The Usual Gang of Idiots

For my reading challenge this year, I was considering redoing some of my earlier Reading Bingo cards that I'd not been able to complete originally. But I wasn't really feeling it and to be honest, I was a little bored of doing them. I still have my annual book target, so I thought that I just do that instead. I was looking over my list of Books That I Own And Really Need To Read OMG, when I realised that some of them were from various series that I have started and not got around to finishing for whatever reason.

I have a ridiculous amount of series ongoing - generally because I read the first book, maybe the second one, and then either the next book hasn't been written/published or the library doesn't have it yet or it's currently out on loan. While I'm waiting, I find another series, start reading that instead, and forget about the first one. Then I have to wait for a book from this other series, and I find a third series... etc etc etc. A few years ago, I started keeping a record of the series I have ongoing and which books I've read or have to read, but there's still a lot. 38 series actually. That's so bad.

So, my plan for my reading challenge this year is to reduce that number and actually get some of them finished. I've picked out the series that are close to being finished or that I particularly want to read. I've come up with the following list: 

• The Wardstone Chronicles by Joseph Delaney - 1 book
  
• The Starblade Chronicles by Joseph Delaney - 2 books
  
• The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovich - 7 books *
  
• Alex Verus by Benedict Jacka - 10 books
  
• Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo - 1 book
  
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - 1 book *
  
• Gentlemen Bastard by Scott Lynch - 1 book *
  
• Her Majesty The Queen Investigates by SJ Bennett - 1 book *
  
• Spellcaster by Charlie N Holmberg - 1 book
  
• The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman - 6 books *
  
• Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens - 7 books
  
• The Stranger Times by C.K. McDonnell - 1 book *
  
• The Locked Tomb by Tamsin Muir - 1 book *
  
• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells - 4 books *

The series marked with an asterix * are ones that are currently still being written so the figures may change. I know there's a new Murderbot book out in May.

That's 14 series and gives me a total of 44 books. They vary quite a lot in length, from the pretty short to the very long - 168 pages for Fugitive Telemetry from Murderbot, compared to the 722 pages for Republic of Thieves from the Gentlemen Bastard series!  I managed to meet my target of 45 books last year, so my target for this year is 46 books. That works quite nicely with this list of books and gives me a bit of leeway to read a couple of others. I have one book in progress at the moment - Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce which I got from NetGalley - but after that, I will get started on this challenge. Wish me luck!