Tuesday, January 1, 2013

The books I didn't quite get to in 2012

I think this post is going to become an annual event! Compiling it certainly encourages me to stop buying books for a while in the New Year. Every year I make the same resolution & my best effort was three months without buying a single book. After such abstinence, it was quite hard to get back in the habit of buying, but I managed it eventually! It is quite a good feeling, especially when I know I have so many lovely books on the tbr shelves - not to mention on the e-reader & at the library. It did lead to my wishlists at various bookshop websites getting longer, but that's a great way to remember what I want.

So, here's my list of books that I was desperate to read when I ordered them & was determined to drop everything as soon as they arrived on the doorstep & read them first. Only, I didn't & they're still sitting patiently on the tbr shelves waiting their turn.

Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins had so many enthusiastic reviews from Desperate Reader & Book Snob, among other respected bloggers & friends & it's a Persephone so what was I waiting for?

The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher was recommended in my online bookgroup by Diana, Austen devotee & writer of the lovely blog, Light, Bright and Sparkling. In a flash, I'd ordered it & was determined to drop everything when it arrived, but I didn't, as you can see.

The first two volumes of Agnes & Elizabeth Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England was eagerly awaited & then completely ignored.

Desperate Reader's review of Arabella Boxer's Book of English Food only confirmed the fact that I'd been right to order it. It's been sitting by my reading chair ever since it arrived & I'm only halfway through the Introduction.

I seem to be collecting books about Jane Austen (I have two more on the way) but not actually reading them. Maggie Lane's Understanding Austen is one of these. Hopefully with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride & Prejudice coming up this year, I'll be inspired to read this.

I read a lot of books by Dickens & a few books about Dickens in his Bicentenary year - but this wasn't one of them. I love letters & I hope to get to the Selected Letters edited by Jenny Hartley sooner rather than later.

Shamefully, I read no Elizabeth Taylor in her Centenary year although I enjoyed reading lots of reviews of her novels around the blogosphere. At least I've read quite a lot of her novels, just not in 2012. I couldn't resist her Complete Short Stories published by Virago & introduced by her daughter, Joanna Kingham, & even though Harriet reviewed it glowingly here, it's got no further than the Virago shelf of the tbr shelves.

Sylvia Townsend Warner is another writer that I want to read more of. Simon reviewed this volume of her Selected Writings called With the Hunted & I was keen to read it, especially the section on Jane Austen (see above). I don't promise to read the whole book this year but I will at least read Sylvia's thoughts on Jane. I can console myself with the thought that Simon hasn't read it all either - or, at least, he hadn't when he reviewed it in August.

Well, there you have this year's list. Writing a post like this does spur me on to read the books. Last year, I read all but two of the books in the 2011 list.

Happy New Year to everyone. Here's to a happy, healthy year with lots of reading - & a bit less book buying!

17 comments:

  1. Happy New Year to you too! I refuse to admit how many 2012 books are still unread (I have The Deepening Stream as well), but I do resolve to do better in 2013.

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    1. That's all we can hope for, Lisa May. We'll try to do better - it's a goal to aim for, anyway!

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  2. Happy New Year, Lyn! Well done for having so few books (certainly compared to me) that you didn't get to this year.

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    1. Cornflower, this is the tip of the iceberg! This is only a list of the ones I could remember that I'd been determined to read as soon as they arrived. Still, I'll get to them all eventually. Happy New Year!

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  3. wishing you a happy new year ....in gratitude for the pleasure of sharing in your reading and your company....you have introduced me to so many wonderful authors and books...how I have enjoyed reading O Douglas, Dorothy Whipple and so many others.

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  4. wishing you a happy new year ....in gratitude for the pleasure of sharing in your reading and your company....you have introduced me to so many wonderful authors and books...how I have enjoyed reading O Douglas, Dorothy Whipple and so many others.

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    1. Happy New Year, Marmee. I'm glad you enjoy the blog & I hope to read more of all my favourite authors in 2013.

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  5. Good for you to hold off on book buying--not sure I could abstain for so long--maybe someday I'll try but then those gift cards I got for Christmas are already burning a hole in my pocket! I am going to try and read more from my TBR piles next year though. Happy New Year--it's already 2013 in Australia! :) I hope you get to these books in the coming months and I look forward to hearing all about them! :)

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    1. But Dani, gift cards don't count! They expire so you have to use them. I suppose it's not really the money but the space that's the main problem & the feeling of being overwhelmed by all the books I already have. Although I do have a couple of house maintenance projects planned for this year so I'm saving for those. Happy New Year!

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  6. Happy New Year, Lyn! I find it hard to understand too, how I can be so looking forward to reading a book, thinking it will be the first thing I do once it arrives, but then always ending up putting it aside when it does. Are our hearts really so easily wooed away? Or maybe we really just so enjoy the process of courting with our books that we allow ourselves to go away and be won back over, again & again, until we finally settle down to reading the book. ;)
    Looking forward to reading your thoughts on STW's With The Hunted.

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    1. Happy New Year, Michelle. Hopefully if I buy fewer books this year I'll have time to get to some of the ones (like these) that I already own. That's the plan anyway!

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  7. Happy New Year - may 2013 bring you many bookish joys! I am too ashamed to think about a list of Still Unread Books, but I can see it is motivational: good luck!

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    1. Happy New Year, Vicki! Yes, the list does concentrate the mind. Last year I read all but 2 of the books on the previous year's list & especially now that I'm not buying books for a while, I hope to get to some of them soon.

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  8. It's reassuring to know that many of us book lovers do the same thing. The grass is always greener? A small table in my living room has accumulated so many new books that I just had to read (but haven't) that the light from the lamp on the table is barely discernible! Time to read them or move them.

    A happy, healthy, wonderful New Year to you and the kitties!

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    1. Thank you Joan, Happy New Year to you, too. I love the idea of so many books that you can't see the light to read them by! I have a little pile by my reading chair that I'm trying to diminish at the moment.

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  9. Lovely post, I think you have some real treats ahead of you there. I'm dithering over an amazon order at the moment before concentrating on diminishing the tbr pile.

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    1. I hope you've stopped dithering by now & sent off that order, Hayley! One last indulgence before the New Year resolutions kick in. Looking forward to hearing what you order (hint, hint!)

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