New year's read-olution

I now have an entire bookcase full of things that I've bought and not read yet (mostly, but not exclusively, fiction). Most of them have come from charity shops or other cheap sources, but since I presumably did want to read them at the time of the acquisition.... The problem is that last year I spent a great deal of time re-reading books I was already familiar (and comfortable) with, but carried on getting new ones at about the usual rate.

So, this year my target is to read two new books (ie, ones I've not read before) per week; I'll allow a couple of weeks off for emergencies, giving a nice round 100 previously-unread books by the end of the year. Obviously, I'm allowed to re-read stuff too (but they don't count towards the hundred), and I think it's also permissible to get ahead (although ideally not to fall behind).

Conveniently, my mother lent me a couple of easy light-reading books when I saw her just after new year, so I started with those. Of course, this does nothing to reduce the amount of stuff in the bookcase full of unread books, but never mind.

New books one and two (House of Many Ways; The Graveyard Book)

Both borrowed from my mother, which rather defeats the original purpose of the exercise, but hey.

1) House of Many Ways (Diana Wynne Jones). DWJ says in the author's note that she had fun writing this book, and it shows. A somewhat-more-direct follow-up to "Howl's Moving Castle" than "Castle in the Air" was, and every bit as enjoyable as the former. I'll be getting my own copy :)

2) The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman). The interesting (and peculiar) tale of the growing-up of Nobody Owens, and his peculiar (and interesting) friends, teachers and guardian(s). I don't agree with those who say that it's the best thing NG has ever written (not even his best novel), but well worth the reading, and likely to reward re-reading, too. I'll probably be buying this, too.

I couldn't help but be amused that HoMW has a NG quote saying how good DWJ is, while TGB has a quote from DWJ saying how good NG is. They both deserve the praise, but I still found it funny.