I shouldn't let this bother me, but like last year I seem to be approaching the end of the year with having read fewer books than the previous year. I know. In the end, of course, it doesn't really matter how many books I read in a year as long as the books are in some way satisfying for me. A few years from now I won't even remember that I read fewer (or more) books than any other year, but some small part of me sees that list of books (maybe in the future the list should not include numbers?) and feels a little twinge of disappointment.
It's too late for me to try and improve on last year, but I would be happy to at least read as many books as I did last year, which means finishing nine more books before the end of the year. Counting today that gives me twenty days in which to accomplish this small feat. It could happen. Maybe. Almost all the books on my list (revamped from this list) are in progress, some have bookmarks quite near the end, though one or two is rather optimistically new to the pile.
These are what I am going to be reading for the next three weeks, and then, hooray-a new blank page will be turned for 2016! I have a few ideas in mind for how I'd like to start the new reading year off, a couple of potential projects. Nothing set in stone just ideas of books I am in the mood to read sooner than later, but more about those later.
1. At the Source, Gillian Clarke (less than 25 pages left)
2. Little Town on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
3. Jest of God, Margaret Laurence
4. Justice Hall, Laurie King
5. Jamilti, Rutu Modan
6. These Happy Golden Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder
7. The First Four Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder (good thing this one is short)
8. Lanterns Across the Snow, Susan Hill (and this one even shorter--to be read right before, on, and right after Christmas and I hope to write about my reading on those days, too)
9. The Danish Girl, David Ebershoff (in anticipation of the movie opening later this month)
10. Poor Cow, Nell Dunn (a Virago--not yet started--because I began the year with Nell Dunn and thought it would be fun to finish with her)
11. Macbeth, Shakespeare, adapted by Gareth Hinds
Extra Credit: a graphic novel of Shakespeare's Macbeth (in progress and also in anticipation of the new movie opening this weekend.
I've got about five books I still want to write about properly and perhaps that same number I'll hopefully write very briefly about. And several books will be holdovers into the new year. I also will get to pick a few new books--I need a new classic (I finished a novel by Elizabeth Taylor I'll be telling you about soon) as well as something new from my 'new in hardcover--had to own this rightnow stack' and a new mystery after I finish my Mary Russell novel. And I can't wait to get back to Roger Deakin (and more nonfiction in general, please).
All in the next twenty days. Wish me luck. Good thing my holiday shopping is done and I am too broke to do anything more than sit at home in my comfy rocking chair and read my books. And you? How is your end of the year reading and planning panning out?