In 2021, I’ll be doing a wee project I’m calling #BookEnds where I try to finish all the unfinished books around my flat.
There’s a few reasons I’ve acquired so many unread or unfinished books. Some were given as gifts, or are second hand – quite a few are from family or ex-flatmates having a clear out. Some have been found in community bookboxes or were something I picked up for university.
Then sometimes there are books that were bought but fell between the cracks and were left as ones to get back to.
Well, 2020 is their year!

The goal is to finish as many as I can and either keep or pass them along. Being honest, there are some books that I’ve had for years, and attempted so many times I’ve lost count. This project might be the time to admit I might never finish them and give them to someone who will!
That being said, I have sketched out two rough rules:
- I’m still allowed to buy the book for my monthly book group
- When buying books, I’ve got to try and keep it to one at a time

I’m probably not going to manage to read all 88 of them – unless someone pays me to do that full-time in the name of “science”, I will accept any and all applications for this role.
But I think all books deserve a chance and if I don’t love them, it’s time to be honest and give them to someone else.
You can follow my progress on my Twitter account, where I’ll be using #BookEnds2021 for everything.
Here is the full list for those of you who are interested (in alphabetical order) as of the 2nd January 2021:
Fiction
Fiction
- The Dirk Gently Omnibus, Douglas Adams
- The Power, Naomi Alderman
- Case Histories, Kate Atkinson
- One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson
- Not the End of the World, Kate Atkinson
- Ordinary Thunderstorms, William Boyd
- Waiting for Sunrise, William Boyd
- Any Human Heart, Wiliam Boyd
- Restless, William Boyd
- His Bloody Project, Graeme Macrae Burnet
- Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
- The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton
- Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon
- Arrival, Ted Chiang
- Undermajordomo Minor, Patrick deWitt
- Akin, Emma Donoghue
- Alone in Berlin, Hans Fallada
- Welcome to Nightvale, Joseph Fink
- Here I Am, Jonathon Safran Foer
- Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder
- Clara, Janice Galloway
- Jellyfish, Janice Galloway
- Less, Andrew Sean Greer
- City of Jasmine, Olga Grjasnowa
- Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow, Peter Høeg
- The Guest Cat, Takashi Hiraide
- The Bone People, Keri Hulme
- Avenue of Mysteries, John Irving
- The Invisible Child and The Fir Tree, Tove Jansson
- Fin Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson
- Comet in Moominland, Tove Jansson
- The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
- Wait For Me, Jack, Addison Jones
- Kiki’s Delivery Service, Eiko Kadono
- Strange Weather in Tokyo, Hiromi Kawakami
- The Shining, Stephen King
- The History of Bees, Maja Lunde
- Blue Ticket, Sophie Mackintosh
The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell- The Hound of the D’Urbervilles, Kim Newman
- The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa
- Damned, Chuck Palahnuick
- The Tenderness of Wolves, Stef Penney
- After Me Comes the Flood, Sarah Perry
- The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry
- My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
- The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
- Orkney, Amy Sackville
- Today Will Be Different, Maria Semple
- The Rosie Result, Graeme Simison
- The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland
- The Little Friend, Donna Tartt
- Memoirs of a Polar Bear, Yoko Tawada
- The Bricks that Built the Houses, Kae Tempest
- Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín
- Pine, Francine Toon
- The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters
- Blackout, Connie Willis
- Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
- All Clear, Connie Willis
- The Powerbook, Jeanette Winterson
- The Fifth Head of Cerebus, Gene Wolfe
Classics
- The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
- The Professor and Emma, A Fragment, Charlotte Brontë
- Vilette, Charlotte Brontë
- Murder is Easy, Agatha Christie
- My Brilliant Career, Miles Franklin
- Lanark, Alasdair Gray
- Brighton Rock, Graham Greene
- The Well of Loneliness, Radclyffe Hall
- Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
- The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John le Carré
- Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
- Love In Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
- Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
- The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkein
Non-Fiction:
- Writing Home, Alan Bennett
- Superstition, Sally Coulthard
- A Sting In the Tale, Dave Goulson
- Pandora’s Jar, Natalie Haynes
- Censored, Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis
- Girl in the Dark, Anna Lyndsey
- Mantel Pieces, Hilary Mantel
- There are Two Errors in the Title of this Book, Robert M. Martin
- Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks
- Awakenings, Oliver Sacks
- The Art of Flight, Fredrik Sjoberg
- Rasputin and Other Ironies, Teffi
- Into The Woods, John Yorke
Poetry
- Miss New Zealand, Jenny Bornholdt
- Summer, Jenny Bornholdt
- The Cinnamon Peeler, Michael Ondaatje
- It’s About Time, Lesley Storm
Graphic Novels
- Paper Girls Vol. 1, Vaughan and Chaing
- The Thrilling Adventuers of Lovelace and Babbage, Sydney Padua
- Nimona, Noelle Stevenson