Want To Read List Cleanup #2

The background is of bookshelves filled with books that look mostly older. The title is in light, bright blue letters as "Want to read list cleanup". There is an image of a woman in purple clothes sweeping the floor and a spray bottle under the title.

This is the second installment of my Want To Read List Cleanup, which I started last month. I’m still working through Todos Los Cuentos by Gabriel García Márquez, which was the book chosen from the last time I did this. As a recap, I will take 10 random books from my Goodreads Want To Read List, which currently has 1193 books listed (how is is bigger than last time?! XD). I will go through them and either remove them or keep them on the list. The point here is to remove books that I’m no longer interested in reading and keep the ones that I still want to read. Out of the ones I do keep I will take the oldest book and add it to next month’s reading plans. Let’s do it!

The list of 10 books up for cleanup
  • The World is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake by Dany Laferrière: I added this book back in 2016, which is when I started adding more non-fiction books to my list. This particular one still interests me because the effects of that earthquake in Haiti are still being felt more than a decade later. There are many moments in history that change a whole community or country completely and this is one of them. I’d like to learn more about it so I’ll keep this one.
  • The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan: I already know I’ll be keeping this book on the list! Amy Tan is one of my favorite authors. Her books are beautifully written and I find a lot of comfort in them. This book is about Ruth and her mother LuLing and how LuLing starts telling her life story to Ruth via a series of writings. A multi-generational story set in both China and the United States. I’m definitely looking forward to reading this one.
  • Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen: I don’t remember this book at all! I can see why I added it though, it is a very strange novel about a man who is convinced that his wife has been swapped with someone else who looks just like her. It’s supposed to be a love story but also a dark comedy. While the premise does seem interesting I’m not convinced to keep it so I will be removing it from the list.
  • March: Book One by John Lewis: Wow, I’ve had this one on my list since 2015! I definitely want to read this since it tells the story of John Lewis’ life and role in the Civil Rights movement. Also, it’s a graphic novel so it’s a very accessible way for anyone to learn about such an important man! This one comes in three parts and I definitely want to read them all.
  • Revival, Vol. 1: You’re Among Friends by Tim Seeley: Would you look at that? Another graphic novel! Revival is one I definitely added during my horror-filled years. In this graphic novel series (yep there are 8 volumes) the living and the dead “live” together and of course, murder still happens. Officer Dana Cypress is the one in charge of figuring out who committed a murder in this “rural noir” graphic novel. I am thinking that this would be something I’d look for during the fall/Halloween but I’m not urgently rushing to get it. I’ll keep it on the list so I don’t forget about it!
  • The Enigma of the Return by Dany Laferrière: Two books by Laferrière in the same randomly grabbed list! It’s a sign that I need to read one of his books! Laferrière is a Haitian author and I can’t quite remember how I found out about him but I’m glad I did! This particular book is about Dany, who fled Haiti when he was 23 years old, and is now (33 years later) faced with a return to Haiti after his father’s death. I am unsure if this is fully an autobiography or not but I’m very much interested in reading so it shall remain in the list.
  • The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku: I can imagine why I added this book to my list, I do enjoy science books so I am always looking for good scientific writers. Being someone who has a career in a scientific field can be a double edged sword since I know that some fields of science move so fast that some works might not be as current as others. That being said, this particular one is written by Dr Kaku, a theoretical physicist who is highly respected and I’m very interested in reading one of his books so I think I will keep it for that reason alone.
  • Rant by Chuck Palahniuk : Oh Chuck Palahniuk. I have read quite a few of his books (somehow haven’t read Fight Club though hahaha) and they are either big hits or big misses. It’s truly hard to tell until I read them! I definitely will keep this one if only because I do want to finish reading all his books. This particular one is about a man named Rant Casey who is a serial killer and the story is about all his friends gathering after he dies to tell the story of his life.
  • Emma by Jane Austen: I must confess…. I’ve never read any Jane Austen books. I know… I know… It’s not that I don’t want to! XD Something else just crosses my path and I just don’t get to them. This book has been on my list for a loooong time (since 2011 yikes). Of course I’ll keep it, I do want to read Jane Austen and when I finally do read one of her books I’ll look back and think “why did it take me this long?” right? I don’t know what Emma is about and I think I’ll keep it that way, looking forward to reading it.
  • Building Stories by Chris Ware: So I know I added this book because it is a sort of interactive graphic novel (another one!) This actually is multiple separate pages that come inside a box or something? I fear now that it is too gimmicky, I haven’t had too much luck with these sort of unconventional books that try to do more with things like reading in any order or having the pages be loose… yeah not sure anymore about this one so I will be removing it from my list.

Aaaand that is it! Overall I removed 2/10 books which is… surprising! I thought there would be more that I would not be interested in reading like last time but I guess not! So let’s see what the oldest book of the ones that are left will go into my TBR for next month…. Emma by Jane Austen! I guess that will be my first Austen book and I’m actually quite excited about it.

That’s it for this month’s Want To Read Clean Up! Have you read any of the books mentioned? Would you have kept any of the ones I took off my list? Let me know!

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