Drowning in Books!

Wondering whether it might be as a result of coming of my anti-anxiety meds, but at the moment I seem to be starting a lot of books all at the same time, particularly quite long books and series. I also know I haven't updated for a while, but I currently feel like I want to write more and not be so bothered about monitoring my online presence. To this aim I'm separating Tumblr from Facebook so I can post as much shit about books, fan fiction and feminism as I want.

Anyway, as far as my big book list is concerned, I haven't touched Proust for a while. I keep trying to get back into it but no luck so far. I'm hoping to at least finish the first volume by the end of the year. Same thing with the dreaded Clarissa. Although I finally managed to finish the first volume of A Dance to The Music of Time, as this was mostly completed in a fog of baby and I didn't really start the second volume in time to keep up with the plot I am starting again from scratch. The good news is that I've finished the Barchester Chronicles, the bad news is that although I've read the first couple of chapters of Can You Forgive Her? I have not really paid attention enough and will probably need to start again. Prompted by the BBC series I have started War and Peace. So far, I am finding it a tad hard-going. The Vintage translation preserves the original French so I am continually reading translation footnotes and then the actually footnotes explaining things. The naming conventions and family links are also quite confusing. I'm plowing on, however.

Current other books oldest first:

1.  The Grass Crown. This has been on there forever, but as I've read it a couple of times and keep up with the plot, this can stay.
2. The Cornish Trilogy. Somehow, although I was really enjoying this I sort of got out of the habit of reading it and it's just waiting to be finished.
3. Queen Lucia. Started this last Christmas, difficulties getting into it and I've lost the plot.
4. The Black Moon. I've been ploughing through the Poldark series for a while and I'm coming up to halfway through. As the plots are not that difficult to follow, I'm tending to pick them up and put them down at will.
5.  The Reformation. Really interesting topic, quite a dense non-fiction book that I haven't really kept up with.
6. American Tabloid. Another reproach from my reading list I'm probably going to have to start from the beginning.
7. North and South. The classic Civil War Trilogy, not Elizabeth Gaskill. Finished book one and although it's not hard going, it's a bit of a mammoth undertaking.
8. A Little Life. A library book I ended up getting a Kindle copy of. So far, it's pretty good, I just don't seem to be in the mood for it right now.
9. The Astors. Short history I've borrowed from Kindle Unlimited. Not bad.
10. The Second Footman. Historical M/M romance. Again, not really in the mood.
11. The Name of the Rose. Started reading this after reading a couple of books set in monasteries. I am making copious notes.
12. The Quincunx. If I hadn't limited myself, this would have made the list as I've been meaning to read it for AGES. What a book though. A pastiche of Victorian Gothic melodramas, with a juicy mystery and a cast of thousands.
13. Revelation. After loving Dominion I started reading Sansom's Shardlake mysteries. I am currently on the fourth.
14. Shadow of the Wind. I've just picked up the sequel from the local library and the third book is on order. I started this ages ago but didn't finish it, so I'm hoping to get further this time.
15. Letters of Two Brides. As my attention span seems to be a little limited at the moment, I've started reading Balzac's novellas. This is my third and I'm really enjoying their resemblance to fairy tales. 
16. Havisham. Started reading this randomly last night, not very deep into it.
17. A Question of Upbringing. Sudden craving to start this again.

So that's pretty much the Goodreads list aside from the three mentioned in the part about the big book list and a great big book of short stories that kind of stays on there. There are some pretty chunky books on there and series that carry on for a while. I'm not really worried but I think I probably need to start finishing some stuff and make decisions about whether I want to give some of these books another try or put them on the dreaded abandoned list.