
15. Frozen in Time From the shelves 2012
16. Fag Hag From the shelves 2012
17. Dracula from the shelves 2011

3 books read already this year, 2 from my shelves and so far 0 added to the stacks. This is good, I am finding living 10 miles from the nearest charity shop with no car to be very productive in this area.

Books read: Ruby: A Novel
I got this one from the 2010 Christian Aid booksale (one of around 60 I think...that was a nice week) and then wasn't too sure why I had bought it. Subsequently it has been sitting on my shelf and every time I saw it I felt bad for buying so many books without any self control. So I decided to read it and it was ok. A story about a woman helping her niece get over the death of her father, and sorting out her life, and along the way learning all sorts of wonderful spiritual things... I think it probably refreshed my brain a little bit.

Actually I prefered Kraken though, which was filled with swearing, violence and religious cults. I borrowed this one from my brother because of the title, and the beautiful front cover, and the fact that squid are very interesting. While there wasn't quite as much squid content as I might have liked, it was a fantastically inventive and crazy book. Sometimes it lost me but never for long enough that I got bored.

Then there was The Natural History of Selborne which I got from the Christian Aid bookfair in 2011. This was a nice enough little natural history book but wasn't as amazing I had been expecting it to be. I did like the bits where the author described shooting the rare birds of the county to learn more about them, but I think I like more hard core science in my natural history books.

Books now in progress: To Sea and Back: The Heroic Life of the Atlantic Salmon, to continue my natural history reading and The Woman In Black in preparation for the film next month.

Progress has been good for the past couple of months and I'm already over a third of the way through my challenge. Statistics so far:

Books read: 10

Counting for this challenge: 7
2012 books: 1
Borrowed: 1
From the Library: 1

New books gained:2
Old books given away:5

So for this year I'm actually -3 books! An all time record!