GoodReads Clean-Up #01

I made my GoodReads account about a year ago now (add me!) and have recently taken up reading again. Plowing through the Harry Potter books in less than three weeks made me realize how much I can enjoy it and even on my worst mental health days, making progress in a book is always a good feeling.

With that, I went through my to be read books and either binned or kept them. With the books I kept, I sorted them by high or medium priority and if they can be rented digitally from my home library in Arizona or from the Brighton library. The lists below are just a sample of the books, it would take ages to type them all out!

Let’s get into it…

Kept, low priority

• The Lovely Bones by Alive Sebold
• It, Carrie and Bill Hodges trilogy by Stephen King: I really enjoyed Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges 1), so I will probably tackle those first.
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• I am Legend by Richard Matheson
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Jurassic Park books by Michael Crichton
• Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
• To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson: I cannot watch horror movies, but they are some of my favorite books.

Kept, medium priority

• The God Instinct by Jesse Bering
• The Man in the High Castle by Phillip Dick
• The Exorcist by William Blatty
• Ready Player One by Ernest Kline
• A Brief History of Everyone Who Has Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
• Room by Emma Donoghue: I loved this movie and have it reserved at the library to read next. Thursday, come quick!
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Steig Larsson
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie: I actually haven’t read any of her books yet, so this should be interesting!

Kept, high priority

• Dominion: The Power of Man… by Matthew Scully: the topic of religion and the way we treat animals has greatly interested me since my Environmental Ethics class in my undergraduate degree, I hope to get this one under my belt soon.
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari: I have heard nothing but good things about this book and I love me a popular science book. I have it reserved from the library for early next month.
• Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult: Although I binned some books on my TBR list by her, this one seems sweet.
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: I love WWII historical fiction.
• The Lord of the Rings books by J.R.R. Tolkien
• In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park: I bought this at Waterstones the other day and can’t wait to dive in soon.
• Roadmap: The Get-It-Together Guide for Figuring Out What to Do with Your Life: Lord knows I need it.

Binned

• Sperm Wars by Robin Baker: I read something similar by Jared Diamond and thought it was just okay. Interesting, but I don’t need to read another book on the topic.
• House Rules and Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult: She has written probably my favorite book of all time, The Storyteller, and a few others I enjoyed. However, one of the last books I read by her (The Pact) really let me down and a lot of these plots sound kind of same-same. When you read her books enough, you can see what kind of twist is coming.
• Some feminist books e.g. The Second Sex (thought Bad Feminist was just okay)
• Lies She Told by Kate Holahan
• Into the Water by Paula Hawkins: I thought The Girl on the Train was just okay, it was like Gone Girl for wussies.
• Some popular science books e.g. Bottlemania
• Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson
• Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon: It just sounds cringey.
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: Because my dad didn’t like it and I trust his taste
• Vox by Christina Dalcher

Are there any books I should un-bin? Move up in priority? Forget about? Let me know if you see one of your favorite books!

Photo by Florencia Viadana.