I am declaring 2015 to be Read Books By People I Know. Realistically I will, of course, read books by people I don’t know, so to make this work I think I’ll have to make every other book one by Somebody I Know.
It may take 2 years to clear my TBR shelves of books by people I know, at that rate (and that’s assuming I don’t buy any more…), but it’d be a start. :) (oh, there’s 35 of them at the moment, not counting whichever ones I’ve missed. I *could* in theory read all of those this year. Although there are several cases, like with Juliet’s books, where I want to re-read the first book before going on to read the rest of the trilogy, or where I currently only own the first book and will want to read the rest of the series when I’m done with it…okay, it’s gonna take two years… :))
The really important question here is whether interacting with people on Twitter and LJ counts as knowing them, or if I have to have met them in real life. Granted, that affects…perhaps two…of the authors on my shelves at this point, so maybe it doesn’t matter.
I’m going to try to pick up with my GGK re-read, too. It turned out the book that stopped me wasn’t the one that I hadn’t cared for 20 years ago, but the one with the ending I hate. I tried it two or three times and never got past the first few sentences, because I was pre-emptively pissed off at the finale. I can’t decide if I should just skip it now or try one more time.
I declared a moratorium on book buying in 2014 and it was a terrible failure. This year I’m out of shelf space so I might be a little more successful. Or try harder. :)
Behind the cut lies the almost inevitably incomplete To Be Read list. Books with a star beside them are first-in-series and are being moved to the end of the list so I don’t buy even more books for my TBR this *year*, anyway; books in parentheses are books I, uh, bought this year. O.O
The TBR Shelf of Books By People I Know:
Bach, Rachel: FORTUNE’S PAWN, HONOR’S KNIGHT, HEAVEN’S QUEEN
Berg, Carol: DUST & LIGHT*
Buckell, Tobias: HURRICANE FEVER
Carey, MR: THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS
Carroll, Michael: SUPERHUMAN, THE ASCENSION
Cato, Beth: CLOCKWORK CROWN
Clare, Cassandra: CLOCKWORK ANGEL, (CLOCKWORK PRINCE, CLOCKWORK PRINCESS)
Cogman, Genevieve: (THE INVISIBLE LIBRARY)
Cornell, Paul: LONDON FALLING*
Elliott, Kate: COLD MAGIC*
Harkaway, Nick: ANGELMAKER
Hunter, Faith: DEATH’S RIVAL, RAVEN CURSED, (HAVE STAKES, WILL TRAVEL)
Kay, Guy Gavriel: RIVER OF STARS
Kingfisher, T.: (BRYONY & ROSES)
Lynch, Scott: THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES
Macallan, Ben: DESDAEMONA
McKenna, Juliet E: BLOOD IN THE WATER, BANNERS IN THE WIND
Newman, Emma: BETWEEN TWO THORNS
Robinson, Kim Stanley: SHAMAN (omg i get to put KSR on my list of writers i know #dies), (AURORA)
Sagara, Michelle: SILENCE, TOUCH
Scarborough, Elizabeth Ann: (THE DRAGON, THE WITCH & THE RAILROAD)
Shevdon, Mike: STRANGENESS & CHARM + a couple others i think
Sperring, Kari: THE GRASS KING’S CONCUBINE
Sumner-Smith, Karina: RADIANT
Tarr, Judith: (FORGOTTEN SUNS)
Tchaikovsky, Adrian: EMPIRE IN BLACK AND GOLD
Tzavelas, Chrysoula: (CITADEL OF THE SKY)
Watt-Evans, Lawrence: A YOUNG MAN WITHOUT MAGIC
Williams, Walter Jon: THIS IS NOT A GAME
The TBR Shelf of Books By People I Don’t Know:
Austen, Jane: MANSFIELD PARK
Barnes, Mark T: /T/H/E/ /G/A/R/D/E/N/ /O/F/ /S/T/O/N/E/S/
Beaton, MC: SICK OF SHADOWS, HASTY DEATH, OUR LADY OF PAIN
Brin, David: (EXISTENCE)
Buchanan, Col: FARLANDER*
Burnett, Frances Hodgson: A LITTLE PRINCESS
Campbell, Alan: /S/E/A/ /O/F/ /G/H/O/S/T/S/
Campbell, Jack: DREADNAUGHT, INVINCIBLE, (GUARDIAN, STEADFAST, LEVIATHAN)
Cobley, Michael: /S/E/E/D/S/ /O/F/ /E/A/R/T/H/
Connolly, Sheila: RED DELICIOUS DEATH, A KILLER CROP, BITTER HARVEST, SOUR APPLES
Copperman, EJ: CHANCE OF A GHOST, AN UNINVITED GHOST
Coyle, Cleo: ON WHAT GROUNDS
Delaney, Joseph: THE SPOOK’S DESTINY
Friedman, Celia: LEGACY OF KINGS
Grafton, Sue: D IS FOR DEADBEAT, I IS FOR INNOCENT
Gaiman, Neil: THE GRAVEYARD BOOK
Hambly, Barbara: RAN AWAY, GOOD MAN FRIDAY, (CRIMSON TIDE)
Hamilton, Barbara: THE NINTH DAUGHTER, A MARKED MAN, SUP WITH THE DEVIL
Heyer, Georgette: FRIDAY’S CHILD
Knight, Francis: FADE TO BLACK
Kristoff, Jay: SHADOWDANCER
Lo, Malinda: HUNTRESS
Leon, Donna: /B/E/A/S/T/L/Y/ /T/H/I/N/G/S/
Lyle, Anne: THE ALCHEMIST OF SOULS
McDowall, Iain: /P/E/R/F/E/C/T/L/Y/ /D/E/A/D/
Pratchett, Terry: (THE LONG EARTH, THE LONG WAR, THE LONG MARS, THE LONG UTOPIA)
Steele, Allen: SPINDRIFT
Tregellis, Ian: BITTER SEEDS
Wexler, Django: THE FORBIDDEN LIBRARY
Non-Fiction:
Clements, Jonathan: A BRIEF HISTORY OF KHUBILAI KHAN
Emmerson, Charles: THE FUTURE HISTORY OF THE ARCTIC
Farmelo, Graham: THE STRANGEST MAN
Garfield, Simon: JUST MY TYPE
Goldstone, Nancy: JOANNA
Isaacson, Rupert: THE HORSE BOY
Leon, Vicki: 4000 YEARS OF UPPITY WOMEN
Palmer, Amanda: THE ART OF ASKING
Weatherford, Jack: SECRET HISTORY OF THE MONGOL QUEENS
Weir, Alison: ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE
Wilson, Ben: DECENCY & DISORDER